Who are we looking for?

Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity as our Brand Strategy Manager, Upper Midscale Brands. The Brand Strategy Manager will support the Comfort (including Comfort Inn, Comfort Inn & Suites), and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson brands, developing the brands’ holistic, long-term vision and strategy.

In this role, the Brand Strategy Manager will partner with their team members and associates across the organization in developing strategies that will drive unit growth, same-store sales, franchisee profitability and guest performance for the Upper Midscale brands. Further, they will be responsible for defining and positioning the brands within their respective segment and developing strategies for activation of the brands across consumer touchpoints.

Do you pride yourself as both a strategic thinker, as well as a disciplined planner who is able to bring complex strategies to life? We invite you to apply today for our Brand Strategy Manager, Upper Midscale Brands role today and #MakeItYourChoice.

Your Responsibilities

Generation and Implementation of Brand Strategy

• Contributes to efforts that ensure the franchisee, consumer, and developer value propositions for the UMS brands are competitive, with the goal of optimizing brand differentiation, guest satisfaction, unit growth, proprietary channel contribution, and revenue performance relative to the competitive set.

• Serves as a cross-function “dot-connecter,” ensuring integration of disparate insights, processes, and business needs in each project’s development.

• Contributes to the creation and optimization of key data- and story-driven reports delivered to Owners, Franchisees and Executive Leadership.

• Continuously monitors and adjusts brands’ total cost of ownership, maintaining a compelling value proposition to franchisees and developers.

• Supports leadership in the development of compelling, executive-level business cases and strategic plans, creating organizational buy-in.

• Partners with Analytics and Finance teams to quantify success of programs and strategies, proactively recommending opportunities for optimization.

• Drives increased share through co-creation of relevant, differentiated guest hallmarks, amenities, design, and experiences across brands.

• Continuously monitors the direction and growth of the business with respect to the competitive landscape and market trends, proactively recommending adjustments to win.

Project & Program Management

• Creates and manages project plans incorporating key milestone deadlines and measurable results.

• Monitors progress and identifies gaps in processes, communicating updates to key stakeholders to drive successful completion and implementation of initiatives.

• Interacts with and build relationships at many levels of organizations to accomplish objectives. 

• Manages budget for owner meetings/events as well as Choice Hotel’s annual Convention.

Strategic Brand Champion

• Oversees brand strategies, content, and standards, including brand programs, guest experience, ensuring resources and objectives are on-brand, prioritized, and executed cross-functionally.

• Represents Choice and the UMS brands at a variety of industry events and media outlets to raise the brands’ visibility.

• Act as the strategic “Brand Champion” to our existing and prospective franchisees including during Convention, CHOC, franchise development discussions, and other events.

• Partner with peers in the Upscale, Midscale, Economy, and Extended Stay segments to ensure efficiency and knowledge sharing across the broader Brand organization.

Your Experience, Skills & Competencies

• Bachelor's degree in related field or equivalent experience required. Master’s degree in related field preferred.

• At least 4 years of experience in brand strategy, corporate strategy, or project management; hospitality experience desired.

• Results-oriented with strong project management skills, sense of urgency, demonstrated flexibility and ability to manage cross functional team initiatives, handle multiple priorities and keep projects on track.

• Strategic-thinker with the ability to perform both detailed and high-level analyses, and to think about big-picture impacts of strategic decisions while knowing when to insist on precision of data. Can leverage both financial and business analysis to solve complex and ambiguous problems.

• Creative problem solver, consistently seeking out and promoting innovative solutions in a highly flexible and interactive manner.

• Organizational savvy and situational adaptability with willingness and ability to build organization alignment, establish trust and influence organizational changes through consultative approach.

• Executive presence and communication with the ability to message effectively across various audiences.

• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time.

Your Team

This is an individual contributor role that will report to the Sr. Director, Upper Midscale Brands and collaborate with cross functional departments on a regular basis.

Your Work Location

As our Brand Strategy Manager, you will be based in our beautiful, state-of-the-art worldwide corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD. Less than 15 miles from Washington, DC, we’re located one block away from the North Bethesda Metro station, with service on the Red Line and the MARC Brunswick line, easy access to I-270, and plenty of free parking provided by Choice Hotels.

Right now, our associates in corporate headquarters are working in a hybrid environment, up to 4 days per week in the office and virtually from your home office the remaining days. We provide flexibility and encourage ongoing communication with your leadership to establish expectations about your unique needs.

Frequent nationwide travel will be required 20% of the time to represent Choice Hotels at franchise-related events, trade shows, conventions and visit franchisees, etc.

About Choice

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the largest lodging franchisors in the world. With nearly 7,500 hotels, representing nearly 630,000 rooms, in 46 countries and territories as of September 30, 2022, the Choice® family of hotel brands provides business and leisure travelers with a range of high-quality lodging options from limited service to full-service hotels in the upper upscale, upper mid-scale, midscale, extended-stay, and economy segments. The award-winning Choice Privileges® loyalty program offers members a faster way to rewards, with personalized benefits starting on day one. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com.

At our worldwide corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD and St. Louis Park, MN as well as our technology center in Scottsdale, AZ, and through our associates around the globe, we keep Choice Hotels thriving by serving as a champion for our franchisees and providing cutting-edge technology.

About Choice Hotels Financial Performance

Total revenues were $425.6 million for third quarter 2023, a third quarter record and a 3% increase compared to the same period of 2022. Please click here to review highlights of our results.

*** PLEASE NOTE: This role is not eligible for sponsorship ***

Ability to model Choice’s Cultural Values: Welcome and Respect Everyone, Be Bold, Be Quick, Listen, Be Curious and Show Integrity.