Drive-To Travel Helps Choice Hotels Return to Profits
Skift Take
The secret to Choice Hotels’ relatively quick bounce back from pandemic losses to profitability? Location, location, location.
Analysts expected the drive-to and leisure sectors to lead the hotel industry in a pandemic recovery. Choice Hotels is profitable proof.
Choice, owner of brands like Comfort Inn & Suites and Clarion, managed to pull off a $14.5 million third quarter profit amid the worst year on record for the greater travel industry, the company reported Thursday. But even during the second quarter — the financially worst so far for the greater hotel industry —Choice only had a $2.4 million loss compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses seen by bigger brands like Marriott and Hilton.
Choice’s relative financial strength stems from the company’s portfolio largely rooted in drive-to and leisure hotels.
“These core strengths have positioned us well to capture the shifts
