Choice Hotels International, one of the world’s largest and most successful lodging franchisors, celebrated another year of strong growth, announcing higher-than-expected brand growth across its revenue-intense segments in 2023.

Pat Pacious

In a press statement, Choice says that it saw a 1.4 pc increase in the number of hotels in its upscale, midscale, and extended stay brands in the United States in 2023, a banner year in which it also completed the rapid and seamless integration of the Radisson Hotels Americas brands. The statement adds that growth of the Choice legacy brands represented a nearly 2 pc increase in the number of domestic properties within these revenue intense segments. Additionally, Choice grew the number of hotels in its international portfolio by 2.6 pc.

“2023 was a transformative year of growth for Choice, and we are going to take the tremendous value our brands offer travellers across all market segments to the next level in 2024,” says Choice Hotels President and CEO Pat Pacious.

“We are also laser focused on driving Choice franchisees’ costs down and increasing their revenues, resulting in higher profitability and a greater ability to compete in a robust marketplace. We’re proud to have an industry-leading voluntary retention rate of 98%, which shows that our hotel owners and operators know the value of the Choice business delivery engine. In the year to come, we will leverage this engine to help drive the value of their businesses even higher,” adds Pacious.

Extending the lead in extended stay

The statement adds that Choice, the longtime leader in extended stay, extended its lead in the booming segment, opening a total of 61 extended stay hotels in 2023, a single-year record for Choice. Suburban Studios opened 25 hotels, a single-year record for the brand, including its 100th property in Bloomington, Minnesota, in December.

WoodSpring Suites, named the leading economy extended stay brand in the JD Power 2023 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, opened 24 new hotels, also a single-year record. Everhome Suites, Choice’s all new construction extended stay offering, expanded its pipeline to 66 properties, with a total of 16 hotels under construction.

It adds that as a proven challenger in the upscale segment, Choice continued its growth in 2023 with the opening of 19 properties in its Ascend Hotel Collection, a global portfolio of independent resort, historic, and boutique hotels. Choice says its successful migration of the Radisson Americas hotels onto its central reservation system in July, less than a year after the acquisition, helped drive a more than 8 pc year-over-year increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the Radisson upscale brand.

Cambria Hotels grew its portfolio to 74 properties, with 9 new hotels opened in 2023 in markets such as Nashville, Tennessee, Austin, Texas and Burbank, California. It was named the leading upscale brand in the JD Power 2023 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.

As Choice ups the game on its commitment to the upscale and upper upscale segments in 2024, it plans to expand development efforts of the Radisson Blu brand, one of the crown jewels of its diverse portfolio.

In 2023, Choice also focused on ensuring the continued growth of its core brand offerings. Comfort opened 33 new hotels, the most in a single year since 2019, including the first new-construction Rise & Shine prototype Comfort hotel in Mountain Grove, Missouri.

Additionally, the Quality Inn brand had 35 openings and awarded 64 franchise agreements. Choice also debuted a next-generation, design-forward Sleep Inn prototype that includes expanded wellness offerings, modernised guestrooms, open and airy lobbies, new and improved breakfast areas, and designated outdoor spaces.

The hotel group says that it will continue to capitalise on its best-in-class hotel conversion capability, which enables the company to quickly move properties through the pipeline, providing tremendous value to new owners in any market condition. Choice awarded an impressive 133 franchise agreements in 2023 that opened within the same year. Choice says that it is poised to accelerate its development growth and performance in 2024, with an impressive global pipeline that includes 1,032 properties as of year-end 2023.