Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Alex Brignall: Fantastic. And then just as a follow-up, your — obviously, a big part of that pipeline increase came from the rooms that you signed in France. Could you just talk about the economics of that deal? Is that a kind of full fat conversion deal? What’s the source specifically of the sort of owners of those properties? And how does kind of fee stream and key money going into any brand changes or property changes working?

Patrick Pacious: Yes, Alex, that’s — it’s a direct franchise market for us. So those are direct franchise agreements. It’s a full fee sort of model there. And it’s effectively doubled the size of our footprint in France. So that’s kind of how we’re doing it. The brand is [indiscernible]. So they’re going to continue to sort of operate with that flag as well. So it’s a good opportunity for us to continue to drive the growth of our direct franchise business in Europe on the continent in particular.

Alex Brignall: So sorry, just to be clear, what kind of franchise fee do they come with relative to the group?

Scott Oaksmith: Yes. So they’re paying. They’re paying full fees in line with what we receive in the French market.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back to our speakers for any closing remarks.

Patrick Pacious: Great. Well, thank you, operator, and thanks again, everybody, for your time this morning. We’ll talk to you again in August when we announce our second quarter results. Have a great rest of your day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.