LAS VEGAS — Choice Hotels International, Inc. hosted its 69th Annual Convention in Las Vegas last month. The convention opened with a keynote by president and CEO Patrick Pacious, setting the tone for three days centred on a single mission under the theme, Powering the Future.
The event brought together thousands of owners, operators and industry partners for nearly 100 educational sessions, a trade show to connect owners with qualified vendors and brand sessions to hear from Choice leaders about recent performance success and where the company is investing to help drive revenue and lower costs.
The company’s growth has allowed it to attract a more resilient and higher income customer, including more business travellers who now represent 40 per cent of all stays. Its upscale and above-brand portfolio grew rooms by 44 per cent last year and with more than 7,500 hotels worldwide, the company is leveraging its growing size to strengthen value for owners, helping to increase revenue opportunities, reduce operating costs and fuel long-term business success. Some of the results Choice and its owners have achieved include:
- Loyalty membership has surged past 70 million, with members booking direct more often, staying longer, and spending more. The revamped program’s enhancements — longer booking windows, premium room redemptions, and exclusive experiences — have helped drive a 30-per-cent increase in redemptions and 13-per-cent growth in average length of stay.
- More than six-per-cent year-over-year increase in converting lookers into direct bookers as a result of the ChoiceHotels.com refresh, with upscale online booking conversion up more than 14 per cent in the first quarter of 2025.
- Area directors helped owners find more than $25 million in potential operational cost savings last year, an average of $33,000 per participating property.
- A new food group purchasing program shows an average savings of nine per cent on food costs, based on market-basket comparisons since the program launched in July 2024 to March 2025.
- In 2024, hotels that used ChoiceROCS, a consultancy program designed to help drive increased revenue by leveraging functional expertise and advanced data analytics to provide pricing and strategy recommendations, saw a 100-basis-point premium in RevPAR Index versus hotels not using the program. In total, ChoiceROCS drove $81 million in incremental revenue to participating properties.
Scale That Works for Hotel Owners
In a competitive high-cost landscape, scale and attracting more and different customers are essential. From negotiating reduced OTA fees and leveraging Choice’s scale with suppliers, the company delivers tangible results for its franchise owners. In Q4 2024, group business revenue jumped 45 per cent year-over-year, and transient business revenue in upper midscale rose 20 per cent.
Through strategic partnerships with AAA, AARP, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, and Westgate Resorts, a strengthened Choice Privileges loyalty program and more, the company is drawing more guests directly to its properties and marketing channels. AARP members booked more than 1.1 million room nights at Choice hotels in 2024, and the average return on investment for hotels with an official AAA appointment is $50,000.
Innovation for the Long Haul
The company has been leveraging AI for more than 5 years now, and is harnessing its power to deliver personalized marketing, smarter revenue management, and new tools to help owners grow their business.
Last year, Choice Hotels launched an endeavor to develop and implement a suite of capabilities to be delivered over the next two years. These consist of four areas:
- Empowering franchisees across all segments to manage rates with greater flexibility.
- Driving more occupancy from small-to-mid-sized companies by making it easier for them to do business through a self-serve platform, with no new increased labour costs for hotels.
- Attracting and retaining new and existing guests through enhanced, AI-ready digital marketing capabilities that enable delivery of personalized messages to drive the right customers to hotels.
- An AI-infused, streamlined group travel system that will help franchisees identify the optimal opportunity and respond to requests for proposals.
Pacious closed with a message of momentum: “Choice Hotels is delivering and has bold plans for tomorrow. From midscale and extended stay leadership to AI-powered transformation, Choice’s scale isn’t just making it bigger — it’s making it better. That scale, combined with a relentless commitment to innovation, is powering new possibilities for hotel owners ready to grow alongside one of the industry’s most forward-looking franchisors.”
