Recently La Quinta created a Brand Council to represent its franchisees and their concerns. This Council replaced the Franchise Advisory Council (FAC), which had consisted of seven franchisees and three executives from the La Quinta franchise department.

Choice advertises, “When you become a member of the Ascend Collection, you’re tapping into a worldwide reservation system that delivered more than $2 billion in gross room revenue in 2008.

As reported by columnist Janet Sparks in Franchise Times, October 2009, “The Federal Trade Commission’s 2009 annual report clearly states, 'combating fraud, deception and unfair practices in the marketplace is one of the FTC’s highest priorities’….But in the FTC 2009 report, there is no mention of 'franchising' under its consumer protection section

A quiet revolution in ethnicity has been taking place in the United States and Canada. If current demographic trends hold, the U.S. and Canada are changing to become more diverse racially and ethnically, and retailers will have to respond accordingly.

The senior citizen population is on the brink of an explosion in the United States and in the world. In June 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau released data that highlights the staggering news that the senior citizen population seems to be headed to a 40 percent increase during the next five years.