Choice Hotels Asia-Pac has reported strong results for the past 12 months, including adding almost 1,100 new hotel rooms to its portfolio, increasing RevPAR through hotels using its proprietary Property Management System (PMS), ChoiceAdvantage, by 6.4 per cent, and delivering 550,000 overnight stays to properties in the 12 months,an increase of almost 30 per cent on the previous year.
The hotel franchisor, which represents the Econo Lodge, Comfort, Quality and Clarion hotel brands, as well as members of the Ascend Hotel Collection, said the success has been a result of strong sales and marketing programs that have delivered a substantial increase in domestic leisure and corporate travel bookings through Choice Hotels’ direct channels.
The company said the low Australian Dollar has also enticed tourists from China, Japan, USA and UK to visit Australia.
“I’m delighted to report that Choice Hotels has had a really strong year across Asia Pacific, adding almost 1,100 rooms to our portfolio, increasing revenue per available room at ChoiceAdvantage properties by 6.4 per cent compared to the previous year, and delivering 550,000 overnight stays across the region,” said Choice Hotels Asia-Pac CEO, Trent Fraser.
The fourth quarter of the financial year, April – June 2016, was particularly strong for Choice Hotels, with the hotel group recording its best quarter for development this decade: adding 614 rooms across five hotels. These included Pacific Suites Canberra, an Ascend Hotel Collection member (153 rooms), The Nugget Point Hotel, an Ascend Hotel Collection member in Queenstown, NZ (40 rooms), Quality Hotel Auckland Airport (71 rooms), Quality Hotel Ambassador in Perth (170 rooms) and Comfort Inn and Suites Goodearth in Perth (180 rooms).
“With tourism becoming more and more important to our economy, Choice Hotels is proud to be playing its part and meeting tourist demand by providing extra hotel rooms across our multiple brands,” Fraser said.
“The success of Choice Hotels is down to the fact that we offer exactly that – choice to visit a range of destinations, providing comfortable and convenient accommodation for travellers from all walks of life,” Fraser said.
Last month Tourism Australia reported that combined domestic and international tourist spend for the March 2016 year end stood at AUD$96.2 billion – up AUD$8 billion over the same period last year. This was in part due to the rise of Chinese tourists visiting Australia over the year, up 23 per cent to 1 million visitors.
“Most of all I would like to thank the hard work of all of our franchisees, who really are the face of our success and constantly strive to meet the daily needs of guests on a personal level,” Fraser said.
“We measure guest satisfaction with a ‘likelihood to recommend score’, which currently stands at an average an 8.5 out of 10 across the Asia Pacific region, which is amazing in itself.
“Together we look forward to adding to our success over the next 12 months, keeping up the momentum of hotel growth and satisfied guests,” he said.
Choice Hotels Asia-Pac has more than 270 hotels across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in its network.