WASHINGTON -
Choice Hotels International now has a name and launch date for its
upscale, all-suites brand: Cambria Suites.
The first
property is expected to open next year.
Choice's first
new brand in nearly 10 years, Cambria is designed to take on Hilton
Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott.
"We have had a
lot of hotel developer interest," said Aaron Katz, Choice's vice
president of brand strategies and corporate development. "We
anticipate that we will have several agreements [signed]
shortly."
Choice revealed
its brand plan, then referred to as Hotel Concept 2004, at a
franchisor meeting last year.
Aimed primarily
at business travelers, Cambria Suites is designed for suburban
locations. A typical property would sit on a 2.5-acre site and have
120 rooms.
Design components
include a two-story lobby area, a fitness center, an indoor pool
and an upscale cafe.
Guest rooms will
feature a bright, contemporary look and plasma-screen
televisions.
"In developing
the brand, we saw a big hole" in the marketplace, Katz said. "We
saw a lot of travelers looking for a hotel room that was in the
select-service segment and looking for something that was upscale
with a little more style to it.
"We've done that
throughout with the decor and the amenities - everything in the
hotel is [viewed] through that style filter."
Katz said Choice
employed a process called "reverse engineering" to develop the
prototype for Cambria Suites.
That is, he said,
"We reverse- engineered back into what [hotel developers] could
afford to build. One of our key objectives is to create profitable
owners and to build prototypes that we know are going to provide a
superior return on investment."
Cambria Suites
will have room rates of at least $100, the highest of any Choice
brand, and will cost about $63,000 per room to build.
Katz said hotel
developers that already do business with Choice had been urging the
firm to launch an upscale brand.
"When you look at
our portfolio, it makes all the sense in the world for us to
compete in this upscale segment because our developers are
trickling out [to competing brands]," Katz explained.
"After Comfort
Inn they are asking, 'What's next?' and we don't have a product for
them."
At least 40% of
Choice customers stayed at a Courtyard or Garden Inn last year,
Katz said.
"So we had the
consumer and the developer. We just didn't have the product for
them."
Katz said Choice
hit upon the name Cambria Suites after testing several potential
brands with consumers.
"We definitely
went around the mulberry bush a few times with the name," he
said.
"The naming
process is interesting because you are looking for an empty vessel,
something you can breathe life into. We tried a bunch of names and
asked consumers which one rang true based on certain
attributes.
"What we liked
about the Cambria name is it has a warm, inviting feel," Katz
continued. "When we consumer-tested, it conjured up images of
Europe and the Umbria region of Italy. It also had strong overtones
of contemporary, upscale."
Anthem Suites and
Diplomat Suites were two other names Choice had considered during
the process. But Choice soon dropped them because they could not be
trademarked.
To contact
reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to[email protected].