LAS VEGAS — During a roundtable at the 66th annual Choice Hotels International Convention at Mandalay Bay, Janis Cannon—SVP of Choice’s upscale brands portfolio—and Mark Shalala—SVP of development for upscale brands—shared insights on how the Ascend Collection and Cambria hotels are gaining ground.
“Upscale continues to be one of our strategic priorities in terms of our long-range growth plan,” Cannon said, adding that the company is “really focused” on its “revenue-intensive segments,” which includes the Cambria and the Ascend Collection brands.
Since Choice’s last conference in 2019, the company has awarded 50 new franchise agreements for Cambria hotels and opened 25 new properties under the flag. Eighteen properties are under construction and a dozen of those are scheduled to open before the end of 2022, while more than 65 projects are working through approvals, securing debt and moving toward construction. Within a few weeks, Cannon said, the brand will open its 60th hotel.
Ascend Ascending
The Ascend Collection, meanwhile, has more than 200 hotels in the Americas region that are open and operating with more than 330 hotels worldwide. The soft brand got its biggest addition in late April when the 3,700-room Circus Circus resort in Las Vegas joined the collection. In early 2021, the brand entered into a strategic agreement with Penn National Gaming to make 41 properties in 19 states available to book on the Ascend Collection website. “We've always been [focused on] boutique, historic and resort [hotels],” Cannon said. “And now we are also a very dominant player when it comes to the casino space. So we actually have four product categories that sit within the same collection.”
Shalala noted “some residual headwinds” when it comes to new construction developments, such as higher interest rates, construction costs and supply chain issues—but those developers who stepped back during the worst of the pandemic are now back, “brushing those projects off and moving them forward,” he said.
Between 95 and 98 percent of the opportunities Choice is considering for Ascend are conversions, Shalala added. “We're just going in and more or less accepting it as it is—obviously, there might be some minor [property improvement plan] items or something that we would ask the hotel to do, but the whole concept is to allow them in as they are with low capital expenditure and get on a major reservation system.”
New Prototype, New Operations
Cambria’s new prototype, meanwhile, is poised to bring the brand to secondary and leisure markets, making it feasible for destinations that typically generate lower revenue per available room. “As developers approach us, we kind of look at the market but really look at the [revenue per available room] and do we think there's enough rate and occupancy to support the cost and build-out of this new Cambria prototype for that developer to be profitable?” Shalala said. “It's all about making sure that there's going to be a nice return for our developer.”
Beyond the aesthetic of the new prototype, Cannon said the prototype would include some changes in typical operations. For example, the company has “right-sized” the menu items available at Cambria hotels due to a smaller kitchen and a 24-hour marketplace for quick bites. “All of those things are impacting the number of [full-time employees], the headcount that [is] required in the hotel—and we all know how difficult labor is right now,” she said. The operating model, Cannon added, will now emphasize lowering costs.