“Completing the integration in such a short amount of time is a testament to Choice’s experience and unrivaled expertise in acquiring and integrating hotel brands,” Choice Hotels President and CEO Pat Pacious said in a statement. “With the Radisson Hotels Americas properties now integrated, we are well-positioned to further help reduce Choice franchisees’ costs, continue to boost their profitability, and help drive their performance to the next level.” Migrating hundreds of Radisson Americas hotels onto the cloud-based ChoiceAdvantage property-management system and ChoiceMax revenue-management system was the final step in the integration process. It followed several major milestones ahead of schedule earlier this year. In July, all of the Radisson Americas brands—including Radisson Blu, Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites—migrated onto Choice’s central reservation system, making them bookable on ChoiceHotels.com.  

The Integration Effect

According to Choice, since the digital migration, total traffic, bookings and booked revenue on ChoiceHotels.com and the mobile app all increased significantly from what they were on the pre-migration Choice and Radisson Americas websites and apps combined. Year over year, from August through November:  

  • Total digital visits are up 4 percent 
  • Total digital bookings are up 5 percent 
  • Total digital booked revenue is up 3 percent 
  • App-only visits are up 19 percent 
  • App-only bookings are up 18 percent 
  • App-only booked revenue is up 13 percent 

The legacy Radisson Americas brands reported a 26 percent year-over-year increase in digital bookings and a 21 percent year-over-year increase in digital booked revenue, reducing their reliance on bookings from third party channels. Digital bookings for the Country Inn & Suites brand are up 36 percent.  

Year-to-date through November, revenue per available room for the legacy Radisson Americas brands is up 2.3 percent year-over-year. RevPAR for the Radisson upscale brand is up 8.6 percent year over year, with a 200 basis points increase in occupancy rate and a 6.5 percent increase average daily rate.  

Combining Radisson Americas with Choice also grew the total number of nationally and globally managed corporate accounts to nearly 1,000, in addition to 600 specialty accounts across government, transportation, wholesale and more.   

The integration of Radisson Rewards Americas expanded the total number of Choice Privileges rewards program members to over 63 million. CP members are more likely to stay a second time and more likely to book direct, resulting in lower acquisition costs for franchisees.   

Choice also helped legacy Radisson properties lower their fees through integration synergies, successfully negotiating new terms with key third-party distribution partners and uncovering annual operating savings potential of up to $35,000-$40,000 for Radisson hotels that used Choice’s Your Key to Profit program. 

The completion comes a day after Choice announced its latest efforts to secure all remaining shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the latest step in its bid to acquire the New Jersey-based company. Wyndham's Board of Directors has rejected Choice's offers.