Choice Hotels International is putting up $40 million to
accelerate renovations across its Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites brands, the
company announced on Tuesday.
Choice last year launched its Comfort Re-Imagined strategy,
a four-year renovation program in which the chain assesses renovation needs at
each Comfort property— possibly including new carpeting, furniture or
mattresses—and sets a property improvement plan with which each property must
comply. The company in 2012 also increased qualitative guest-satisfaction survey
score thresholds required for Comfort properties and became more aggressive in
removing hotels that were not meeting brand standards, according to Choice
senior vice president of brand strategy and marketing Alexandra Jaritz.
Brand requirements include bedding, Comfort's breakfast
program, flat-screen televisions and, for Comfort Suites properties, fitness
and business centers.
"This is not a program designed to make every Comfort
Inn look exactly the same," Jaritz said. "It's ultimately to get
everyone to the same level of consistency."
The newly announced $40 million incentive program enables
hotels to fund renovation through promissory notes, which will be forgiven once
work is completed and if hotels then remain in the Comfort system for a set
amount of time, said Comfort domestic head of brand management Mike Varner. Any
hotel wishing to tap into the $40 million must meet its property improvement
plan's deadline, the latest of which will be Sept. 30, 2014, for hotels using
the funding, he said.
More than 2,500 properties worldwide are branded as Comfort
Inn or Comfort Suites, according to Choice.