Choice Hotels Boosts Ascend Hotel Collection Presence In NC

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH) is leaving no stone unturned to expand its global footprint. To this end, the company’s brand Ascend Hotel Collection recently announced the addition of The Esquire Hotel in its portfolio of resorts, boutique and historic hotels.

The boutique Esquire Hotel, located at 168 West Main Avenue, the heart of Gastonia and just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina provides guests easy access to the city’s popular attractions. Schiele Museum of Natural History and Crowders Mountain State Park are also in close proximity to the hotel.

Notably, Ascend Hotel Collection also launched several properties in cities like Brooklyn, N.Y.; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Portland, Maine; and Napa, Calif this year.

Choice Hotels on Expansion Spree

Recently, the company inked franchisee agreements with two famous developers to launch Cambria Hotel Austin Airport in Texas and Cambria Hotel Niagara Falls in New York. It also announced the opening of WoodSpring Suites Pecos, TX, adding to its mid-scale brand.

Markedly, Choice Hotels strengthened its presence with the launch of Clarion Pointe. The expansion of the brand is expected through 21 Clarion Pointe franchise agreements.

Last year, the company announced an alliance with Sercotel, a leading hotel operator and franchisor based in Spain. This alliance will enable the extension of Choice Hotels’ global footprint into Spain and other markets as well as the creation of opportunities for additional hotel development across Europe and Latin America.

Alongside domestic growth, Choice Hotels continues to expand its international footprint in new countries. The key international operating markets include Spain, Colombia, Panama, the Caribbean and Canada. We believe this will help it to counter competition from the likes of Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR) .

Choice Hotels currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Backed by solid expansion strategies and a strong brand presence, shares of Choice Hotels have gained 44.9% so far this year, comparing favorably with the industry’s 36.9% growth.

A Key Pick

Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the same space are Civeo Corp. (NYSE:CVEO) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Civeo reported better-than-expected earnings in three of the trailing four quarters, the beat being 42.5%, on average.

Hilton reported better-than-expected earnings in all of the trailing four quarters, the beat being 6.9%, on average.

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