Ahead of its full-year 2023 report, Choice Hotels International shared an update on its accomplishments during the year, reporting “higher than expected” brand growth across its revenue-intense segments.
The company grew its domestic upscale, midscale and extended-stay brands portfolios 1.4 percent in hotels during the year, in part due to the integration of the Radisson Hotels Americas brands. Growth of the Choice legacy brands represented a nearly 2 percent increase in the number of domestic properties within these segments. In total, Choice awarded 133 franchise agreements in 2023 that opened within the same year and grew the number of hotels in its international portfolio 2.6 percent.
"2023 was a transformative year of growth for Choice, and we are going to take the tremendous value our brands offer travelers across all market segments to the next level in 2024," Choice Hotels President and CEO Pat Pacious said in a statement. "We're 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 percent, 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."
Extended-Stay
Choice opened a total of 61 extended-stay hotels in 2023—a single-year record for the company. Suburban Studios opened 25 hotels, a single-year record for the brand, including its 100th property in Bloomington, Minn., in December. WoodSpring Suites opened 24 new hotels, also a single-year record. Everhome Suites, Choice's all new-construction extended-stay brand, expanded its pipeline to 66 properties with a total of 16 hotels under construction.
Upscale
Choice continued its upscale growth in 2023 with the opening of 19 properties in its Ascend Hotel Collection. Choice's 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 percent year-over-year increase in revenue per available room for the Radisson brand.
Cambria Hotels grew its portfolio to 74 properties, with 9 new hotels opened in 2023 in markets such as Nashville; Austin, Texas; and Burbank, Calif.
In 2024, Choice plans to expand development efforts of the Radisson Blu brand.
Core Brands
The company’s legacy Comfort brand 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, Mo. The new design has an efficient footprint, a multipurpose flex room and upgraded fixtures and furniture. The Quality Inn brand had 35 openings and awarded 64 franchise agreements.
Choice also debuted a new Sleep Inn prototype that includes expanded wellness offerings, modernized guestrooms, open lobbies, new breakfast areas and designated outdoor spaces.
New properties added to the Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands last year generated more revenue, on average, than properties that exited the brands.
Integration and Growth
Choice completed the integration of the Radisson Hotels Americas business within a year of the transaction. The digital migration of the Radisson brands drove “substantial increases” in total digital traffic, bookings and booked revenue as compared to pre-migration Choice and Radisson Americas websites and apps, combined, the company claimed. Year over year, from August through November, digital bookings were up 26 percent for the legacy Radisson Americas brands, including a 36 percent increase for the Country Inn & Suites brand.
The company is also seeing new development commitments. In December, Choice awarded 10 new franchise agreements for the Country Inn & Suites brand, pushing the total number of agreements in 2023 to 19, the most for the brand in a single year since 2016. Choice also launched a Country Inn & Suites room refresh.
International Expansion
Looking globally, Choice extended its master franchise agreement with Strawberry (formerly Nordic Choice Hotels), secured a distribution partnership with Spanish hotel chain Sercotel, signed an agreement with Zenitude Hotel-Residences that will double Choice's unit footprint in France—adding 33 properties in 2024 and 2025—and acquired the franchise rights for City Edge Apartment Hotels in Australia. Choice also integrated Radisson Americas hotels in the Caribbean, Canada and Latin America. The company’s global pipeline includes 1,032 properties as of year-end 2023.