Undercover Boss: Abroad Season 1 Episode 4 Best Western (David Clarke)

David Clarke, CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts, goes undercover in this episode of Undercover Boss: Abroad. Best Western is a chain of hotels that can be found in over 100 countries and has over 4,700 hotels. Although Best Western has achieved significant success over the years, Clarke still feels there is always room for improvement, which is why he decides to go undercover to find out where the company can improve.

Clarke goes into disguise as a new employee called Dave Carrington. He gets to know the other employees, who are oblivious to his true identity. The first hotel he visits is located in Phuket, Thailand. Clarke starts his undercover mission as a waiter and is surprised by the hard work and level of detail that goes into working at a hotel. He is pleased to see employees being committed to providing excellent customer service, but he also faces the challenges in delivering them.

Clarke helps with a family Amari Tree Lighting event on the second day of his undercover mission. He gets to learn more about the local culture and meets with some of the hotel staff. He works as a bellboy, delivering luggage to guests' rooms and observes the guests and the hotel operations. He discovers that the staff is highly motivated and loves their jobs, but sometimes they feel overstretched, which impacts their performance at work.

At the end of his mission in Thailand, Clarke is taken by a chambermaid and sees the hard work that goes into cleaning guestrooms. He also helps prepare for an Amari water blessing ceremony and notes that paying attention to details is essential at a hotel to ensure the safety of guests and staff.

On the third day, Clarke travels to London, United Kingdom. He starts his mission as a porter at the Best Western Plus, The Connaught Hotel. Clarke is pleased to see that the hotel is highly rated by guests. He works with the best Western’s night audit team and learns about the complexities of a hotel's accounting system.

On the fourth day, Clarke meets one of the hotel’s best employees, Room Attendant Abi, who has made such an impact on a guest that they wrote a letter of appreciation to the hotel management. She shares with Clarke some of the challenges of working as a room attendant and takes him on a tour of a suite that needs to be cleaned. He realizes that there’s too much pressure on the staff to deliver a great experience to guests while working with a reduced workforce.

On the fifth day, Clarke travels to France and visits a Best Western Hotel in Paris. Clarke works as an intern in the kitchen of the Best Western Premier Marais Grands Boulevards and learns how to make one of the hotel's signature dishes, Roasted Chicken Breast. He also discovers the camaraderie that exists within the kitchen and learns how to handle stress at work.

On the sixth and final day, Clarke meets more Best Western staff and rewards some of the employees who went above and beyond in their roles, including the Chambermaid and Abi, the room attendant. Outside of their roles, he also shares with them what he learned about the hotel chain.

Through his undercover experience, Clarke discovers areas he would have never known about if he only relied on reports. He implements a new training program for employees and ensures that Best Western employees who have gone above and beyond are appropriately recognized. He is impressed with the commitment and passion that the staff has for their respective roles, and is grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside them.