Everhome Suites—the newest brand launched by Choice Hotels International Inc.—has opened its first property, Everhome Suites Corona in Corona, CA. The milestone opening comes two years after Choice unveiled the brand, a new-construction, midscale extended-stay product designed for the way longer-staying guests live and work. Hotel Management & Consulting manages the property.
“We started working on [Everhome Suites] before 2020, and we’re really excited to marry the expertise of Choice’s midscale experience with our extended-stay expertise with a new brand,” Anna Scozzafava, VP/GM, extended-stay, Choice Hotels, told Hotel Business. “The industry hasn’t had a midscale extended-stay brand launch in nearly a decade, so we are really excited to get this concept out there and start moving. One of the special things about this opening is it’s with one of the inaugural partners with the brand [Paladin Equity Capital]; they’ve got 10 coming in Southern California. So, this is just the first of many for them.”
The hotel features 98 guestrooms, each with a fully equipped kitchen, as well as a full bedroom, spa bathroom and full closet. There’s also moveable furniture allowing guests to configure the space the way they choose. One-bedroom suites include a washer and dryer.
“What really makes Everhome Suites unique is we spent a lot of time with guests and developers collaborating on [concepting] what the needs of future guests are and what are we seeing in the midscale space,” Scozzafava said. “These rooms cater to guests that want to stay for weeks to months on end. Part of guest feedback was making sure that the spaces were separated so you have a place to play, a place to work, a place to eat [and a place to sleep]. They’re separated physically in some instances.”
She added that the property has a “really modern” fitness center—the Corona hotel features Pelotons—as well as Homebase Market designed by Impulsify “that’s technology-driven so it makes it super seamless from a guest experience.”
The Everhome Suites Corona, as with all future properties for the brand, is designed strictly to the prototype, with only local art displayed on the outside of the building distinguishing one from another.
“We really modeled that on the WoodSpring Suites brand that we acquired in 2018, and we’ve had a ton of success with that prototype and being able to bring that to developers, but also the guests know what they’re getting every time they stay,” she said.
The opening comes nine days after Choice announced an agreement with extended-stay developer ServiceStar Capital Management to develop 21 Everhome Suites hotels. Scozzafava said that there are 30 other Everhome properties in the pipeline under different stages of development.
“Overall, all four of our extended-stay brands are really well positioned,” she pointed out. “We have close to 300 hotels in the pipeline. So, we’ve got a lot of scale. I think this Corona property will drive a lot more interest in terms of a proof point of the Everhome brand and what we can drive, so we’re really excited to get this one open.”
The next Everhome to open is unknown at this time, but the Choice executive said that the location will be either Atlanta, just outside of Boise, ID, or Arizona.
With so many extended-stay hotels in the pipeline, Choice is banking on the segment to continue the industry-leading performance that began at the height of the pandemic. Scozzafava thinks that will be the case.
“I believe there are a lot of tailwinds for the extended-stay segment, and I’m pretty bullish on the future of what we’re going to see moving forward,” she said. “There is two times the amount of demand than there is supply for the extended-stay product, and during the pandemic, we had a lot of new guests try out that product. They wanted kitchens because they weren’t going out to eat. We’re seeing those guests coming back, and I think we’re going to continue to see that with some of the other trends in terms of remote work, the housing shortage and people relocating. We’re also starting to see a lot of onshoring, so there’s a lot more construction. With the infrastructure bill [signed], we’re going to start seeing more construction workers around the country. Those are our guests.”
Choice is doing all it can to make its extended-stay hotels keep up their strong performance.
“We’ve spent a lot of time, energy, effort and investment to really make extended-stay a priority and a focus for the organization,” said Scozzafava. “We have brand performance support staff and all they do is live, breathe and support extended-stay hotels. We have a corporate accounts team that’s dedicated to extended-stay. We have call center agents that are trained specifically on selling to guests who are staying longer and understanding what are the types of questions that they’re going to ask and the types of amenities that they’re looking for. I think the Choice extended-stay approach is pretty unique within the industry.”
