Choice debuts new prototype for 40-year-old Comfort brand
by Elaine Simon |
A full year after it was planned and just in time for the upper-midscale brand’s 40th anniversary, Choice Hotels International has introduced a new prototype for its flagship Comfort brand.
A key feature of the Rise & Shine prototype is its reduced square footage (3,000 to 4,000 square feet less) that maintains Comfort’s cost-effective operating advantage, according to the company. Choice sought to increase functionality with an outdoor porch and a new flex room that can transform into a variety of spaces, from a breakfast room to a meeting room to event space or a reception area.
"As the name 'Rise & Shine' suggests, light is integral to the new design, inspired in part by our refreshed brand identity and new signage serving as a beacon for the brand," said Megan Brumagim, Choice’s VP, brand management, design and compliance. "The prototype combines the features, design and amenities that guests want, with the efficiency, functionality and flexibility that developers expect. It offers spaces that can transform from day to night and serve a broad range of guest stays, whether business or leisure. The new prototype reinforces the brand's strong value proposition with guests and owners by blending form and function to help optimize the guest experience and developers' investment."
The prototype offers an "open, innovative and timeless" design, said Kade Wane, director of architecture and design for Choice, including upgraded furniture and fixtures and new guestroom features such as semi-open closets and new on-the-go stations at the door.
“It embraces emerging guest preferences and reflects current design trends while offering a warm and welcoming feel,” she said. “Savings from lowering construction costs for owners actually allowed us to make a larger impact with guest-facing FF&E upgrades.”
Meeting Needs
Pat Pacious, Choice’s president and CEO, said the prototype balances what’s trendy with what’s timeless.
“The prototype and the design elements that we put into this brand have been done in a really smart way to provide flexibility, both inside and outside the hotel, in order to satisfy the guests and the owner preferences no matter where the properties are located in multiple types of markets here in the United States as well as around the world,” he said.
David Pepper, Choice’s chief development officer, said the company is focused on meeting developers’ needs with the Rise & Shine prototype, including maintaining Comfort's low cost-of-build advantage over its competition with competitive cost per key; the ability to select from three design options to fit deveopers' needs in any given market; improved efficiency and functionality with the smaller building footprint; and access to Choice's technology.
“With this prototype, we will also provide our current owners with the opportunity to easily integrate updated FF&E and design elements into their hotels to reflect the new prototype across the exterior, public space and guestroom,” he said. “The prototype has already received enthusiastic reviews from existing Comfort owners and developers.”
The first new-construction Rise & Shine prototype hotels are expected to open in 2023.
Brand transformation
The new prototype caps off the company’s $2.5 billion transformation of the brand, which started in 2012 with the Move to Modern initiative. Move to Modern included new systemwide standards and continued with the introduction of a new logo in 2018. The Move to Modern upgrades included refreshed lobbies and public spaces; updated guestrooms with new pillows, mattresses and bedding; and 100-percent smoke-free properties. The company also exited more than 600 properties from the brand that were not up to the increased brand standards.
The original plan was to unveil the Rise & Shine prototype at last March’s Hunter Hotel Investment Conference, according to Pacious, but the time wasn’t right with the pandemic taking over.
“The unfolding pandemic required us at Choice to really pause on our launch plan as we turned our full focus to helping our current owners and operators really navigate this really challenging travel environment,” he said.
Despite all the flux that characterized 2020, Choice’s strategic investment in this brand is paying off, according to Pacious.
“If you go back and look at our fourth quarter performance last year, the [revenue per available room] index gains for Comfort far exceeded its local competitors by nine percentage points. And an actual RevPar change versus our competition was 10 percent more favorable than the entire upper-midscale chain scale,” he said. “So all of the investment that our owners put into the brand, even during a pandemic year, we saw significant outperformance and significant share gains versus our competitive set.”
The brand also returned to unit growth in 2020.
“We increased our domestic system size by 2 percent, and we're also celebrating this year a pretty important milestone for the brand. It's the brand's 40th anniversary,” Pacious said. “We have today more than 1,600 Comforts in the brand, coast to coast, and the brand's unit growth and competitive performance story is again, proof positive that as a company, we at Choice invest for the long-term with our owners.”