Choice Hotels International has announced six new AI-powered tools and platforms for its franchise owners, designed to automate revenue management, group sales, front-desk operations, and business-travel booking. The rollout includes a self-service booking platform for small businesses, an AI-enhanced group RFP tool, a virtual assistant for hotel staff, a next-generation rate management tool, and two enterprise-grade AI agent frameworks built with AWS and Salesforce.
The six tools
Choice Hotels Business Direct – launching next week, this is a self-service digital booking platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It lets SMBs create travel policies, gives travel managers visibility into employee travel behavior, and provides rewards for both travelers and companies. The goal is to capture more midweek demand from the SMB segment.
EasyBid and EasyBid Plus – an AI-enhanced group Request for Proposals (RFP) tool. EasyBid lets hotels manage and monitor group RFP opportunities in one place and submit faster responses. EasyBid Plus goes further: Choice Hotels responds to RFPs directly on behalf of owners, at no additional cost, targeting high-quality group leads. This is aimed at properties without dedicated sales teams or during high RFP volume.
CHARLIE – an AI-powered virtual “teammate” that works within Choice Hotels’ core operating platforms. It acts as a 24/7 digital coach, responding to staff questions, surfacing insights, and reinforcing brand standards. Choice says it plans to expand CHARLIE’s ability to execute routine tasks.
RAISE – a next-generation rate management tool, launching soon. It is designed to simplify pricing, rates, and inventory workflows, using AI to source relevant information as market conditions shift. The tool was built with input from franchise owners.
AgentCore – a secure, reusable foundation for intelligent agents, built with Amazon Web Services (AWS). It enables Choice to scale agentic capabilities across teams while supporting governance and enterprise requirements.
AgentForce – a platform for building and deploying AI agents across sales, service, marketing, commerce, and internal operations, built with Salesforce. It is designed to automate, accelerate, and scale workflows.
What it does
Together, these tools aim to turn every hotel into a self-optimizing node within Choice’s franchise network. The company has been using AI for over a decade, but this is its largest coordinated push to embed generative decision logic directly into the property-management stack. The stated goals are to help owners drive more revenue, improve operating efficiency, and prepare for how AI will reshape travel discovery and booking.
Tradeoffs
Choice Hotels is a franchisor, not an operator. The tools are optional for franchisees, but the company is betting that the efficiency gains will lock in loyalty ahead of competitors like Marriott and Hilton, which have been slower to deploy integrated AI tools. The reliance on AWS and Salesforce for the agent frameworks means Choice is outsourcing some core infrastructure, though the company says AgentCore and AgentForce provide a “secure, reusable foundation” that supports governance.
When to use it
Franchise owners should evaluate these tools based on their specific pain points:
- Business Direct for properties that rely on midweek business travel.
- EasyBid / EasyBid Plus for hotels without dedicated sales teams or during high RFP volume.
- CHARLIE for reducing staff time spent searching for answers.
- RAISE for streamlining rate management.
- AgentCore / AgentForce are enterprise-level; most owners will interact with them through the other tools.
Bottom line
Choice Hotels is moving beyond isolated AI pilots to an integrated, enterprise-wide approach. The six tools cover the full range of hotel operations—from booking and pricing to group sales and staff support. For franchise owners, the immediate value is in reducing manual work and capturing demand that might otherwise go to competitors. The longer-term bet is that these tools will keep Choice properties visible and competitive as AI agents increasingly research and book travel on behalf of consumers.