February 24, 2004

Choice Hotels Reports Solid Growth for Flag Choice

Strong Brands and HotelPass Contribute to Successful 2003

Silver Spring, MD -— Choice Hotels International, Inc. CHH reports strong sales growth for its Australia based master partner, Flag Choice Hotels, which showed a 10% increase in room revenue to franchisees from its successful HotelPass program. HotelPass enables visitors to pre-purchase open-dated vouchers for hotel accommodations at any Comfort Inn, Quality, or Clarion brand in Australia and New Zealand.

Choice

Updated February 29, 2004

"The success of the HotelPass program is particularly pleasing and further underlines the Flag Choice Hotels' positioning as Australia's leading hotel franchising operation," said Brent Russell, president and CEO of Flag Choice. "Travelers around the world recognize the benefits of staying at Comfort Inn, Quality and Clarion brands, making the HotelPass more appealing to travelers planning to visit the region."

Flag Choice reported other strong performers in 2003 with its Internet site up 20 percent, travel agent GDS up 20 percent and its central call center located in Melbourne, up by 2.5 percent. Flag Choice also finished the year ahead of schedule in system growth, signing up 40 new Comfort Inn, Quality and Clarion hotels across the region.

"We've hit the ground running and with everything pointing to leisure and business travel bouncing back this year we're looking forward to posting even better numbers for our franchisees and brands in 2004," concluded Russell.

Flag Choice Hotels representing Comfort Inn, Quality, Clarion and Flag offers more than 330 hotels, inns, suites, resorts and apartments located across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, American Samoa and Singapore.

Choice Hotels International is one of the world's largest lodging franchisors, marketing more than 5,000 hotels open or under development in 44 countries and territories under the Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn brand names. For more information on Choice, visit the company's web site at www.choicehotels.com.

Choice Hotels, Choice Hotels International, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep Inn, MainStay Suites, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn are proprietary trademarks and service marks of Choice Hotels International.