Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS)

Long-time industry veteran Bob Hazard will be honored with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS), January 26-28, 2015, in Los Angeles. Hazard served as chairman, president, and CEO of Choice Hotels International from 1980 to 1996. During that period, he and his team grew Choice from a regional group of 339 Quality Inns into a six-brand, global hotel company with more than 3,800 inns, hotels, and resorts, offering over 330,000 guest rooms in 43 countries. Additionally, the value of Choice Hotels rose from $15 million in 1980 to over a billion dollars when the company went public in 1996 on the NY Stock Exchange.

Hazard is credited in the hotel industry as "The Father of Hotel Segmentation." Under his leadership, Choice became the first hotel company to offer multiple brand names at different price points with the introduction of limited-service, luxury-budget, and new construction Comfort Inns in 1980. This was followed by the addition of Sleep Inns, Comfort Suites, Quality Suites, and Clarion Inns, Hotels and Resorts, and later Econolodge and Rodeway Inns. This same multi-brand strategy later became the preferred business model for other hotel franchisors like Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, InterContinental, Carlson, and Wyndham. Additional Choice innovations included becoming the first hotel company to set aside a mandatory block of "no smoking" rooms in all its hotels, and Sleep Inns as the first brand to use magnetic cards to replace metal room keys.

Hazard served for seven years as CEO of Best Western International prior to joining Choice. His management team grew that organization from 800 aging roadside motels to over 2,900 hotels, inns, and resorts worldwide, surpassing Holiday Inns as the largest lodging chain in the world in number of inns.

Hazard was actively involved in the American Hotel and Lodging Association and the only two-time winner of the New York Hospitality Conference Silver Plate Award.

"We are very pleased to be presenting the ALIS Lifetime Achievement Award to Bob Hazard. He not only succeeded in growing great companies, but he changed the lodging industry forever with his keen understanding of market segmentation and creating products that best serve them," said Jim Burba, ALIS conference chair.

Co-hosted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and Burba Hotel Network (BHN), the two-and-a-half-day ALIS event features an extensive array of seminars and panels hosted by leading experts and investors discussing important trends and identifying new opportunities. The conference attracts the lodging industry's leading hotel executives, investors, lenders, developers and the professional advisory community. Proceeds from ALIS benefit the educational, research, and training missions of the American Hotel & Lodging Education Foundation (AH&LEF), AH&LA's nonprofit affiliate. For information on the Foundation, visit www.ahlef.org.

Early registration is $1,875 and ends September 30. Online registration is available via the ALIS Website. For general event information and sponsorship opportunities, contact BHN conference manager Jodi Braverman at [email protected].

AH&LEF is the charitable fund-raising and endowed fund-management subsidiary of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Founded in 1953, AH&LEF is the premier organization for scholarships, professional certification, and instructional material as well as funding for hospitality industry research.

BHN is the worldwide leader in developing and organizing conferences for the hotel and tourism investment community. With almost three decades of experience, nearly 120 events completed to-date, and over 80,000 international delegates, BHN conferences have become "must attend" events for industry leaders who come together to network, conduct business and to learn about the latest trends. BHN events include: the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles; ALIS Law in Los Angeles; ALIS Summer Update; Alternative Ownership Conference Asia Pacific (AOCAP) in Singapore; Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit (CHRIS) in Miami; Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) in Hong Kong; HICAP UPDATE in Singapore; Hotel Investment Forum India (HIFI) in Gurgaon Delhi N.C.R.; Hotel Opportunities Latin America (HOLA) conference in Miami; and Hotel Investment Conference Europe (Hot.E) in London.The BHN website at www.Burba.com is the gateway for information about the conferences BHN produces, as well as a direct link to important players in the hospitality investment world.

About the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA)

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) is the sole national association representing all segments of the U.S. lodging industry. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AHLA focuses on strategic advocacy, communications support and workforce development programs to move the industry forward. Learn more at www.ahla.com.

Rosanna Maietta
AH&LA