New Delhi, Aug. 4: Choice Hotels India, a franchisee of Choice Hotels International, has launched three hotels under its mid-price segment across the country.

Slated to cater largely to business travellers, three new properties will come up in Pune, Manali and Thiruvananthapuram.

The 40-room Quality Inn River Country in Manali is a new construction for families on vacation as well as conferences. An interesting feature of the hotel is the tea lounge opening out into the gardens. Adding a new destination in its network, the chain has built Quality Inn Centurion Hotel in Pune. Claimed to be a 55-room boutique hotel, it will offer two specially-designed floors of quality club rooms with enhanced value.

The third location is the Comfort Inn Grand at M. G. Road in Thiruvananthapuram. The property also offers overnight stay to leisure travellers proceeding to nearby destinations. The well-known Sangeetha chain of restaurants (popular all across South India) operates in the hotel.

Choice Hospitality India is a master franchisee of Choice Hotels International for their worldwide brands — Clarion, Quality Inn, Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn for India.

Choice Hotels International, headquartered in Washington DC, was established in 1939. It now has a chain of over 5,000 hotels across 46 countries.

Choice Hospitality India was established in 1987 with the objective of setting up professionally managed mid-market franchisee hotels. It started operations with two hotels, increasing it to 12 in 1999. The chain operates 25 hotels with seven other scheduled to come up later.

The Edenpark Hotels, which took over the four-star Qutab in Delhi last year, is the first Clarion Luxor hotel in the country.

Company officials said with India taking on the budget and mid-segment hotel market aggressively (largely due to increasing demand for hotel rooms) the expansion was needed.