Choice Hotels helps hoteliers do their best work with Google Workspace

Supporting hotel franchises with infrastructure and technology

You’ve likely stayed in one of Choice Hotels’ hotels, perhaps without knowing it, because Choice Hotels International isn’t a traditional hospitality company. They don’t own many hotels and instead use a franchise model, supporting each one with infrastructure and technology. Some of their better known brands include Radisson, Comfort Inn, Country Inn and Suites, Clarion, Quality Inn, and Cambria.

They are constantly evolving to anticipate the needs of nearly 7,500 hotel owners, and they want to help them grow their businesses. That means maximizing the return on investment and helping them succeed in every way possible. Choice Hotels is at the crux of hospitality, franchising, and technology. For them to accomplish their goals, they need a secure, scalable platform to build on, and, in turn, provide value to the customer. Being able to provide that platform for their brands is exactly what they like to do at Choice Hotels. 

Modernizing communication with Google Workspace Frontline

Before switching to Google Workspace for Frontline Workers, Choice Hotels used a legacy, on-premises email platform that was not as robust as a newer email solution. Due to the volume of spam emails and accounts being stolen, they turned off the ability to send emails from standard email clients.

As a result of these activities, Choice Hotels estimates that around 30% of franchisees stopped using email to conduct business. Their franchisees are focused on filling their hotels. They want to serve their customers first and foremost, and Choice Hotels identified a need for a new email system that would help them achieve that primary goal. 

As Choice Hotels set out to find a new email solution, they knew that they wanted to pick a strong email platform for franchisees; one that was financially competitive with other email solutions and also easy to learn and use. Many franchisees already use Gmail and Google Workspace in their personal lives, and so it was an easy decision to switch to Google Workspace for Frontline Workers. 

Google Workspace opens up communication and collaboration channels between frontline workers and corporate teams in a way that’s safe and secure, even from personal devices. 

Allowing franchisees to conduct better business 

With support from cloud solution provider and Google Cloud Premier Partner SADA, An Insight company, Choice Hotels deployed Google Workspace to 21,000 workers in 5,000 U.S. hotels. SADA supported them in the migration and transition, helping them set up Collaborative Inboxes for hotel franchisees, and providing training and change management services to ensure a smooth transition. SADA worked closely with the Choice security team to integrate Okta and Google Workspace during the deployment. 

Whereas before almost one-third of Choice Hotels franchisees didn’t use email, that number is now down to 2%. In other words, more than 6,300 of their franchisees are using email after they switched to Google Workspace.

Because franchisees already had familiarity with Google Workspace in their personal lives, the switch required almost no training from Choice, and franchise employees were ecstatic about the rollout. They can now access their email securely from anywhere via their mobile devices, at the front desk, or even at home. That’s allowing franchisees to focus on their business and improve communication with their customers. Email is how people expect to receive communication; whether that’s a follow-up confirmation of a booking, or to address concerns such as an expired credit card.  

The switch to Google Workspace has also helped Choice feel more secure because the solution is cloud-native, with software versions always updated, so they no longer have to manage patches in-house. Choice franchisees now have the added benefit of a spam filter, so they no longer have to spend time deleting emails and can focus on relevant emails from their customers, in turn creating a better experience for guests. 

In terms of what’s next for Choice, migrating to Google Workspace is only the tip of the iceberg. They’re shutting down their last data center and plan to build and run technology entirely on the cloud moving forward. They’re excited about the future and how this will impact people’s experience with Choice Hotels.