At its 69th annual convention, held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Choice Hotels International Inc. focused on its growth of the past few years and what lies ahead.
“The key message is that the company has experienced significant growth, particularly over the last three to four years—you can see that in the numbers,” said Patrick Pacious, president/CEO, Choice. “What’s especially exciting for us is the 44% growth in rooms within our upscale and above portfolio. That growth has truly solidified Choice’s presence and momentum in the upscale segment. We’ve also seen strong international expansion, with a 4.5% increase in rooms globally, bringing us to 140,000 rooms outside the U.S.”
Pacious also said that the company continues to “build on our historic strength in the midscale segment. Take Quality Inns, for example—an 85-year-old brand that added 50 hotels just last year. It’s still vibrant, still growing and continues to deliver for our owners.”
He said the company’s growth has come because it attracts higher-income travelers. “The average U.S. household income is about $80,000, but among our loyalty program members, 60% report earning $100,000 or more, and 20% report $200,000 or more. These are resilient travelers. That’s why we perform well in both strong and challenging economic times. And this isn’t just growth for growth’s sake—it’s strategic. It’s about attracting higher-income travelers. Traditionally, our customer base was about 70% leisure and 30% business. That’s now shifted to 40% business travelers, which is a significant change in our customer mix and very exciting.”
The company also noted other achievements, including:
- Loyalty membership 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% increase in redemptions and 13% growth in average length of stay.
- More than 6% 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% 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 9% on food costs, based on market-basket comparisons since the program launched in July 2024 to this past March.
- 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 vs. hotels not using the program. In total, ChoiceROCS drove $81 million in incremental revenue to participating properties.
- In Q4 2024, group business revenue jumped 45% year-over-year, and transient business revenue in upper-midscale rose 20%.
- AARP members booked over 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.
