Upscale Brands Openings Director

Title: Upscale Brands Openings Director (Remote)

Location: USA-

Who are we looking for?

Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity for an Upscale Brands Opening Director in the Upscale Brand Operations Division. The Upscale Brand Operations Division is the team that drives the unit growth for all eight brands within the Upscale segment for Choice Hotels International by developing and executing comprehensive pre-opening strategies to ensure on time openings, ensuring tools and resources are deployed and leading successful hotel ramps for financial and guest experience successes post opening. As a key member of our Upscale Brand Operations Division, you will be an integral part of the Upscale segment growth within Choice Hotels, building strong partnerships with industry stakeholders fueling Choice Hotel’s robust growth in the Upscale segment.

Are you a self-starter, able to be organized in a multi-faceted, fast paced environment, working with your strategic partners to ensure we achieve our unit growth on an annual basis? Do you have an established background successfully leading hotel openings in the Upscale space, ensuring amazing hotels flourish from day one across the segment? We invite you to apply today for our Upscale Brands Opening Director role and #MakeItYourChoice.

Your Responsibilities

• Lead pre-opening activities, including hiring per brand standards, conduct coordinated training efforts, efficient runway on booking functionality and quality, marketing, and brand positioning.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to establish and adhere to operational guidelines for fluency in opening successes, SOPs, and brand standard adherence.
• Develop and implement a strategic pre-opening plan for each hotel, ensuring alignment with brand standards and organizational goals for an on time opening.
• Responsible for management company approval and screening.
• Handle openings activations, coordination of photography and website functionality to ensure fluid ramp.
• Oversee the ramp-up process, ensuring smooth operations and optimal guest experiences during the initial months after opening.
• Develop and implement strategies to drive revenue, occupancy, and guest satisfaction during the ramp-up phase.
• Monitor and analyze performance metrics, making data-driven decisions to enhance operational efficiency and guest satisfaction.
• Liaise with stakeholders, including owners, management company leadership, investors, and senior management, to provide regular updates on pre-opening and opening progress.
• Liaise with shared services including Global Sales, Revenue Management, and Marketing.
• Build strong relationships with external partners, vendors, and industry stakeholders to enhance collaboration and facilitate successful hotel openings.
• Serves as the representative of Choice Hotels and the Upscale Division for all Upscale openings for two weeks out and two weeks post opening.

Your Experience, Skills & Competencies

• Bachelor’s Degree from a four-year college or university in Hospitality, Hotel Management, Business Management, or a relevant field of study required, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in successfully leading pre-opening and successful openings of Four-Star upscale properties either in an on property or corporate role, demonstrating a track record of success in the hospitality industry.
• Proven experience in hotel ramping and achieving desired financial and operational outcomes.
• Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and work with numerous stakeholders amongst a diverse team.
• Strong track record of success in driving execution and delivering business results.
• Motivated self-starter that is highly results oriented.
• Excellent business-savvy with a consultative approach and holistic business view; ability to influence and collaborate with leaders across organizational lines.
• Excellent organizational skills and very detail oriented. Must be able to manage multiple projects simultaneously at a high level.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate across all stakeholder groups including small and large group settings, both internal and external.
• Flexibility in creating and making changes or re-directing initiatives to continuously improve the strategy and organization, showing comfort with change management, and working in a matrix-based organization.
• Advanced use of Microsoft suite including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to travel extensively as needed (70-90%), for hotel openings and related activities.

Your Team

• This is an individual contributor role that will report to the Regional Vice President, Upscale Franchise Operations. You will collaborate with cross-functional departments on a regular basis.

Your Work Location

• As our Upscale Brands Opening Director, you will be a remote-based associate, working from your home office. You will be required to connect virtually with Choice team members and leadership on video via Zoom, with possible periodic travel in-person to our beautiful, state-of-the-art worldwide offices in North Bethesda, MD, Scottsdale, AZ, or St. Louis Park, MN. Frequent nationwide travel will be required 70-90% of the time.

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 (https://media.choicehotels.com/2023-11-07-Choice-Hotels-International-Reports-Third-Quarter-2023-Results) 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.

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Visit http://careers.choicehotels.com to learn more.