Choice Hotels has a new permanent CEO, and on September 9 he stopped being polite about it: at the Bank of America Gaming and Lodging Conference, Dominic Dragisich confirmed the company is selling off roughly $650 million in owned hotels and other real estate starting in the first half of 2027, doubling down on an AI tool to squeeze more out of its franchisees, and openly conceding it has been losing ground to rivals like Wyndham. None of that is marketing copy — it's a company telling investors, on the record, where the cracks are.

What actually happened

Dragisich, who took the Choice Hotels top job permanently on August 31 after three months as interim CEO, gave his first substantial public accounting of the company's strategy at a Bank of America-hosted investor conference on September 9. The company webcast the remarks itself through its own investor relations site, so this isn't a leak or a rumor — Choice wanted this on the record.

The headline numbers: full-year net rooms growth guidance sits at 1.5%, well off the 2% to 4% Choice used to post before its franchise pipeline slowed down. Dragisich's fix involves selling approximately $650 million of company-owned real estate — hotels Choice currently owns outright rather than just franchises — with the first wave of sales targeted for the first half of 2027. He was careful to frame it as opportunistic rather than a fire sale, saying decisions will hinge on "if the value is right," not a hard deadline.

Why a hotel company selling its own hotels isn't as backwards as it sounds

Choice makes almost all of its money from franchise fees, not room revenue, so owning hotels directly ties up capital the company would rather redeploy into growing the franchise side of the business — more Comfort Inns, more Cambrias, more properties carrying the Choice flag without Choice footing the real estate bill. That's the standard playbook every major hotel company has run for two decades. The part worth noticing is Dragisich saying it out loud this bluntly, this early in his tenure: it's an admission that Choice has fallen behind on growth and needs the cash freed up to compete.

The franchisee squeeze, and what it means for the properties you actually book

Dragisich laid out three levers for franchisees: more revenue, lower costs, and better operational tools. Concretely, Choice says it has cut new-build prototype costs by about 25% and furniture/fixture costs by about 20%, and shaved roughly a month off the time between a franchisee signing a deal and actually opening the doors. Faster, cheaper openings sound great until you remember what usually gets cut to hit those numbers — and a hotel company incentivizing its franchisees toward speed and cost isn't automatically good news for guests expecting consistent quality across a 22-brand portfolio that ranges from budget Rodeway Inns to upscale Cambria Hotels.

Meet Charlie, the AI doing the job humans used to do

The company is leaning hard on an in-house AI tool called Charlie, embedded in property management systems at the front desk. Choice says it's driven a roughly 40% reduction in operational service requests and cut shift-worker time on certain tasks by about half, plus a separate automated tool that improved group-sales proposal win rates by over three percentage points. Translation for anyone who's stayed at a Choice property recently: fewer staff handling more of the routine stuff, with an algorithm routing the rest. That can mean faster service — or it can mean the front desk is thinner than it used to be when something actually goes wrong with your room.

What this means if you've got Choice Privileges points sitting around

None of this changes your point balance or award chart today. But it's a signal worth reading: a company mid-turnaround, selling its owned real estate and pushing franchisees toward leaner operations, is not a company about to expand your redemption options generously or invest heavily in loyalty perks in the near term. If Choice succeeds in reigniting net rooms growth, that's more redemption inventory down the line. If the cost-cutting push shows up as thinner staffing or inconsistent maintenance at the property level first, that's the more likely near-term experience for Choice Privileges members booking with points. Worth watching before you stock up on Choice points speculatively — this is a company still proving the turnaround works, not one that's already pulled it off.

Confirmed directly on Choice Hotels' own investor relations newsroom, which announced and webcast Dragisich's September 9 remarks at the Bank of America Gaming and Lodging Conference.