Choice Hotels Organic Growth Opportunities
1. Readiness Assessment
1. Readiness Assessment
2. Competitive Analysis
2. Competitive Analysis
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
4. Appendix
4. Appendix
Readiness Assessment
Current Performance
- Driving over 7m monthly organic visits from 1.6m keywords, with traffic valued at an estimated $8.7m.
- Performance is anchored by strong brand equity, with searches for "choice hotels" and its portfolio brands (Comfort Inn, Radisson, etc.) representing the top-performing keywords.
- A high Authority Score of 76 and over 80k referring domains provide a dominant foundation for search rankings.
Growth Opportunity
- The market leader generates 1.2m more monthly visits from fewer keywords, revealing a significant opportunity to improve traffic conversion from your existing keyword portfolio.
- High-volume, non-branded keywords like "hotels near me" (1.5m searches/mo) are a major untapped channel for capturing high-intent, bottom-funnel users.
- The success of individual hotel location and brand pages provides a proven template that can be scaled programmatically across your entire portfolio.
Assessment
You have a strong foundation with market-leading keyword coverage but a clear efficiency gap to the top competitor. The data reveals a substantial opportunity to capture more traffic from existing rankings, especially for high-intent, non-branded local searches. AirOps can help systematically execute the content and optimization strategy needed to close this gap and claim the top spot.
Competition at a Glance
An analysis of 2 direct competitors shows that choicehotels.com currently ranks 2nd in organic search traffic. Your domain generates over 7 million monthly organic visits and ranks for 1.63 million keywords, which is the largest keyword footprint in the competitive set.
The market leader, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, generates over 8.2 million monthly organic visits while ranking for fewer keywords at 1.56 million. This represents a significant gap, with the top competitor attracting over 1.2 million more organic visits per month despite having a smaller keyword base.
This data reveals a clear performance gap and a substantial opportunity. While choicehotels.com has established the broadest keyword visibility, the top competitor is more effective at converting its rankings into site traffic. Closing this efficiency gap presents a major opportunity to capture market-leading traffic levels by improving the performance of your existing keyword portfolio.
Opportunity Kickstarters
Here are your content opportunities, tailored to your domain's strengths. These are starting points for strategic plays that can grow into major traffic drivers in your market. Connect with our team to see the full traffic potential and activate these plays.
Create thousands of highly-detailed accessibility pages for each room type, focusing on specific needs like mobility, hearing, and vision. This directly answers critical, underserved search queries from travelers with disabilities, a segment often ignored by competitors.
Example Keywords
- "wheelchair accessible hotel room with roll-in shower [city]"
- "hearing accessible suites near [convention center]"
- "visual alarms hotel [airport code]"
- "hotels with grab bars in bathroom [city]"
Rationale
U.S. law requires hotels to have this data, but no major hotel chain effectively surfaces it in a crawlable, user-friendly format. This creates a massive opportunity to capture high-intent traffic from a loyal market segment by providing transparent, life-critical information.
Topical Authority
Choice can become the definitive resource for accessible travel, building immense trust and authority. The current SERPs are dominated by forum threads and user-generated content, leaving a clear path for a brand to establish leadership.
Internal Data Sources
Utilize franchise Property Management System (PMS) ADA flags (e.g., bed height, door width, strobe alarms), 3-D room scans from renovation files, and guest satisfaction surveys filtered by an "accessibility" tag.
Estimated Number of Pages
~12,600
Develop a comprehensive set of pages mapping EV-friendly hotels along major U.S. driving corridors, complete with charger details. This play captures the rapidly growing and affluent electric vehicle driver market by solving their primary travel pain point: range anxiety.
Example Keywords
- "EV road trip Houston to Chicago hotels with chargers"
- "Level 2 charging hotel near Zion"
- "Tesla destination charger accommodation I-95"
- "hotels with EV chargers on Route 66"
Rationale
Choice has already invested in adding chargers to over 5,000 properties but has minimal SEO visibility for EV-related queries. This content directly connects that investment to customer acquisition, positioning Choice as the go-to lodging option for EV drivers.
Topical Authority
By publishing detailed, proprietary information about their charging infrastructure (type, speed, real-time status), Choice can establish unmatched authority in a niche that competitors and OTAs currently neglect.
Internal Data Sources
Leverage data on charger type (Level 2, DC Fast), kW output, connector count, real-time status via a ChargePoint API partnership, and average charger utilization rates from IoT meters.
Estimated Number of Pages
~6,600
Launch dedicated "Work-from-Hotel" pages for properties with verified high-speed internet, detailing speeds and workspace amenities. This strategy attracts high-value digital nomads and corporate remote teams by providing the one piece of information they care about most: reliable, fast Wi-Fi.
Example Keywords
- "hotel with 200 Mbps WiFi in [city]"
- "remote work friendly hotel near [neighborhood]"
- "streamer friendly hotel room [state]"
- "hotel with good wifi for zoom calls"
Rationale
The SERPs for "hotel Wi-Fi speed" are filled with anecdotal forum posts and unreliable third-party tests. By publishing verified, near-real-time speed data, Choice can instantly build trust and capture a market segment that makes booking decisions based on connectivity.
Topical Authority
Choice would be the first major hotel chain to offer this level of transparency, establishing itself as the leader for the modern remote worker. This builds authority and attracts valuable weekday bookings.
Internal Data Sources
Use hourly speed-test pings from property routers (collected by IT), guest surveys on desk ergonomics, and loyalty program data on day-use pass purchases.
Estimated Number of Pages
~3,000
Create thousands of landing pages targeting travelers attending events at specific venues like stadiums, convention centers, and national parks. This play intercepts high-intent, time-sensitive search traffic with a very high likelihood of conversion.
Example Keywords
- "hotels near Red Rocks Amphitheatre with shuttle"
- "hotel for CES Las Vegas 2026"
- "closest hotel to Ole Miss graduation"
- "hotels near Zion National Park east entrance"
Rationale
While Choice ranks for generic "hotel" terms, they are being outranked by OTAs for high-value, event-driven searches. This strategy reclaims that traffic by creating hyper-relevant pages that answer specific logistical questions (e.g., walking distance, shuttle info).
Topical Authority
Choice already has topical authority for lodging in these locations. This play deepens that authority by layering event and venue context, demonstrating a superior understanding of the traveler's specific needs.
Internal Data Sources
Leverage historical booking data to identify demand spikes around specific events and venues, providing unique context (e.g., "Rooms for this event sold out by March last year"). Also use shuttle schedules and parking policies.
Estimated Number of Pages
~4,000
Develop highly specific pet-friendly hotel guides that are segmented by city and animal size, including details on fees and local pet amenities. This play captures the large, emotionally-driven market of travelers who refuse to leave their pets behind.
Example Keywords
- "large dog friendly hotel Austin downtown"
- "cat friendly hotels near Seattle airport"
- "hotels that allow 80 lb dog Nashville"
- "pet fee free hotels in Portland OR"
Rationale
Competitors and OTAs offer generic "pet-friendly" filters, but travelers have more specific questions about weight limits, breed restrictions, and fees. By providing this granular detail, Choice can win the booking from this discerning audience.
Topical Authority
Choice has authority in lodging; this play extends it to the "pet travel" niche. By publishing proprietary policy data that is otherwise difficult to find, they become the most trusted resource.
Internal Data Sources
Use the detailed pet policy fields from the internal Property Management System (PMS), including maximum weight, breed restrictions, and specific pet fees for each hotel.
Estimated Number of Pages
~1,500
Improvements Summary
Optimize Quality Inn property pages by expanding keyword coverage, adding local content, and improving on-page elements. Implement schema markup, targeted FAQs, and internal linking to increase visibility for brand + city and related queries.
Improvements Details
Tasks include updating title tags and H1s with primary and secondary keywords, adding a local area section with internal links, and creating FAQ blocks marked up with schema. New blog content targeting 'things to do near [city]' and local landing pages for high-intent modifiers will support the main pages. Internal links from brand hubs and related properties, as well as improved image optimization and unique meta descriptions, are also recommended.
Improvements Rationale
These improvements address gaps in semantic keyword coverage, local relevance, and structured data, which currently allow OTAs and competitors to outrank the property pages. By targeting additional search intents and strengthening internal signals, the pages are expected to move from page 2 to top-7 positions, capturing more organic traffic and direct bookings.
Appendix
| Keyword | Volume | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| best seo tools | 5.0k | 3 |
| seo strategy | 4.0k | 5 |
| keyword research | 3.5k | 2 |
| backlink analysis | 3.0k | 4 |
| on-page optimization | 2.5k | 1 |
| local seo | 2.0k | 6 |
| Page | Traffic | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| /seo-tools | 5.0k | 100 |
| /keyword-research | 4.0k | 100 |
| /backlink-checker | 3.5k | 80 |
| /site-audit | 3.0k | 60 |
| /rank-tracker | 2.5k | 50 |
| /content-optimization | 2.0k | 40 |
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