CHOICE HOTELS INTERNATIONAL will announce its second quarter earnings on Aug. 6. That quarter saw the COVID-19 pandemic hit full swing and Choice has seen mixed results during that crisis.
The second quarter results will be released prior to the market opening Thursday. A conference call with Patrick Pacious, president and CEO, and Dominic Dragisich, CFO will be held at 11:30 a.m. ET. There also will be a live webcast on the company’s investor relations website and a recording of the earnings call will be available by 3 p.m. ET the day of the call.
Earlier in July, Choice announced that, because of reduced consumer demand during the pandemic it would lay off U.S. corporate employees who had previously been furloughed. The number of employees was not made clear by the company, but it has reduced its global workforce by more than 20 percent through a combination of layoffs and furloughs since the beginning of the first quarter, including the most recent layoffs.
A hiring freeze remains in place for all non-critical positions globally, one of several steps the company took in early April to compensate for losses stemming from the COVID-19 downturn. Other steps included wage reductions for executive staff and cuts in discretionary capital expenditures.
“Given the broad-based uncertainty of the current environment, we have taken decisive actions over the past several weeks to position the company for changing market dynamics and enhanced our financial flexibility to sustain the long-term health of the business,” Pacious said at the time.
The second quarter has not been all bad news for the company. In June it reported that its extended-stay brands, WoodSpring Suites and Suburban Extended Stay in the economy segment, MainStay Suites and Everhome Suites in midscale, were seeing higher occupancy than the rest of the industry during the pandemic.
Also in the second quarter, a group of at least 60 Choice franchisees filed a lawsuit leveling serious accusations against the company. They include an allegation that the company exercises racial bias against Indian American owners.
