A typical day for Fletcher: back-to-back meetings with staff and
vendors; a quick phone call while grabbing coffee.
COMMUNITY
JAVA TECH
SNAPSHOT
CHOICE HOTELS
INTERNATIONAL
choicehotels.com
Headquarters:
Silver Spring, Maryland
Industry:
Hospitality
Revenue:
US$642 million in FY 2010
Employees:
1,800 (U.S. only)
Java version used:
Java Development Kit 6
That’s why Choice Hotels, one of the
world’s largest lodging chains, was intrigued
by the prospect of adding Google to its portfolio of distribution partners. The Web search
giant asked Choice to participate in a new
information service that it was developing for
its popular Google Maps and Google Places
services. The new service, launched in July
2011, displays real-time hotel room availability and rates alongside location maps.
“If you go to maps.google.com or even just
google.com and search for hotels in Phoenix
or Los Angeles, for instance, you’ll get a map
with pinpoints with letters—A, B, C, D—next
to them,” explains Fletcher. “The letters cor-
respond to a hotel that’s on the nav [naviga-
tion] bar at left. The nav bar displays informa-
tion about that hotel, including the name,
location, and star rating. Then there’s a little
drop-down box that shows you the hotel
and the rate for that hotel from a number of
different sources. If you click on the link for
Choice Hotels, it takes you to our Website to
book that specific hotel.”
That link is a “deep” click-through that
brings potential customers directly to Choice’s
own Website—where, it is hoped, they will
book a room. According to
Fletcher, Java was uniquely
suited as the language and
platform to create this unique,
innovative service.
ABOUT US
THE CORE OF CHOICE
Founded in 1939 and based in Silver Spring,
Maryland, with IT operations in Phoenix,
Arizona, Choice Hotels is one of the lead-
ing lodging companies in
the world. Structured on the
franchise model, the chain
has more than 6,000 hotels
in the U.S. and in more than
30 countries around the
globe. What began as a chain
of motels has blossomed into
Choice’s 11 brands, which
range from budget Econo
Lodge and Rodeway Inns and
EARLY DAYS
Choice started out as a
loose affiliation of seven
independent motel
owners
