Choice Hotels International is acquiring Harvest Hosts, the largest private RV camping membership network in North America, for approximately $130 million in an all-cash transaction set to close October 1, 2026. The deal gives Choice Hotels, which operates more than 7,500 properties across 22 brands, a direct foothold in outdoor travel — and hands the company a subscription-platform asset it can wire into its Choice Privileges loyalty program.
The Platform Play
Harvest Hosts operates as a SaaS-adjacent membership business: members pay an annual fee for unlimited overnight access across more than 11,200 host locations — wineries, farms, breweries, museums, and other local attractions — with no per-night camping fees. The company's portfolio also includes Escapees RV Club, peer-hosting network Boondockers Welcome, campground-alert tool CampScanner, and UK-Ireland motorhome service Brit Stops. That ecosystem of digital travel tools makes Harvest Hosts less a campground operator and more a data-rich membership platform, with recurring subscription revenue and a growing community of highly engaged users.
For Choice Hotels, the strategic logic runs through loyalty analytics. Internal research shows Choice Privileges members over-index as RV travelers — meaning the franchisor already holds behavioral and transactional data on a customer segment that actively uses Harvest Hosts-style products. Connecting those datasets across a unified loyalty architecture could sharpen personalization, lift cross-category booking, and expand lifetime customer value without adding a single owned asset to the balance sheet.
Asset-Light, Data-Heavy
The $130 million enterprise value, funded through cash on hand and draws on Choice's revolving credit facility, fits the company's stated asset-light portfolio strategy. Harvest Hosts will continue operating as a standalone brand under CEO Joel Holland, who is staying on alongside the full leadership team. That structure mirrors how other hotel holding companies have managed direct-to-consumer digital acquisitions — preserving community and brand equity while absorbing subscription and member data into a parent loyalty stack.
Dom Dragisich, President and CEO of Choice Hotels International, called Harvest Hosts' asset-light model a deliberate fit: "They have done it through an asset-light model that complements our broader portfolio strategy." The deal does not materially impact Choice's 2026 financial results and leaves its share-repurchase program unchanged.
The competitive context matters here. As hotel loyalty programs compete with OTAs and alternative-accommodation platforms for traveler attention, adding a subscription membership layer offers a differentiated retention mechanism — one that keeps members inside the Choice ecosystem even when they are not booking a traditional hotel room. Platforms like Airbnb and Hipcamp have long capitalized on outdoor and alternative lodging demand; Choice's acquisition of Harvest Hosts signals that legacy franchisors are moving to close that gap through M&A rather than organic product development.
For operators and industry technologists, the more interesting near-term question is integration depth: how aggressively Choice will connect Harvest Hosts' reservation and membership data to the Choice Privileges CRM, and whether Harvest Hosts' alert and booking tools — like CampScanner — eventually plug into Choice's broader digital ordering and reservation technology stack. Operators tracking loyalty-platform consolidation in hospitality should watch this deal as a template for how franchise-heavy chains extend digital engagement beyond their core room-night product.
Jefferies LLC advised Harvest Hosts on the transaction; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal counsel. Choice Hotels was advised by ArentFox Schiff LLP.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
