Dive Brief:

• Choice Hotels International continued the national expansion of its upscale Cambria brand in October, opening hotels in Austin, Texas; Lake Placid, New York; and Detroit, as well as breaking ground on two more in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, the company announced. 
• The recently opened hotels join a collection of more than 60 open Cambria hotels across the country, with the Cambria Hotel Detroit Downtown seeing the brand enter the Detroit market for the first time. 
• Choice has strategically expanded the Cambria brand to new markets, including several top leisure destinations, throughout the year. The expansion comes as competition heats up in the upscale segment, which has seen significant pipeline growth. 

Dive Insight:

Choice has opened the 212-room Cambria Hotel Austin Downtown, adding to its existing footprint in the capital city, and the Cambria Hotel Lake Placid, a 185-room lakeside resort located within the Adirondack Mountains. Choice also officially opened the 154-room Cambria Hotel Detroit Downtown. 

Additionally, the company broke ground on the Cambria Hotel Fort Worth and the Cambria Hotel Northlake, both of which are expected to open in summer 2025. 

With the hotels, Choice continues the national expansion of its Cambria brand, which the company said has seen 14% portfolio growth this year. 

The brand has properties open or under construction coast to coast. In May, Cambria forayed into the Pacific Northwest with two groundbreakings near Portland, Oregon. The brand also opened its first hotel in Georgia earlier this year, the Cambria Hotel Savannah Downtown Historic District. And in July, Cambria Hotel Copper Mountain opened, marking the brand’s push into top leisure destinations. 

According to Mark Shalala, senior vice president of development for upscale brands at Choice, the continued expansion of Cambria signals that Choice is “accelerating into a new level of competition within the upscale segment.” 

But competition is fierce in the upscale segment, which continues to dominate the U.S. hotel construction pipeline, according to Lodging Econometrics. At the end of the third quarter, the segment had the second highest pipeline — just behind upper midscale — out of all chain scales, with 1,376 projects, or 170,943 rooms. Both upscale and upper midscale led the pipeline at mid-year as well. 

Choice isn’t the only hotel player expanding in the segment. In June, Sonesta launched “soft” upscale brand Mod.