Choice Hotels International's Patrick Pacious has stepped down as president and CEO, the company announced Wednesday.

Pacious was named CEO in 2017 and has been at Choice for more than two decades. He will stay on in an advisory role to the end of August as transition support.

“Leading Choice Hotels has been the greatest privilege of my career,” Pacious said in a statement. “Together, we have built a higher-quality portfolio of hotels, a more accretive, diverse pipeline, and a capital-light model that enables the Company to capture significant opportunities ahead.”

Pacious' departure was an “amicable” split from the company and had been in the works for some time, Truist Securities Managing Director of Lodging and Leisure Equity Research C. Patrick Scholes told CoStar News.

Choice Hotels posted $340.6M in revenue in the first quarter, beating analyst estimates of $332.4M, according to Yahoo Finance. But its revenue per available room and average daily rate were both down slightly over 2% year-over-year, to $45 and $88, respectively. Occupancy figures also dropped over the last year.

The company's stock dropped to $99 per share on the day of the earnings call from $117 the previous day. It has bounced back a bit since then and was up about 14% year to date, to $109, as of Thursday.

The board of directors has appointed Chief Growth and Strategy Officer Dominic Dragisich as Choice's interim CEO. The company will conduct a search for a permanent replacement that considers internal and external candidates, the company said in a release.

Dragisich is considered a strong candidate for the permanent role, CoStar reported.

Choice Hotels' portfolio encompasses 22 brands with more than 7,500 hotels and 650,000 rooms globally.