Choice Hotels

History

The company was started in 1939 as Quality Courts United, a referral chain consisting of about seven motel owners from North and South Carolina. Later, the motel chain operated simply under the name Quality Inn. Quality Inn accepted franchise hotels without strict norms or guidelines from the company. This is different from Holiday Inn which from their early beginnings implemented numerous mandatory standards and guidelines (e.g. room size and amenities) at every one of their locations. Also, Quality Inn accepted franchisees with existing hotels.

The company became Quality International as the company switched to franchising in 1972. A few years later, the franchising well on its way, about 300 hotels were independently owned and only about 38 were still company-owned.

In 1982, Quality Inns pioneered segmentation in the lodging industry by introducing Comfort Inns and Quality Royale. The former experienced impressive growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Quality Royale was converted to Clarion in 1987 and all suite divisions, Comfort Suites and Quality Suites were introduced, the first mid-market all-suite chains.

In 1988 the company introduced Sleep Inn, a revolutionary economy brand utilizing a consistent interior corridor design prototype and all-new construction. The company bought Friendship Inns, Rodeway Inn, and Econo Lodge in the early 1990s, while changing the corporate name to Choice Hotels International. Friendship Inns would later be absorbed into the Rodeway and Econo Lodge chains.

In the late 1990s the company would introduce the extended-stay Mainstay Suites brand and the Choice Privileges frequent guest loyalty program.

A new extension to the Clarion brand is the Clarion Collection, which consists of historic and boutique-style hotels that are service-oriented and designed to be luxurious and affordable at the same time.

In January 2005, Choice Hotels introduced a new upscale, all-suite hotel designed in contemporary style called Cambria Suites. As of late 2005, 20 Cambria Suites hotels were in the pipeline, with locations such as Boise, Idaho and Savannah, Georgia scheduled to open in 2006.

In September 2005, Choice Hotels acquired the Suburban Extended-Stay Hotel chain, which consists of 67 extended-stay hotels.

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