Choice Hotels International

Quality Courts United, Inc., which began as a nonprofit referral chain of seven motels in Florida,[7] was founded in 1939.[8] It would undergo several name changes before becoming what is known today as Choice Hotels International.[7] The chain initially remained east of the Mississippi River.[9]

By the early 1960s, Quality Courts United had approximately 600 members.[9] All of its hotels needed to meet certain quality standards and offer amenities like air conditioning, telephones, swimming pools, paved driveways, and wall-to-wall carpeting.[9] In 1963, the organization became a for-profit corporation and changed its name to Quality Courts Motels, Inc.[7][9]

In 1957, Stewart W. Bainum Sr., who ran a Washington, D.C., plumbing business, opened his first hotel in Silver Spring, Maryland.[10] He later franchised his first Quality Courts motel in 1963.[11] In 1968, Bainum merged his business, Park Consolidated Motels, Inc., with Quality Courts Motels, assumed the role of president and CEO,[8][11] and moved the company's headquarters from Daytona Beach to Silver Spring, Maryland.[9]

Lodging Magazine wrote that, by 1969, Quality Courts Motels was the world's "largest association of independent motel operators".[7]

The Clarion Hotel in Hamden, Connecticut in 2007

A Comfort Suites in Laredo, Texas in 2008

The company changed its name to Quality Inns International in 1972 and, in 1990, the parent company became known as Choice Hotels International.[9][12]

In the 1980s, the company started the industry's first market segmentation strategy, using a range of hotel brands across price points.[13] Geographically, it expanded across the country by opening hotels in the west.[9]

The Comfort brand, which would later become Choice Hotels' flagship brand, was established in 1981. The brand was marketed to family vacationers, business travelers, and senior citizens[9] to compete with Days Inn, Best Western, and Friendship Inn.[13] The company's Quality Inn hotels remained in the midscale segment, competing with Holiday Inn, Ramada, Howard Johnson, and Travelodge.[13] The now-discontinued Quality Royale brand was positioned as Choice Hotels' upscale brand,[7] designed to compete with Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and Sheraton.[13] In the 1980s, Choice bought Friendship Inn, Rodeway Inn, and Econo Lodge.[9]

In 1989, the company introduced McSleep, an economy brand utilizing a consistent, interior-corridor design prototype designed by Rob Spurr that was all new construction. The name was soon changed to Sleep Inn following litigation from McDonald's.[9][14]

Bainum's other business, Manor Care, Inc., which owned and managed nursing homes, bought Choice Hotels in 1990.[9] The company later spun off its hotels business in 1996.[15] Bainum Sr. led Choice Hotels International until 1987, when his son, Stewart W. Bainum Jr., took over the role of chairman and chief executive.[10] As of 2018, Bainum Jr. remains chairman of Choice Hotels.[16]

Choice Hotels International became publicly traded in 1996.[8] That same year, it announced the establishment of the MainStay Suites brand, a midscale extended-stay hotel.[17]

In the mid-2000s, Choice Hotels expanded into the upscale hotel market.[18][5] The company announced in 2005 the creation of its Cambria Hotels & Suites brand, later renamed Cambria Hotels, the company's first new brand since MainStay Suites's creation in 1996.[18] The Cambria brand was created as an upscale hotel chain marketed to business travelers.[18] As of 2018, the Cambria brand had expanded to about 100 hotels open or in the pipeline, including hotels in Philadelphia,[19] Dallas, New Orleans,[20], South Windsor, Connecticut and Savannah, Georgia.[5]

In 2008, Choice Hotels was the first industry chain to establish a "soft brand", Ascend Hotel Collection.[21][22][23] The Ascend Hotel Collection includes upscale boutique and historic hotels whose owners are subject to fewer fixed brand standards compared with Choice's other brands.[21]

Cambria Chicago Magnificent Mile exterior

Choice Hotels began a transformation of its Comfort properties in 2012,[24] with the company removing its franchising from 600 properties that did not meet Choice Hotels' new standards.[25] Choice Hotels rebranded Comfort in 2018, which brought its Comfort Inn, Comfort Inn & Suites, and Comfort Suites brands under one umbrella.[25]

In October 2010, officials in Maryland and Montgomery County announced that Choice Hotels International would move its headquarters from Silver Spring,[26][27] to a new 197,866 square feet (18,382.4 m²) facility in Rockville Town Center in Rockville. Groundbreaking occurred in August 2011,[28] and Choice Hotels completed the move into the new headquarters in June 2013.[29]

Rendering of Sleep Inn prototype exterior, November 2017

Throughout its history, Choice Hotels introduced new features into the hotel industry,[7] including having all hotels include non-smoking rooms, 24-hour-a-day toll-free reservations, Internet-based property management systems, and the industry's first iPhone application.[7][30] The company's technological developments also led it to create a division called SkyTouch Technology in 2013, which markets Choice Hotels' property management system to other hotel companies.[31][32]

In 2014, Choice Hotels invested millions of dollars to begin a multi-year process to develop the industry's first new global reservations system and distribution platform in 27 years.[32][31] A cloud-based system, choiceEDGE, launched in 2018.[32] The system can integrate with voice search and artificial intelligence.[32]

In 2018, Choice Hotels expanded the number of hotel brands it franchised by acquiring WoodSpring Suites, an extended-stay economy hotel brand.[33][34] Adding WoodSpring's 240 hotels across the U.S. tripled the number of extended-stay hotels in the company's portfolio to around 350 properties.[33]

As of 2018, Choice Hotels-branded properties are located in more than 40 countries and territories,[6] including hotels in Europe,[35] Asia-Pacific,[36] the Middle East,[37] and Scandinavia.[38] Choice Hotels entered into an agreement with Spanish hotel operator Sercotel in 2018 to increase Choice's footprint in Spain and Latin America.[39]

Choice Hotels formed an alliance with Bluegreen Vacations, an international timeshare company, in 2013. Pursuant to this arrangement, many Bluegreen resorts are members of Choice Hotels' Ascend Hotel Collection brand.[50][51]