Systemwide domestic RevPAR outperformed the industry by nearly 20 percentage points, declining only 28.8% from the third quarter of 2019.
With over 4,000 domestic hotels located within a mile of an interstate exit, our hotels are well positioned to serve travelers as they hit the open road.
And with over 2,000 domestic hotels near beaches and national parks, our hotels are also located in the right markets to capture growing demand from travelers who increasingly are looking to rediscover the great American outdoors.
More specifically, our website contribution increased by 400 basis points and our loyalty contribution increased by 120 basis points quarter-over-quarter.
For the past 34 weeks through October 31, we observed significant RevPAR share gains against the competition.
In the third quarter, all of our select service brands achieved material RevPAR index gains versus their local competitors, with each of our upscale and extended-stay brands experiencing share gains of over 10 percentage points.
Our upscale portfolio once again achieved impressive year-over-year growth in the third quarter, where we increased our domestic upscale room count by 33%.
Now with nearly 300 hotels around the globe and fast approaching its 200th domestic location, Ascend Hotels achieved the following performance in the third quarter: RevPAR change outperformance by over 26 percentage points versus the upscale segment; RevPAR share gains against local competitors of nearly 19 percentage points; and average daily rate index gains of approximately nine percentage points.
Choice Hotels brands in this cycle-resilient segment continue to outperform in this unprecedented environment, and our portfolio of over 420 extended-stay hotels grew 6% year-over-year in the third quarter.
Our WoodSpring Suites brand achieved an average occupancy rate of 77% in the third quarter, and the brand's monthly occupancy levels have remained north of 75% since the last week of June.
At the same time, our MainStay Suites mid-scale extended-stay brand gained more than 16 percentage points in RevPAR index versus its local competitors in the third quarter.
We remain optimistic about the growth potential of our extended-stay portfolio whose pipeline increased by 9% year-over-year in the third quarter.
Year-to-date through September, Choice has awarded over 40 extended-stay franchise agreements, demonstrating sustained interest in both new construction and conversion opportunities during a challenging time for the industry.
I'd now like to turn to our mid-scale segment, whose brands represent 2/3 of our total domestic portfolio and over half of the franchise agreements executed year-to-date.
And Clarion Pointe, a conversion brand extension of Clarion that launched less than two years ago, recently opened its 20th hotel in the U.S. and now has over 50 hotels open or in the pipeline, demonstrating its strong growth as the brand continues its coast-to-coast expansion.
Year-to-date, through the end of September, we have awarded over 230 new domestic franchise agreements, nearly 70% of which were for conversion hotels.
In the third quarter alone, we executed over 80 domestic agreements, of which nearly 3/4 were for conversions and over 40% of which were executed in the month of September.
Nearly 70% of our hotels have minority ownership.
Despite the pandemic, we have awarded and financially supported 17 franchise contracts with black and Hispanic entrepreneurs year-to-date.
For the third quarter of 2020, total revenues, excluding marketing and reservation system fees, were $103.6 million.
Adjusted EBITDA totaled $74.9 million representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of over 72% and adjusted earnings per share were $0.66.
Our domestic systemwide RevPAR for the third quarter outperformed the overall industry by nearly 20 percentage points, declining only 28.8% from the same quarter of 2019.
Specifically, the RevPAR change of our upscale portfolio exceeded that of the overall segment by 14 percentage points, and our upscale portfolio outperformed its local competitive set by over nine percentage points.
With average domestic systemwide occupancy rates of 74%, our extended-stay portfolio outperformed the industry's RevPAR change by an impressive 40 percentage points beating its local competitive set by 14 percentage points.
Our domestic systemwide occupancy rate has seen improvements since the trough of 28% that occurred back in early April.
Since the week of June 21 through late October, our average weekly occupancy rates have consistently exceeded 50%.
In addition, we continue to see gains in our average daily rate index, which was up 1.7 percentage points against local competitors in the third quarter.
Despite the challenging environment, we expanded our system size, growing the number of domestic hotels by 0.7% and rooms by 1.9% year-over-year.
Across our more revenue intense brands in the upscale, extended-stay and mid-scale segments, we experienced even greater growth, increasing the number of hotels by 2.1% and rooms by 3.4% year-over-year.
Comfort now represents nearly 1/3 of our total domestic pipeline, which will fuel revenue intense growth for years to come.
In addition, the brand's conversion pipeline increased by nearly 50% in the third quarter year-over-year.
The company's domestic effective royalty rate increased seven basis points year-over-year to 4.91% in the third quarter and has increased nine basis points year-to-date compared to the prior year.
In fact, we reduced our net debt by approximately $50 million during the third quarter and are proud to report cash flow from operations of $70 million for the nine months ended September 30, over $68 million of which was generated in the third quarter alone.
At the end of the third quarter, the company had over $790 million in cash and available borrowing capacity through our revolving credit facility.
We remain on track to achieve our previously announced SG&A cost savings of nearly 25% in 2020 and expect to maintain a run rate of SG&A cost savings of approximately 15% in 2021 and beyond.
The ultimate and precise impact of the pandemic on our business for the remainder of 2020 and beyond remains largely unknown, as is the exact trajectory of our industry's recovery.
While we are not issuing formal guidance today, we currently expect that the impact of COVID-19 on the company's year-over-year RevPAR change will be less significant for the fourth quarter versus the third quarter of this year.
In fact, we expect our October 2020 RevPAR to decline by approximately 25% from the same period of 2019.

Summary:
Systemwide domestic RevPAR outperformed the industry by nearly 20 percentage points, declining only 28.8% from the third quarter of 2019.
Adjusted EBITDA totaled $74.9 million representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of over 72% and adjusted earnings per share were $0.66.
Our domestic systemwide RevPAR for the third quarter outperformed the overall industry by nearly 20 percentage points, declining only 28.8% from the same quarter of 2019.
The ultimate and precise impact of the pandemic on our business for the remainder of 2020 and beyond remains largely unknown, as is the exact trajectory of our industry's recovery.
While we are not issuing formal guidance today, we currently expect that the impact of COVID-19 on the company's year-over-year RevPAR change will be less significant for the fourth quarter versus the third quarter of this year.