Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Choice Hotels International, Inc. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we'll have a question and answer session. Shareholders who have signed in using their control number can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the Q&A icon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Simone Wu, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and External Affairs of Choice Hotels International, Inc. Ms. Wu, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Choice Hotels International 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I'm Simone Wu, the company's Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Head of External Affairs, and we are very pleased to welcome everyone who has joined in. As was the case for last year, at the conclusion of the formal portion of the meeting, there will be a Q&A session with Pat Pacious, our President and CEO. Shareholders who have signed in using their control number can submit questions through the meeting portal, and we'll answer questions as time permits. I now call this meeting to order.
The Choice Hotels Board of Directors set March eighteenth, 2024, as the record date for this meeting, so only holders of shares of common stock at the close of business on the record date were entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. On the record date, there were 49,666,578 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote. Each of the 11 people standing for election to our board of directors today is present at the meeting, including our chairman, Stewart Bainum Jr., and our President and Chief Executive Officer, Pat Pacious. I would also like to welcome Jordan DiDona and Pam Masterson of Ernst & Young, the company's independent registered public accounting firm.
Jeff Lobb, our Deputy General Counsel, has been appointed as inspector and judge of the election, and Jeff has previously delivered his oath to the chairman. Jeff will now give us a report on attendance. Jeff?
Thanks, Simone. There's a total of 47,441,058 shares of the company's common stock present at this meeting, either in person or by proxy, and this represents approximately 96% of the outstanding common stock of the company. Therefore, a quorum is present, and this meeting is authorized to transact any business that may properly come before it.
Thank you, Jeff. We have delivered to the chairman for filing affidavits to the effect that on or about April 15, 2024, a notice of the annual meeting of shareholders, proxies, and the proxy statements were mailed to all shareholders of record on the record date. A complete list of shareholders who own shares of the company's common stock as of the record date, duly certified by the company's transfer agent, Computershare, is available for inspection by shareholders during this meeting on the meeting portal. It is now my pleasure to introduce Stewart Bainum, Chairman of the Board of Directors. In accordance with the bylaws of the company, Stewart will preside over the meeting. Mr. Chairman?
Thank you, Simone, and welcome all to Choice Hotels Annual Shareholders Meeting. Before we get right down to business, I wanna just thank Pat Pacious, and our entire team for all of their very, very smart and diligent work this past year, when they focused on creating significant value for our franchisees, our shareholders, and our associates. We're all in this together, and they focused really hard on driving down the cost of doing business for our franchisees, which benefits all of us. Let's get going right away and proceed to the business at hand. The polls are now open, and I'll introduce each item of business. First, just a quick housekeeping note, and this is pretty important.
If you previously sent in your proxy or have already voted by telephone or internet, you do not, you do not need to take any further action unless you wish to change your vote. Shareholders who have signed in using their control number and who have not yet voted or wish to change their votes, may do so by just clicking on the Vote icon on the meeting portal and following the instructions. Any votes received prior to the polls closing will be collected and delivered to our election inspector. We'll begin with the election of 11 directors. As Simone mentioned, all of whom are participating in this meeting. Each will serve a one-year term until the 2025 annual meeting, should they be elected today.
Before we move to the vote, I'd like to just express my deep appreciation and thanks to the current board members for their contributions, each of them provides to the company. It's an honor for me personally to serve alongside these women and men as the chair of the board. The board has nominated the following individuals for re-election. Brian Bainum, Bill Jews, Monte Koch , Liza Landsman, Pat Pacious, Irv Shames, Gordon Smith, Maureen Sullivan, John Tague, Donna Vieira, and me, Stewart Bainum. If you're interested in learning more about the backgrounds of any of these individuals or have questions at all about their qualifications, there is a lot of good information in our proxy statement. I'd suggest you take a look there. A majority of shares is required to elect the nominees for director.
Jeff, would you please report on the preliminary results of the voting, if you have them? I think you do have them.
I do. Thanks, Stewart. A majority of the shares represented at this meeting have voted in favor of each of the nominees for election to the Board, and therefore, each of those 11 named nominees are hereby elected for a one-year term that will expire at our next annual meeting in 2025.
So, Jeff, you say it's a majority, but is it a slim majority, or is it a large majority, or tell us where we're at here.
It's a fairly large majority, and we're still counting a few votes. It takes a long time to count 50 million votes, so I don't wanna give the exact percentages, but those will be available in the 8-K we file on Friday.
Well, how about just for me? Was it a comfortable margin for me?
It was pretty comfortable.
Okay. Sounds like you're qualifying it a bit. Okay, let's go on to the second item. The second item on our agenda is to approve the amendment to the restated certificate of incorporation to permit the exculpation of officers. Again, a majority of shares is required to approve the proposal. Jeff, give us a report on the preliminary results.
Thanks, Stewart. The amendment to the restated certificate of incorporation to permit exculpation of officers has been approved by a majority of the outstanding shares.
Okay. Thank you, sir. You're doing a good job so far. As required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the third item on our agenda is to seek a shareholder advisory vote regarding the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The vote is advisory, but even so, the board's compensation committee will consider the outcome of the vote as it continues to consider the company's executive compensation program. Again, majority of shares is requested. Jeff, I think you, you know, have some preliminary results for the report.
Thanks, Stewart. A majority of the shares represented at the meeting have voted in favor of this proposal. Therefore, the advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved.
Thanks, Jeff. The fourth item on our business agenda is to ratify the appointment registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending this year, ending December 31, 2024. Majority again is requested of shares. Jeff, please share the results.
A majority of the shares represented at this meeting have voted in favor of the proposal. Therefore, the appointment of Ernst & Young as Choice's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, has been ratified.
Thanks, Jeff. So folks, there's no other business that's been brought before the meeting, so the polls are now closed, and the formal business portion of the annual meeting is concluded. I wanna now turn things back over to Simone, who will facilitate the Q&A session with Pat.
Thank you, Stewart. As I previously mentioned, due to time limits, we may not be able to address every question that we receive, and I apologize in advance if we don't get to a question that you submit. Please note that Pat's remarks made in response to shareholder questions may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or other factors. We refer to the information contained on the slide on the webpage that contains more information about the risks that could impact our results. Before we begin the Q&A, Pat, would you like to make any general remarks?
I would, Simone, and thank you. First of all, just a warm welcome to all of the shareholders joining us today at today's meeting. We really appreciate your continued investment in Choice Hotels. You know, 2023 was a transformative year of accelerating growth for Choice. We exceeded the top end of our guidance for both adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. We grew full-year adjusted EBITDA to a record $540.5 million, which is a 13% year-over-year increase. We also grew full-year adjusted earnings per share to $6.11, which is a 16% year-over-year increase. These strong financial results are due to our successful strategy of adding hotels that generate higher royalties per unit. In fact, we drove higher than expected brand growth across our revenue intent segments in 2023.
Specifically, we generated a 1.4% increase in the number of domestic hotels in our upscale, midscale, and extended stay brands. Choice also proved its expertise in adding brands by completing the successful integration of the Radisson Hotels Americas business in 2023, which the team did within a year of the transaction. Choice is continuing to capitalize on its distinct growth strategy, its best-in-class franchise business delivery engine, and its world-class hotel conversion capability. And I'm happy to report that we carried our strong momentum into 2024, driving our first quarter performance to new levels. We increased Adjusted EBITDA by 17% year-over-year to $124.3 million, which is a Q1 record. We also grew adjusted earnings per share by 14% year-over-year to $1.28, also a Q1 record.
These strong results are due in part to the realization of substantial revenue synergies achieved through the Radisson Americas integration. You know, I recently returned from our annual convention in Las Vegas, which was one of our biggest and best ever, and as I told the thousands of franchisees in attendance, I have never been more optimistic about the future of Choice Hotels. We have a tremendous opportunity before us. STR projects U.S. demand for room nights in 2024 has increased by nearly 2%, and that's outpacing supply by a full percentage point. And that demand growth is expected to continue to outpace supply growth through 2026.
We now expect the total hotel demand to grow by 30% to $122 billion in 2028, and we believe our brands and our hotels are extraordinarily well positioned to capitalize on that growth in demand. We look forward to continuing to take our growth to the next level once again. With that, I just want to really pause here for a moment and thank our hardworking franchisees and our associates for making the growth and success of our brands and our company possible. Thank you as well to our esteemed board of directors for your support and your guidance. And thank you again to our shareholders for trust, for trusting Choice Hotels with your investment. And now I'm happy to answer any questions. Simone?
Thank you, Pat. Let's see. The first, first question: You made a recent announcement regarding Park Inn by Radisson. Can you tell us more about your plans for that brand?
Sure. We are very excited about the relaunch of Park Inn by Radisson. This is a conversion brand that is part of our revenue-intense brand portfolio, and it will be a premium value brand that slots in just below our Quality Inn brand. We're tailoring this brand really to appeal to that younger, value-conscious traveler, which we know is a growing demographic. And from a market opportunity perspective, there's approximately 20,000 independent hotels in the U.S. today that could fit the profile for this exciting brand opportunity. We've already seen strong interest, particularly at our convention, from potential hotel owners, and we're confident this brand has a really nice, long runway for growth in the coming years.
Thank you, Pat. Second question here. Can you talk about Choice's plans for international growth?
Sure. You know, if you look at our international business, last year was one of our most successful ever, particularly for international hotel development. You know, one of the key highlights was our agreement with Zenitude in France, which is gonna double our footprint in that country, which is really coming at an opportune time as the Summer Olympics approach. We also carried our momentum into this year. In Q1, we had another very strong quarter in which we drove international unit growth. We also drove increases in RevPAR, EBITDA, and guest satisfaction scores. And I like to say we're really putting the international in Choice Hotels International, and we're really poised as a company to continue gaining international market share as we go forward.
Thanks, Pat. I don't see any further questions at this time, and so that will conclude our Q&A session and today's meeting. Thank you again, everyone, for participating. We look forward to seeing you next year.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.