WASHINGTON—Industry veteran Bob Hazard will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) set for January 26-28 in Los Angeles.
Hazard served as chairman, president and CEO of Choice Hotels International from 1980 to 1996. During that period, he and his team grew Choice from a regional group of 339 Quality Inns into a six-brand, global hotel company with more than 3,800 properties offering more than 330,000 guestrooms in 43 countries. Additionally, the value of Choice Hotels rose from $15 million in 1980 to more than a billion dollars when the company went public in 1996 on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the company.
Under his leadership, Choice became the first hotel company to offer multiple brand names at different price points with the introduction of limited-service, luxury-budget and new-construction Comfort Inns in 1980. This was followed by the addition of Sleep Inns, Comfort Suites, Quality Suites, and Clarion Inns, Hotels and Resorts, and later Econolodge and Rodeway Inns. Additional Choice innovations included becoming the first hotel company to set aside a mandatory block of “no smoking” rooms in all its hotels, and Sleep Inns as the first brand to use magnetic cards to replace metal room keys.
Hazard served for seven years as CEO of Best Western International prior to joining Choice. His management team grew that organization from 800 roadside motels to more than 2,900 hotels, inns and resorts worldwide.
Hazard was actively involved in the American Hotel and Lodging Association and the only two-time winner of the New York Hospitality Conference Silver Plate Award.
“We are very pleased to be presenting the ALIS Lifetime Achievement Award to Bob Hazard. He not only succeeded in growing great companies, but he changed the lodging industry forever with his keen understanding of market segmentation and creating products that best serve them,” stated Jim Burba, ALIS conference chair.