A Hotel Giant Just Bought Harvest Hosts for $130 Million. Here’s What It Means for Your Membership.

Choice Hotels, the company behind Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and more than 7,500 hotels, announced on September 30 that it is buying Harvest Hosts, the membership network that lets RVers and van campers stay overnight at wineries, farms, breweries and other small businesses, in an all-cash deal valued at about $130 million. The deal was announced in a press release and is expected to close on October 1, pending the usual closing conditions.

Harvest Hosts says nothing changes for members for now. In a member notice published the same day, the company wrote that “no changes to the member experience are currently planned,” that members will “continue to use the same website and app,” and that “there are no current plans to change membership pricing, benefits, or terms because of the acquisition.”

Here is what was announced, what Harvest Hosts told its members and hosts, what the deal says about where outdoor travel is going, and the one word in the member notice worth reading twice.

What’s Going on with Harvest Hosts?

According to the press release, Choice Hotels International is acquiring Harvest Hosts from Stripes, a growth-equity firm, and other shareholders at an enterprise value of about $130 million, paid in cash from cash on hand and borrowings on its revolving credit line. Choice said the purchase is not expected to materially affect its 2026 results.

Harvest Hosts brings with it what the release calls its “family of brands”: Boondockers Welcome, the driveway-stay network it bought in 2021; Escapees RV Club, the long-running membership club for full-time RVers; CampScanner, the campground-availability alert tool; and Brit Stops, the British equivalent of Harvest Hosts. Together the network counts more than 11,200 host locations, per the release.

Skift reported that Harvest Hosts has about 500,000 members, that memberships run from $99 to $179 a year, that members have spent more than $200 million at host businesses since the network began in 2010, and that Stripes bought the company for $37 million in 2021. Skift also noted this is the first acquisition under Choice CEO Dom Dragisich and the hotel franchisor’s first move outside hotels.

Joel Holland, who has owned and run Harvest Hosts since 2018, stays on as CEO with the existing leadership team, both the release and the company’s own acquisition notice say. “The heart and soul of Harvest Hosts is the unique connections we have built,” Holland said in the release.

What Harvest Hosts told its members

The company published two notices on its support site the day of the announcement. The first explains the deal; the second is a member Q&A. The substance, in the company’s own words:

• “Harvest Hosts will continue to operate as a standalone business within the Choice Hotels portfolio,” under the same brand name.
• “No changes to the member experience are currently planned.” The product, the host relationships and the member experience are “preserved.”
• “Yes,” members keep the same website and app. “For members and Hosts, it is business as usual.”
• “Choice is not announcing any product, loyalty, or systems integration as part of this transaction.” A Harvest Hosts membership does not become part of Choice Privileges, and Choice Privileges members do not automatically become Harvest Hosts members.
• “There are no current plans to change membership pricing, benefits, or terms because of the acquisition.”
• “No jobs are expected to be impacted,” and Harvest Hosts stays an “asset-light membership business”: it is not buying campgrounds.

The notice also gives Choice’s reason for buying. About two million Choice Privileges members have taken an RV trip in the past year, the company says, and it wants to “expand into outdoor and RV travel while supporting the continued growth of a distinctive membership business and community.”

The word to read twice is “currently”

Every reassurance in the member notice is time-stamped. No changes are “currently planned.” There are “no current plans” to change pricing. Choice “is not announcing” an integration “as part of this transaction.” That is normal language for the day a deal is announced, and it is honest: it promises what is true today and nothing past it. It is also not a promise that the annual price stays where it is in two years, or that a Choice Privileges tie-in never arrives. Members who want the current price locked in can renew on the current terms; the notice says the terms are unchanged.

Why a hotel company wants driveways and vineyards

Choice is late to a pattern, not early. Skift listed the others: Hilton bought AutoCamp, Hyatt bought Under Canvas, and Marriott bought Postcard Cabins and Trailborn. The big hotel groups have spent the last few years buying the places their loyalty members go when they do not book a hotel. Harvest Hosts is the version of that for people who already own their bed on wheels: Choice gets a database of half a million RVers and a product it can put in front of two million more, without owning a single campsite.

For hosts, the small businesses that let a camper park for the night in exchange for a visit to the tasting room or the farm stand, the company says the relationships are preserved. Whether a network built on “a pay-it-forward spirit,” as Boondockers Welcome has always described itself, keeps that character inside a public hotel company is the question nobody can answer on day one.

Our take on the Harvest Hosts buyout

Our family members have used and loved Harvest Hosts for years, and we recommend them in our guide to where to park a van overnight and our piece on how Boondockers Welcome works. Nothing in this announcement changes that advice today: the app works, the hosts are there, the price is the price you see.

Our honest read is that the next two renewals will tell the story. If the membership holds its price and the host list keeps growing, this is good news for RVers, because a bigger owner can afford to recruit more hosts. If the price climbs toward what the hotel loyalty crowd will pay, the value-minded traveler Choice says it is courting will notice first. We will update this article when anything in the member terms actually changes.

Sources

• Choice Hotels press release, September 30, 2026 (PR Newswire)
• Harvest Hosts: Information about the Harvest Hosts acquisition
• Harvest Hosts: What does the acquisition mean for our members
• Skift: Choice Hotels Buys RV Club Harvest Hosts for $130 Million, September 30, 2026
• Hotel Dive: Choice Hotels to acquire Harvest Hosts, September 30, 2026
• RV Travel: Choice Hotels to acquire Harvest Hosts, Escapees in $130 million deal, September 30, 2026

Facts checked October 1, 2026, the day after the announcement. The member terms quoted are the ones Harvest Hosts published that day; we will update this article if they change.