Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Today marks the commencement of “Mastery 2024” by Choice Hotels International, Inc. a premier global hospitality franchising entity. This annual event, held at the company’s offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, gathers over 500 of its technology specialists for a week dedicated to technological advancement and innovation. The highlight of the event is a 48-hour development marathon, where participants, known as Choice associates, brainstorm and create innovative software solutions aimed at enhancing the company’s profitability and providing value to hotel owners under the Choice brand. The focus for this year’s event includes streamlining the hotel integration process, devising methods to quantify and display a hotel’s environmental impact, and elevating the overall customer service experience. Successful projects will be showcased to Choice’s senior leadership, with the best receiving monetary rewards and the opportunity for further development and implementation across the company.
“Mastery keeps us current on cutting-edge technologies like AI and helps spark creativity, innovation, and team building,” said Brian Kirkland, chief information officer, Choice Hotels International. “We want to make sure we are constantly innovating and trying new things so that we can continue to deliver value-driving technology for Choice, our franchisees, and our guests.”
A significant achievement from the previous year’s Mastery was the development of a tool that drastically reduced daily operational queries from 4,000 to 40, employing AI and other cutting-edge technologies. Past successes also feature enhancements to online booking platforms that have driven additional income and several tools for security analysis and automation.
“Choice’s long-standing commitment and investment in technology provides hotel owners and operators of our brands with an edge,” said Anna Scozzafava, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of technology, Choice Hotels International. “Our hotel-facing tech is cloud-based, mobile-friendly and easy to use to ensure all owners can leverage our best-in-class tools.”
Choice has also announced the complete transition of its system infrastructure to the AWS cloud platform, becoming the first major hotel chain to do so. This move to the cloud is expected to bolster innovation efforts, particularly in AI, to generate greater value for its franchisees. The company has been at the forefront of introducing proprietary technologies aimed at hotel owners, such as the choiceADVANTAGE cloud-based booking system, the Your Key to Profit platform for centralizing owner profitability tools, and choiceEDGE, which leverages AI and trend analysis for optimizing room sales.
The legacy of Choice Hotels is marked by numerous technological milestones, including the launch of the first hotel website with live rates and availability in 1995, the introduction of the first cloud-based property management system in 2003, the release of the inaugural hotel application for iOS in 2009, and becoming the first hotel brand to enable direct bookings via TripAdvisor in 2014. That year, Choice also distinguished itself on Forbes’ list of the Top 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies. Subsequent innovations include the introduction of instant gift card downloads in the app in 2016, the unveiling of the pioneering cloud-based reservation system, choiceEDGE, in 2018, and achieving a full migration to the AWS Cloud by early 2024, continuing its tradition of setting industry benchmarks.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
