Choice Hotels International Celebrates National Waffle Day

SILVER SPRING, Md., Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For guests of the 2000 Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites franchised hotels across the U.S., waffles hit the sweet spot, according to a new breakfast preference poll.  The survey, conducted by Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), which franchises the Comfort branded hotels, revealed two-thirds of respondents like to eat waffles for breakfast with 87% voicing their vote for flavored options.*

Given such popularity of the golden grid-marked hotcakes, Choice Hotels International is proudly joining the ranks of waffle enthusiasts across the country by celebrating National Waffle Day on August 24th.

"People love our waffles.  Not just the taste and texture, but even the warm and welcoming aroma they give our breakfast room," says Christina Goldie Williamson, Senior Director of Brand Strategy for Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites.  "That's why when we refreshed our breakfast offerings at our Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites hotels last year, offering guests a choice of waffle flavors topped our list of enhancements.  Last year, at Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites hotels, we served approximately 25 million hot waffles to our guests.  That's about 2,800 miles of waffles.  Placed side by side, that trail of waffles would stretch from New York to Los Angeles." 

While wildly popular, waffles at Comfort brand hotels are just one tasty component of the brand's famous, free and recently enhanced Your Morning Breakfast program, which includes eggs, sausage or bacon, fresh fruit and more. 

In the spirit of National Waffle Day, Choice Hotels is learning more about how guests enjoy their waffles to make this crowd pleasing buffet item even better.  Participating Comfort branded hotels offer several flavors including blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip, pecan, cinnamon and multigrain.  The poll showed the vast majority of breakfast buffs enjoy the added variety of flavored waffles, with votes stacked up in favor of blueberry.  Multigrain is a close second.  Strawberry and chocolate chip tied for third place.  The clear condiment winners are syrup and butter.  

Further, breakfast almost ties with dinner as respondents' favorite meal of the day with many people saying they enjoyed snacking on breakfast foods at least twice a week.  Other popular breakfast items include eggs and bacon.

For those who want to have fun with food, Choice Hotels also launched an app called "Waffle Me" which allows users to morph images of themselves into waffles!  It can be found on the Comfort Inn brand website at:  http://www.comfortinn.com/en/waffle-me

Methodology

Choice Hotels International conducted a brief online survey of 2,114 recent Choice Hotels guests from August 10-14 2012.  A random sample of qualifying Choice Hotels guests (those who made one or more stays from June 9-July 9, 2012 and had valid email addresses) were invited to participate in the survey.

About Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels International, Inc. franchises approximately 6,200 hotels, representing more than 495,000 rooms, in the United States and more than 30 other countries and territories. As of June 30, 2012, more than 375 hotels were under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development in the United States, representing more than 30,000 rooms, and approximately 75 hotels, representing approximately 6,700 rooms, were under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development in approximately 15 other countries and territories. The company's Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands, as well as its Ascend Hotel Collection membership program, serve guests worldwide.

Additional corporate information may be found on the Choice Hotels International, Inc. website, which may be accessed at www.choicehotels.com.

Choice Hotels, Choice Hotels International, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and Ascend Hotel Collection are proprietary trademarks and service marks of Choice Hotels International.

(C) 2012 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.