LAS VEGAS— Choice Hotels International’s executives had a lot of recent company news that they could promote at the company’s 51st annual convention here at the MGM Grand, but instead the focus was on guest satisfaction and brand consistency.
From Choice’s new Cambria Suites brand, to new bed, bath and breakfast programs, to a global distribution agreement with Expedia.com and Hotels.com, the senior officials had many recent achievements. However, in the end, the primary message handed down at the event was more simple and humble in scope, centering on the fact that guest satisfaction and brand consistency must be improved to ensure future success.
“That guest satisfaction element is critical to our future success,” declared Choice Hotels’ president and CEO, Charles Ledsinger, during the event’s opening corporate business session. “The increasing demands of travelers and the growing competitive pressures make it more imperative than ever that we keep our guests satisfied and coming back again and again.”
Ledsinger later added, “For some time, we at Choice have been grappling with the issue of how we can best improve our brands. What has been one of our greatest strengths— our flexibility as a franchisor in helping you deal with our brand standards— now threatens to become a weakness caused by a lack of brand consistency. We have to recognize that brand consistency and brand improvement for all of our brands are a must.”
Toward that end, several future amenity improvements were discussed at each and every Choice brand session. During a few of these sessions, Aaron Katz, Choice’s vice president for brand strategy, admitted that many of these new amenity programs are designed to allow Choice to catch up to its competitors, who are introducing new amenities left and right. However, unlike many of those competitors in the midscale and economy segments, Choice is focusing on avoiding the dreaded amenity creep that can potentially hurt its franchisees’ revenues in the end.
“The competition is upping the ante with new amenities and services,” Ledsinger pointed out. “But we also have to avoid getting dragged into an amenities war that adds to [franchisees’] costs without really helping us achieve our mutual brand goals. We are going to be very thoughtful and deliberate about any changes we make in guest amenities and brand standards.”
During the Comfort Inn session, Katz pointed out that recently deployed Comfort Inn amenities, such as pulsating showerheads, full-length mirrors, high-speed Internet access and curved shower rods allowed the brand to improve its performance for the first time in five years in 2004. However, adding dozens of new amenities will not definitely translate into similar gains going forward, according to Katz, who added that Choice wants to go about introducing amenities the smart way and will not go overboard. That is why for the Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites brands specifically, the company is targeting three key areas that impact guest satisfaction and brand consistency the most: bedding, bathrooms and breakfast.
In terms of breakfast, the new Comfort Sunshine Breakfast will be rolled out by the end of 2005 and will standardize the breakfast amenity at Comfort Inns by offering pastries, waffles and gourmet coffee as well as standardized serving pieces. For Comfort Suites, the new Breakfast Sensations program will have all the features of the Comfort Inn breakfast, but with a sophisticated, high-end look and feel. Comfort Suites’ program will also be in full effect by the close of 2005.
Bath-wise, both brands will upgrade their towels through the use of terry cloth products as well as their shampoos, lotions and facial and body soaps. These changes will be present in the brands’ hotels by mid-2006.
As for bedding, Katz explained that Choice is still researching what to specifically improve. The status of this effort will be updated again in the fall.
Most of the other Choice brands are also receiving enhanced amenity packages that will be introduced later this year or some time in 2006.
One brand that does not need any upgrades yet is Cambria Suites, which is just ramping up. Thus far, four future properties are under contract, including ones in Savannah, GA; Phoenix; Boise, ID; and Somerset, NJ. The first of these is scheduled to debut during the third quarter of 2006. “Those properties put us well ahead of our original plan,” Ledsinger noted. “I’m anxious to get them open.”
Also of note in the new brand department at the convention was the fact that an economy extended-stay concept room was on display for attendees. However, Ledsinger explained that it is only in the conceptual phases and does not mean that Choice will be introducing a 10th brand soon. “It’s a concept that helps us explore a market we have a lot of confidence in,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest in the economy, extended-stay segment, so we put out a prototype to get some interest and ideas from franchisees. It’s like a concept car. We like to have on display at every convention something that we’re thinking about.”
Also of note during the convention were some of the marketing accomplishments that Choice recently achieved. Wayne Wielgus, executive vp and chief marketing officer for Choice, explained during the opening session that Choice is doing exceedingly well across multiple marketing channels. Some of the highlights include the fact that Choice Privileges membership hit the 3.7-million mark last year, AAA revenue is up 18%, corporate business has jumped 16% and international in-bound business from Choice’s general sales offices across the globe improved 22%.
“We were also able to grow our voice call volume and revenue last year,” Wielgus added. “And call volume rose nearly 5%. Also, by enhancing sales training techniques in our call centers, we improved the voice channel conversion rate to more than 40%.”
