Area Director, Franchise Services (Remote)

Who are we looking for?
Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity as our Area Director in the Franchise Performance Team. At Choice Hotels, we connect the world through the power of hospitality. We bring together the people, brands and technology that enable the success of others—welcoming every guest, every partner everywhere their journey takes them!
As an Area Director with Choice Hotels, you will serve as a trusted advisor to a portfolio of hotel owners based in a specified region. You will provide our small business owners insights and strategies to drive their hotel’s performance so that they continue to grow with Choice Hotels. In the spirit of hospitality, you will engage with each owner on a one-on-one basis to help boost their profitability, increase guest service, and encourage portfolio growth with Choice Hotels.
As a key member of you team, you will use your education and experience to help each owner consistently deliver excellent levels of guest satisfaction, with the goal of optimizing profitability while establishing lifelong relationships. As such, this position requires excellent relationship building skills, results-focused communication skills, the most valuable of which is the ability to listen and learn while working with each owner and/or management team.
There are many resources at Choice Hotels that are available to our owners. These resources can help our owners to achieve their service and profitability goals and assist in operational, sales, training, and execution needs. The Area Director will work in partnership with all departments in Choice to ensure owner satisfaction by connecting owners to these resources and departments.
In addition to operational knowledge, best-fit candidates for this position will have a good working knowledge of guest service diagnostics, action planning, property systems, sales and marketing, profit, and loss statements, and more. While direction is provided, and helpful resources including peer-to-peer assistance are always available, you are self-directed as a field-based employee and will need to use time efficiently to achieve optimal results.
If the idea of helping small business owners achieve greater success intrigues you; if being part of a diverse team of supportive and collaborative colleagues excites you; and if personal career advancement and even greater personal success is important to you, then consider joining our team as an Area Director today. We invite you to apply today for our Area Director role today and #MakeItYourChoice.
Your Responsibilities

• Able to utilize all modes of communication (in-person consultations, online meetings, phone, email, and text).
• Actively participate in franchise association activities and communications, including current corporate initiatives, as directed by the RVP.
• Support Choice Hotels franchise sales growth through engagement of directors of franchise sales and ongoing interaction to ensure identification of franchise opportunities and development of leads.
• Understand and utilize appropriate tools and resources to ensure effective and consistent On-Site and Virtual consultation delivery.
• Effectively collaborate with Choice teams in various departments and champion key programs and initiatives.
• Generate post-consultation follow-up correspondence and maintain effective property and ownership documentation notes within Salesforce. Regularly update management records.
• Remain current on all Choice programs, franchise requirements, operating practices, market trends, and industry conditions to provide necessary information and support to franchisees.
• Seek and share industry and market intelligence and best practices with peers, franchisees and corporate staff; become the eyes and ears, recognizing trends, threats and opportunities that can benefit franchisees and Choice.
• Provide feedback to Regional Vice President of unusual property performance trends, ownership engagement issues, competitive intelligence, or other information that might prompt the consideration of collaborative efforts.
• Understand and successfully integrate Choice’s cultural values and performance principles into all facets of franchisee, peer, and internal stakeholder interaction.
• Develop proficiencies to interpret performance and personal workflow data through internal and external sources, including STR, GIS/Medallia, Salesforce, Cvent, Workday, Concur, Tableau, Profitability Benchmarking (HotStats), Okta/MFA, Business Intelligence, Ideas, and related corporate reporting systems. Identify greatest opportunities to improve performance at portfolio hotels.
• Monitor and improve consultation effectiveness through RVP feedback, Owner Engagement Index surveys, and hotel stakeholder adoption of recommended action steps

Your Experience, Skills & Competencies

• Must have superior time-management and follow-through skills
• Must possess a valid driver’s license with the ability to travel up to 70%.
• Must have good working knowledge and abilities in all aspects of Microsoft Office including Microsoft Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word
• Demonstrates key competencies to include ensures accountability, driving results, effective communication using influencing skills and relationship building.
• Full-service hotel experience and/or multi-unit oversight experience preferred
• Must be self-motivated, organized, and able to balance multiple project support requests beyond ongoing portfolio support requirements
• Must have keen analytic skills and data management abilities, along with excellent written and verbal communication skills, franchise industry savvy, and proven track record in driving hotel performance success
• Extensive corporate level, multi-unit hotel operations management and/or sales support highly preferred
• Bachelor's degree in related field or equivalent experience
• Must thrive on exceeding goals, meeting deadlines, and seeing results.
• Must reside within Illinois, preferably located right outside of the Chicago area (or centrally within the state).
• At least ten years’ experience in hotel level leadership or relevant related experience
• Must have strong training, consulting, and persuasion skills

Your Team
This is an individual contributor role that will report to the Regional Vice President of Franchise Performance. You will collaborate with our team of Area Directors and cross functional departments on a regular basis. You will work with Choice hotel owners on a daily basis.
Your Work Location
As our Area Director, you will be a remote based associate, working from your home. You will be required to connect virtually with Choice team members and leadership on video via Zoom, with periodic travel in-person to our beautiful, state-of-the-art worldwide offices in Rockville, Maryland or Scottsdale, AZ. Frequent nationwide travel will be required, approximately 70% of the time to visit our owners and attend meetings.
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 Rockville, Maryland and St. Louis Park, Minnesota as well as our technology center in Scottsdale, Arizona, 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 reached $427.4 million for second quarter 2023, a quarterly record and a 16% increase compared to the same period of 2022. Please click here to review highlights of our results.
Ability to model Choice’s Cultural Values: Welcome and Respect Everyone, Be Bold, Be Quick, Listen, Be Curious and Show Integrity.