Franchisees in the Choice Hotels Australasia network are now able to outsource the management of their hotels to a professional company after the hotel chain joined forces with the Australian owned Lancemore Group, the largest boutique hotel and conference venue operator in Victoria.

Trent Fraser, CHA’s chief executive officer, said the move will cement the hotel franchise group as pre-eminent in the region.

“We see our new relationship as a great opportunity for independent or institutional property owners or investors to leverage off the established network of over 270 Choice Hotels properties in this region and the long established, service oriented, family owned and operated management company which Lancemore Group brings to the table.”

The agreement is expected to help build the franchise portfolio not just in Australia but in New Zealand and Singapore.

“We believe there is strong demand for existing owners of hotel assets to consider a more personalised approach to the management of their properties and with the Lancemore Group we can now certainly provide that,” said Fraser.

The Lancemore Group’s CEO Julian Clark said “We recently decided to expand our hotel management offering into management in conjunction with a franchise agreement as it is a globally proven model that is rarely employed in Australia.

“This is a separate business from our current boutique hotel and conference hotel offerings and we see significant growth in this model. The power of this relationship is that it is a win for all stakeholders,” said Clark.