Choice Hotels International is expanding the target markets for its upscale, new-build Cambria Hotels brand while cutting down its physical footprint.
The brand’s new prototype is designed specifically for secondary and leisure markets, expanding the growth model for the brand, which previously has concentrated on high-revenue-per-available-room, urban markets in the U.S. such as Nashville, New Orleans and Manhattan.
The new prototype reduces the classic Cambria square footage by 20% to around 56,000 square feet, with an average 107 rooms on 1.7 acres of land. Along with the streamlined structural and kitchen design, the prototype calls for fewer full-time employees.
Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands for Choice, calls the new prototype option “an evolution.”
“We’re not changing our core; we’re looking for ways to right-size in different markets,” she said. “Our guests want more hotels and owners want to develop more.”
While Choice will continue to work with franchisees to develop the original Cambria design in urban markets — five hotels have opened so far in 2021, six more will open by year’s end, and the currently open portfolio sits at 59 hotels — this new option will open up more markets, Cannon said.
Expansion Beyond Urban Markets
Mark Shalala, senior vice president of development for upscale brands and real estate for Choice, said this “natural progression of our growth story” would open Cambria up to between 300 and 350 new markets it wouldn’t necessarily have considered before.
“It’s been getting harder to get into these urban markets,” he said. “Even pre-COVID, secondary markets were performing strongly.”
“We’ll still keep going after the top markets, but we think growth really will be in these secondary markets,” he said.
The brand’s growth story makes expansion more accessible to new developers as well as existing Choice developers who want to expand their portfolios, Cannon said.
Prototype Highlights
The new prototype will be entirely new-construction. Cambria launched as a new-construction brand in 2005, and it remains primarily new-construction, though the company will consider adaptive re-use properties where the case calls for it, such as with the Cambria under development in Los Angeles as part of the city’s 1927-construction Historic Core District building on Gallery Row.
Additional design and construction elements include:
- A streamlined food-and-beverage experience, still including a bar and marketplace area. Local offerings, including alcohol, will be available for purchase via QR code, “taking the operational pressure off the owner,” Shalala said.
- Outdoor terrace space.
- Flexible lobby space that can function as bar overflow space or a meeting room.
- Guestrooms will retain most of the classic Cambria elements, including spa-inspired bathrooms and Bluetooth-enabled mirrors. “Our owners asked us not to change the room because it’s very efficient,” Cannon said.
- Exteriors will be straight, without L-shaped building architecture.
Cannon said she expects the first new-prototype Cambria hotels to open by late 2023 to early 2024.
Choice franchises 11 hotel brands around the world. As of June 30, 2021, the company had 7,111 hotels open with more than 601,000 rooms.
Cambria Hotels’ revenue per available room was $74.82 at the end of the second quarter, second behind Ascend Hotel Collection at $75.68 among Choice's brand portfolio.