ROCKVILLE, MD—Choice Hotels International Inc., franchisor of Cambria Hotels, recently began a new effort centered on multi-unit development to help grow the brand.
After opening its 10th property in 10 months earlier this year, the expanded approach will use part of the $475 million in capital support the company has earmarked for the Cambria brand to target developers that will build multiple properties.
The Cambria brand is coming off a record year of growth in 2017 and progress continues. “While we will continue to invest in individual projects, we are experiencing strong demand from the development community, as well as institutional capital partners who want to develop and invest in multiple projects with us,” said Mark Shalala, VP, development, upscale brands, Choice Hotels. “Taking a more programmatic investment approach with multi-unit developers is a winning strategy. It can dramatically help accelerate growth while driving product and operational consistency across the chain. This helps increase brand equity for our owners and, most importantly, it improves the overall guest experience from market to market. For our developers, this approach establishes a consistent investment platform and level of capital participation from Choice. It helps improve return on investment and can make it easier to raise equity and secure debt for their projects, a critical factor at this point in the cycle.”
As a part of the investment strategy, Choice will be teaming up with several developers to expand the Cambria brand, including Four Raines Development and Fillmore Capital Partners.
“Cambria Hotels is a tremendous product that guests love, and our collaboration with Choice, which provides everything imaginable, is second to none,” said Grey Raines, managing partner of Four Raines Development. “We have worked closely for several years now and our familiarity with one another makes it an easy decision to agree to build more hotels together.”
There are now nearly 120 Cambria hotels open or in the pipeline, located in 75% of the top 50 U.S. RevPAR markets. The brand delivered a strong performance in 2017 with a high LTR and results outpacing the industry in RevPAR, occupancy and ADR, according to the company.
Future openings are planned in Austin, TX; Burbank, CA; Baltimore; Calabasas, CA; Charleston, SC; Houston; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Napa, CA; Orlando, FL; San Francisco; Tampa, FL; and Washington, DC.
