Choicehotels.com, the official web site of worldwide lodging franchisor Choice Hotels International (NYSE:CHH), has a new look and new features - all designed to enhance the site`s ease-of-usage and its marketing of Choice`s eight hotel brands to both business and leisure travelers.

The site`s new look incorporates the company`s corporate tagline - “The Power of Being There. Go.” - with the trademark yellow banner welcoming guests to the site and its new features. Prominent among these new features is an immediate “contact us” icon, emphasizing the interactive nature of the site, as well as icons connecting guests to the brand(s) of their choice.

“On many web sites, contact information is buried - almost an afterthought,” said Mary Beth Knight, Choice`s vice president, e-commerce. “We want to be certain that visitors to our site get the exact, specific information they need to plan their travel experiences.”

Knight said that information on each of Choice`s eight brands - Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and MainStay Suites - is also immediately available to guests of the site. “Our brands are front and center in the minds of travelers, so that is where they are on choicehotels.com,” she said.

The process for booking rooms is also easier, with a new map icon available so travelers can identify hotels by destination. “Guests can now plot the Choice brand hotels within their desired location, helping them to more readily identify hotels at which they`d like to book rooms,” Knight said.

She added that one of the site`s existing and most distinctive features, its dynamic translation to French, Spanish, or German, continues on the new site. “As a worldwide company, this ability to communicate globally online has generated significant business for our hotels,” she said. “We are looking at ways to enhance this feature as we continue to build the new site.”

Choice Hotels International is one of the world`s largest lodging franchisors, marketing more than 5,000 hotels open or under development in 46 countries under the Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, MainStay Suites and Rodeway Inn brand names. For more information on Choice, visit the company`s web site at www.choicehotels.com.

Choice Hotels, Choice Hotels International, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, MainStay Suites, Rodeway Inn, and The Power of Being There. Go are proprietary trademarks and service marks of Choice Hotels International.

——-