How is international growth shaping up?
Phil: Our focus is on the U.S., because we’re trying to make sure we have a very strong consistent foothold here, but as we uncover opportunities globally, we’re going to take advantage of them. We opened our third hotel in Brazil this year, our pipeline in Japan is becoming much deeper than we thought it would be, and Thailand is a three-year development cycle for 30 properties. We’re looking cautiously, and that supports what we’ve done in the U.S. We’ve been strategic about our growth, and now we’re taking great advantage of what we’ve done and want to do the same thing outside of the U.S.
Are you working on any new initiatives?
Alexander: WiFi is becoming the number one amenity, so everybody offers it, right? In our segment, it’s always been free. The problem is, it’s usually not good. And so free and not good is not doing it anymore, so we’ve launched an initiative called Verified WiFi. It allows our properties to go out, upgrade their WiFi system, and meet a particular standard. What it comes down to it is streaming. We need to be able to stream videos and Netflix. So we’ll send a third party out to your property to look at dozens of rooms, lobbies, walkways, and make sure you get that streaming level of WiFi across the whole hotel, and then we’ll verify you and we’ll put the verification label on the website. So as a hotel owner in our system, if you’re willing to invest, we are now going to promote you as having a higher quality WiFi.
How many Plus+ properties do you have now, and where is the tier headed?
Alexander: We have 47 Red Roof Pluses, so it’s about 10 percent of the portfolio, and we’re slated to have 53 at the end of the year. We’d like to see 15 to 20 percent Plus+ product across the country, especially as we move it and try to position it in higher ADR locations. That’s the key. We don’t say to everyone, “You should be a Plus+” in any regards. It’s based on your market, and the customer’s appetite for a more premium type of product. We want the Plus+ customer to know they’re getting 100 percent consistency with all of the products. That’s unheard of in the economy segment. It’s allowed us to get a level of corporate customer that’s more upscale than the economy segment usually enjoys.
