Published: November 13, 2026 | Brands & Earnings

The News

Choice Hotels International reported U.S. RevPAR growth of 3.8% year over year in the third quarter of 2026 — growth the company described as “ahead of expectations and a clear step up” — with management identifying the extended-stay segment as a key growth driver for the system.

The performance lands Choice at the favorable end of the midscale franchising spectrum. Where the mid-tier has faced budget-traveler fatigue and competitive pressure from hybrid products, Choice’s portfolio — Comfort, Quality, Sleep, Econo Lodge at the value end, plus Cambria and the Everhome Suites extended-stay brand at the premium end — has been pulling growth from both directions.

Extended-stay is the strategic center of gravity. Choice’s pitch to owners and lenders rests on Everhome and Cambria, both of which target the demand migration the segment is seeing — infrastructure- and project-driven workers, healthcare traveling professionals and cost-conscious longer-stay travelers — at a time when third-party data shows extended-stay occupancy growing at its fastest rate in more than a decade.

The 3.8% system RevPAR figure also positions Choice against a favorable macro moment. With national late-October occupancy strong (61.8%) and ADR approaching $165, the environment rewards franchisors with market-rate matched brands. Choice’s franchise-sales and conversion pipeline may benefit further as independent owners re-flag tired properties into a system that now spans economy through extended-stay family demand.

What it means for hotel and travel businesses

For franchise developers: Choice’s Q3 message sharpens the company’s pitch in conversion and new-build deals — new extended-stay inventory within its system becomes an increasingly direct competitor to Hilton’s Home2, Marriott’s Residence Inn/TownePlace and IHG’s Atwell in the upper-midscale extended-stay pitch.

For extended-stay owners: Developers and owner-operators shopping a 2027 extended-stay flag should test the comparables. Choice’s reported commitment to segment growth adds negotiating leverage on fee structure and key-money conversations with Everhome and Cambria representatives.

For revenue-management leaders across midscale: Where your property competes against a Choice property in an extended-stay context, expect more competitive rate behavior and seasonal marketing — with segment-wide occupancy up, discount pressure from the segment’s players is likely reduced in high-demand corridors, supporting rate integrity across the segment broadly.

For investors: Choice’s upper-midscale/Everhome trajectory is easy to monitor through franchise-sales and occupancy datapoints. The company’s positioning as a consumer-brand family anchored to economy travelers — now expanded into extended-stay family/executive demand — is a clear strategic narrative to monitor for owner loyalty and unit-growth economics.

Key numbers

• Q3 2026 U.S. RevPAR growth: +3.8% year over year (ahead of expectations)
• Segment driver: extended stay (Cambria and Everhome Suites among them)
• Market context: extended-stay occupancy posting best quarterly gains in more than a decade

Published: November 13, 2026 | Performance & Outlook

The News

Most respondents to a survey conducted by the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA) said they expect year-over-year RevPAR growth for their portfolios heading into 2026 — a meaningful statement because asset managers sit closest to the real operating picture across thousands of properties.

Asset managers occupy a unique informational position in the hotel business. Unlike brand executives, whose outlooks are framed by franchise-and-management-fee growth, or analysts, whose data comes from large samples, asset managers see bottom-line performance asset by asset — budget-versus-actual, payroll hours, GOP flows, banquet mix, rate integrity, channel shifts and financing stress. When that population leans constructive, it is less a sentiment measure and more a ground-truth read.

The optimism tracks with what the industry’s quarterly and weekly data have shown: rate-led RevPAR growth, extended-stay demand surging, corporate travel firmer and the supply pipeline historically thin. For asset managers, those conditions mainly mean flushed NOI — more gross profit with little added cost — because incremental RevPAR in a low-supply, high-rate environment drops largely to the bottom line. That’s why asset-manager optimism tends to understate bullishness on occupancy and overstate conviction on margins.

The survey’s practical significance comes from what asset managers are planning. When this cohort expects growth, budgets shift: capital-improvement plans get funded rather than deferred, sales-and-marketing spend gets restored after cutbacks, payroll hours get added to protect service quality, and financing decisions get made from a position of strength rather than retreat.

The caveats asset managers would flag themselves: the gains are not evenly distributed. Full-service urban hotels facing weak convention calendars or group pushouts, resorts competing with international-demand weakness and economy properties squeezed by budget-travel fatigue will trail. The average hides meaningful dispersion — and asset-manager planning reflects that mix rather than a single broadly applied assumption.

What it means for hotel and travel businesses

For owners: If your asset manager is projecting growth, hold them to a plan: approved capital schedules, restored service standards (housekeeping and F&B staffing especially — deferred understaffing is where guests feel prior-year cost cuts first) and channel-mix targets that reduce OTA-dependency while direct and loyalty demand are strong.

For operators and managment companies: Asset-manager optimism reflects into 2027 budgets. Management companies pitching portfolios this winter should bring margin-protection, productivity-engineering and technology-enabled labor arguments — because asset managers underwriting growth will be scrutinizing GOP margins, not just RevPAR.

For suppliers: Vendors selling to hotels know that asset-manager budgets are where sales happen. Expect procurement conversations to reopen for guest-facing and back-of-house technology, energy-efficient equipment and staffing/software productivity tools. Time your pitches for the December-through-March budget-decision window.

For lenders-investors: Survey-backed RevPAR confidence supports both refinancing activity and transaction appetite. Assets with delayed 2025-2026 capital plans are candidates for value-add plays now that earnings growth is visible enough to underwrite.

Watch item: Asset-manager optimism is grounded in current conditions, which remain supply-thin and rate-led. It does not inherently price in a macro deterioration, group-bookings pushouts or a meaningful softening in corporate travel. The assumptions embedded in 2026 budgets should carry those scenarios as sensitivities, not certainties.

Key numbers

• Survey source: Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA)
• Headline finding: most respondents expect year-over-year RevPAR growth into 2026
• Signal value: better margin visibility than sentiment measures — asset-level operating data
• Market context: rate-led RevPAR growth, historically thin supply, firmer corporate demand