2020 was the year that our flagship Comfort brand returned to unit growth after its successful transformation, increasing its domestic system size by 2%.
2020 was also the year our extended stay segment rapidly expanded by 44 units to nearly 450 domestic hotels and the domestic pipeline for that segment alone reached over 315 hotels.
The segment now represents nearly 8% of our total domestic portfolio and strong developer interest reaffirms that our strategic commitment and continued investments in this highly cycle-resilient segment are driving a competitive advantage.
And finally, 2020 was a year of continued growth for our upscale portfolio, highlighted by an 8% growth of Cambria Hotels.
The brand now has a pipeline of nearly 80 hotels and is expected to accelerate its unit growth in 2021.
Our domestic, systemwide year-over-year RevPAR change surpassed the industry by nearly 17 percentage points for the full year, declining 30.7% from 2019.
Since the onset of the pandemic in mid-March, our performance has achieved sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement with our fourth quarter domestic systemwide RevPAR declining 25.1% from the same quarter of 2019.
In 2020 Choice Hotels grew RevPAR faster than our local competitors, increasing RevPAR index by over 5 percentage points through notable lifts in weekday and weekend RevPAR index.
Turning to 2021, we expect our momentum to continue into the first quarter, allowing Choice Hotels to further outperform the industry in the current environment.
More specifically, our website contribution increased by 150 basis points, ending the year with the three strongest months in 2020 while our loyalty program increased its contribution by 280 basis points quarter-over-quarter.
These results have helped drive RevPAR index share gains of over 600 basis points in the fourth quarter versus our local competitors, up significantly across all location types as reported by STR.
In the past 46 consecutive weeks through mid-February, we've observed significant RevPAR share gains against the competition, giving us further optimism about our future revenue trajectory.
We're especially pleased with the performance of our Comfort portfolio where our efforts to transform the brand have led to RevPAR index gains versus its local competitors of nearly 9 percentage points and a RevPAR change that was over 10 percentage points more favorable than the upper mid-scale chain scale in the fourth quarter.
The brand now has over 50 domestic hotels open or in the pipeline.
Our WoodSpring Suites brand achieved an average occupancy rate of 72% for full year 2020 and experienced year-over-year RevPAR growth of 2% in the month of December, a truly remarkable achievement given the current environment.
The brand's pipeline continues to expand and reached 150 domestic hotels at the end of 2020.
At the same time our Suburban extended stay brand experienced year-over-year occupancy gains in the fourth quarter and an over 40% increase in franchise agreements activity for the full year.
Our MainStay Suites mid-scale extended stay brand captured more than 20 percentage points in RevPAR index gains versus its local competitors both in the fourth quarter and full year and developer interest is growing.
Most recently we signed and on-boarded the largest multi-unit transaction in MainStay's history, 15 units which significantly increased the brand's presence in the segment.
Last year alone, the brand's portfolio expanded to 90 domestic hotels open and over 20% increase year-over-year and its pipeline has swelled to more than 140 domestic properties.
For full year 2020 Choice Hotels awarded nearly 110 extended stay franchise agreements, validating our strategic focus on this segment for both new construction and conversion opportunities.
I'd now like to turn to our upscale portfolio whose choicehotels.com contribution increased by nearly 500 basis points year-over-year in the fourth quarter and marked the strongest quarterly revenue share in 2020.
Our upscale Cambria Hotels brand continues its ongoing momentum, growing its portfolio size by 8% and its pipeline to nearly 80 domestic hotels, 19 of which were already under construction at year-end.
Developer interest in the brand remains high with 16 franchise agreements executed for the full year, including one-third of those awarded in the fourth quarter.
With nearly 300 hotels open around the globe Ascend Hotels outperformed the upscale segment in year-over-year fourth quarter RevPAR change by over 20 percentage points.
The brand also achieved RevPAR index gains of nearly 13 percentage points against its local competitors for the full year, further enhancing the brand's attractiveness to developers looking for a smart conversion opportunity.
For full year 2020 we awarded 427 new domestic franchise agreements of which over 70% were for conversion hotels.
In the fourth quarter alone, we executed 195 domestic agreements, of which over 70% were for conversions.
In fact, nearly 30% of total domestic franchise agreements we awarded in 2020 were for new construction contracts.
We recently announced the further expansion of our attractive upscale platform with the addition of 22 Penn National Gaming casino resort properties, representing nearly 7,000 rooms joining our Ascend Hotel Collection.
This strategic agreement will offer more than 47 million Choice Privileges members the opportunity to earn and redeem points at these Penn properties by booking their stay directly on choicehotels.com.
Throughout 2020 we conducted 49,000 individual consultations with hotel owners and operators that helped our franchisees remain open and continue serving guests.
Taking a closer look at our results, for full year 2020 total revenues, excluding marketing and reservation system fees, were $371.5 million, $88 million of which was generated in the fourth quarter and adjusted EBITDA totaled $241.1 million, $54.7 million of which was generated in the fourth quarter.
And our adjusted EBITDA margin for full year 2020 was 65%.
As a result, our adjusted earnings per share were $2.22 and $0.51 for full year 2020 and the fourth quarter respectively.
Our domestic systemwide RevPAR outperformed the overall industry by nearly 17 percentage points for the full year, declining 30.7% from the prior year.
Our fourth quarter 2020 domestic systemwide RevPAR surpassed the industry by nearly 26 percentage points, declining 25.1% from the same period of the prior year and improved by 370 basis points from the third quarter.
In addition, our results exceeded the primary chain scale segments in which we compete as reported by STR by over 5 percentage points for full year 2020 and nearly 8 percentage points for the fourth quarter.
Specifically, our upscale portfolio increased relative to its local competitive set by over 12 percentage points.
Our extended stay portfolio outperformed the industry's RevPAR change by an impressive 49 percentage points and grew versus its local competitive sets by 14 percentage points.
And finally the RevPAR change for our mid-scale and upper mid-scale portfolio exceeded these segments by 10 percentage points.
For full-year 2020 all of our select service brands achieved significant RevPAR index gains versus their local competitors with each of our upscale and extended stay brands experiencing share gains of more than 10 percentage points.
In fact, we were able to increase our overall RevPAR index against local competitors by over 600 basis points in the fourth quarter through notable lifts in both continued occupancy gains and our franchisees' ability to maintain rate integrity.
More specifically, our average daily rate index increased 2.4 percentage points.
Across our more revenue intense brands in the upscale, extended stay and mid-scale segments we observed stronger unit growth, increasing the number of hotels by 1.8% year-over-year.
We're especially pleased to report that following the completion of its brand transformation the Comfort brand family returned to growth in 2020, increasing the number of domestic units by 2% year-over-year.
The brand reached over 260 hotels in its domestic pipeline one quarter of which are hotels awaiting conversion, which we believe will fuel the brand's growth in the near term.
The Company's domestic effective royalty rate increased 7 basis points year-over-year to 4.98% in the fourth quarter and grew 8 basis points for full year 2020 compared to the prior year.
In fact, we reduced our net debt by approximately $50 million during the fourth quarter and are pleased to report cash flow from operations of over $115 million for 2020, over $45 million of which was generated in the fourth quarter alone despite the historically lower seasonal demand environment.
At the end of last year, the Company had approximately $835 million in cash and available borrowing capacity through its revolving credit facility.
Our strong results relative to the industry and the chain scales in which we compete since the onset of the pandemic as well as our adjusted SG&A cost savings of 21% realized throughout 2020 gave us confidence to make certain investments in the fourth quarter to position the Company for success in 2021 and beyond.
The ultimate and precise impact of the pandemic on our business for 2021 and beyond remains largely unknown as is the exact trajectory of our industry's recovery.
In fact, our year-to-date 2021 RevPAR has declined by approximately 18% from the same period of 2020.

Summary:
Since the onset of the pandemic in mid-March, our performance has achieved sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement with our fourth quarter domestic systemwide RevPAR declining 25.1% from the same quarter of 2019.
Turning to 2021, we expect our momentum to continue into the first quarter, allowing Choice Hotels to further outperform the industry in the current environment.
As a result, our adjusted earnings per share were $2.22 and $0.51 for full year 2020 and the fourth quarter respectively.
Our fourth quarter 2020 domestic systemwide RevPAR surpassed the industry by nearly 26 percentage points, declining 25.1% from the same period of the prior year and improved by 370 basis points from the third quarter.
The ultimate and precise impact of the pandemic on our business for 2021 and beyond remains largely unknown as is the exact trajectory of our industry's recovery.