Dive Brief:
- Choice Hotels reported $332.8 million in total revenue for the first quarter of 2023, a first-quarter record and a 29% increase compared to the same period in 2022, according to its earnings statement.
- Adjusted EBITDA reached $106.4 million, another first-quarter record and a 10% increase year over year.
- During the company’s earnings call with analysts, Choice president and CEO Patrick Pacious credited the growth to leisure travel demand as well as changes in consumer behavior such as booking more weekend shoulder days.
Dive Insight:
Trends such as remote work and an increase in leisure travel demand contributed to Choice Hotels’ record first quarter.
During the company’s earnings call, Pacious said Choice is “capitalizing on rising wages, retirements, remote work and the rebuilding of American manufacturing and infrastructure.”
He cited the rise in remote work and the flexibility it affords travelers as a factor in Choice’s recent growth, saying that “guests are extending their trips into shoulder days of the weekend.” In the first quarter, Choice drove nearly two percentage points of occupancy growth on Thursdays and Sundays as compared to 2019.
“The trend of leisure travel demand spreading more evenly throughout the months of the year, and into weekend shoulder days, benefits our brands and allows us to attract and capture an even larger share of an expanding leisure demand segment,” Pacious said.
Choice’s domestic RevPAR increased 5.9% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, driven by an increase in ADR of 5.2%.
During the call, Pacious also noted Radisson Americas’ “great start to the year” with a portfolio-wide RevPAR increase of 11.2% year over year. “Once all Radisson Americas hotels are fully integrated with Choice Hotels systems and employing our tools, we expect to help drive their top-line performance and profitability to the next level,” he said. In 2022, Choice acquired Radisson Hotels Americas for approximately $675 million.
He added that Choice is currently on pace to complete the onboarding of Radisson Americas properties and merge the two loyalty programs by the end of the third quarter.
