North Bethesda, Maryland-based hotel franchiser Choice Hotels International has reached an agreement with Tesla that will allow franchise operators to install Tesla Universal electric vehicle charging stations at its hotels, including Radisson, Cambria, Comfort, Country Inn & Suites, Quality Inn and other Choice brands.
Choice is well-suited for EV charging stations for guests, perhaps more than most hotels.
According to Choice, 82% of its room nights in 2022 were occupied by guests who drove to the hotel. About 90% of Choice-branded properties in the U.S. are in suburban, interstate and small-town locations, with 76% located within one mile of a highway entrance.
Choice’s Cambria brand already offers EV charging stations at 41% of its properties and will offer them at all Cambria Hotel properties by the end of this year. Choice said Cambria guests rank EV charging as one of the top three sustainability priorities when booking a hotel.
Choice franchises more than 7,500 hotels across 22 brands.
Tesla has made charging partnerships with several hotel chains, most recently with McLean Virginia-based Hilton Worldwide, to install 20,000 charging stations at 2,000 of its properties in North America.
The Tesla universal charging walls are not specific to just Tesla vehicles.
When Hilton announced the partnership last fall, it said EV charging stations are now the second-most searched-for hotel amenity.
Hotels are ideal charging points for EV drivers who stay overnight. A survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association last fall found only about a quarter of hotel properties currently have EV charging stations on property, though more are adopting them and the rate of adoption varies by city. In San Jose, 66.1% of hotels have EV charging stations, whereas in the D.C. metro, the stations are available at 44.1% of area hotels.
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