Where to begin. The biggest things are that Choice has a hard time attracting and keeping top talent; nasty, closed-door politics at high levels; performance not properly rewarded, while favoritism abounds; and a delusion that the company is a "technology leader" (it's not) which underlies some questionable strategic decisions. Middle management at Choice is a tough spot to be in.
- Salaries are around 10-15% lower than the other major hospitality companies in the area, and there has been a major migration of top talent in that direction in the last few years.
- The organization is spread pretty thin. Some teams are responsible for duties that 2 or 3 teams share at competitors, making stress levels high. This would seem to call for higher compensation, not lower.
- Leaders insist on calling Choice a tech company. Mainly because supposedly they were one of the first hotel companies to launch an iphone app, and because of the property mgmt system which is cloud-based. This is delusional. The system lacks much of the functionality, reporting and reliability that many competitor systems have (is that why it was first to market in the cloud?) and franchisees are constantly complaining about technology that corporate develops. There is a huge discrepancy here between management's rhetoric and user experience at the hotels/guests in this respect. SkyTouch was spun off 4 or 5 years ago, basically selling the same PMS to other hotel companies... and it has been a major flop. Essentially, Choice remains the only major client, it has been running huge losses, Wall Street analysts hate it, it drives software development resources away from more pressing initiatives--however it looks like the captain wants go down with the ship on this one.
- The performance review process is messed up. Somehow, people that get top marks in annual reviews a couple years in a row are passed up for promotions while 2-3 people (usually working for the most powerful leaders) get promoted 4 times in 18 months.
- Project managers for some of the most important, high-profile initiatives are given unrealistic timelines that they have no say over, not enough resources to get them done, and more often than not end up getting the boot when the insane expectations aren't met flawlessly. This happened after the redesign of the website and the overhaul of the loyalty program (they won an award, were praised in the press, and then privately basically the entire team was summarily disposed of a couple of weeks later). After a major project was completed to launch the new vacation rental business, the leader of that project left to take a job with Hilton, instead of staying to run that exciting new venture at Choice.
- Global Sales... ugh, what to say about it. Just stay away. They've put so many people through the woodchipper over there... from analysts to VPs. That place must be haunted.
- Constant turnover. In the last year or so, several SVPs have been axed or left (including the CFO). Obviously, even more so at lower levels in the company. This constant herky-jerky lowers employee morale and interrupts the real work.
Choice has a tough road ahead. As many other industries in the last 10-15 years, the hospitality industry has begun to consolidate. Choice has made huge bets on new lines of business (entering a new market segment with Cambria and Ascend; SkyTouch; the vacation rental business) but its market share has not gained. Cambria/Ascend are working out OK, although much slower than projected, SkyTouch is a disaster, and the VR business remains to be seen but I suspect will be very difficult to gain market share against established machines like Airbnb, Homeaway, Booking, Wyndham or Hilton.
Meanwhile, competitors have begun to attach the select-service segment with new brands like Tru, AC Hotels, Element... directly competing with Choice's core brands (Comfort, Quality, Sleep). I think this is going to put a lot of pressure on Choice to perform against those brands backed by Hilton, Marriott, IHG--and you may see franchisees start to jump ship. Personally, I don't see Choice surviving as a stand-alone company more than 5 or 6 years.
Overall, it's not a terrible place to work for a year or two, learn something, and move on to something better. There are 2 or 3 tight power circles in the company. If you're in those, you're OK; if not, watch your back.
