Choice Hotels International’s 69th Annual Convention is underway at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. With “Powering the Future” as the convention’s theme, the company is focused on sharpening its upper midscale brands Comfort and Country Inn & Suites. As part of this focus, Choice Hotels announced Comfort and Country Inn & Suites are upgrading their breakfast options with enhancements to add to the guest experience and drive value for its hotels.
Through consumer research, Choice Hotels found that its upper midscale brands think breakfast is important to their overall guest experience and hotel stays. Likewise, hot breakfast is also “foundational to the identity of our brands,” shared Jenny Aboudou, head of upper midscale brands, Choice Hotels International. “We made sure we were focusing on the right offering for the right guest and where we could make things more efficient and eliminate things that they were not actually taking in. We’ve done that so we can ensure we have an operationally efficient breakfast that intentionally focuses on the things that matter to consumers today. Guest preferences have also changed.”
To meet those changes in customer preferences, a build-your-own breakfast option is being piloted for Comfort to give guests a wide variety of options for their meals. For the brand, this meets guests at the intersection of maintaining their everyday diet while providing more to the guest experience. “One in four customers traveling today say they have a dietary restriction. And we want to ensure that our breakfast can actually cater to what they want to eat and not restrict their options for breakfast,” Aboudou added. Some of the ingredients included in the selection are scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheddar cheese, and everything bagel seasoning, among many others.
For Country Inn & Suites, breakfast sandwiches using Pillsbury biscuits provide a high-quality, hearty breakfast to guests that can be taken on the go. Using a well-known brand—like Pillsbury, Florida’s Natural, and General Mills, all of which are included in the pilot breakfasts—allows guests to feel more connected to what they’re eating and can evoke a home-away-from-home, comforting option.
Through Choice Hotels’ collaboration with Entegra, these breakfast initiatives go hand-in-hand with the brand positioning for Comfort and Country Inn & Suites. Announced in March, both brands received enhancements to their prototypes driven by feedback from owners and what can impact the guest experience. “As prices rise, we constantly need to figure out how we can reduce the cost for our owners and still given them an ROI on their hotels… without sacrificing the spirit of the brand with what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Jason Cowan, senior vice president, development, Choice Hotels International.
Cowan also explained details about the enhanced prototypes, noting that with the updates, Comfort hotels will reduce their footprint by 1 percent, and Country Inn & Suites hotels will add 18 rooms within the same footprint.
For Choice Hotels, the upper midscale segment is a focus for growth. As its flagship brand, Comfort has 2,100 hotels with 140 in the pipeline, as well as a 96 percent brand awareness rate, according to Judd Wadholm, senior vice president and general manager, core brands, Choice Hotels International. About Comfort, he explained, “It’s a powerhouse for us and it will continue to be.” Country Inn & Suites, which was acquired by Choice Hotels in 2022 with the additional Radisson Hotels Americas brands, has 430 hotels, with Wadholm adding, “It’s been hovering around 450 for a long time. And so, this is a huge opportunity. … Country is certainly gaining momentum.”
