Vacation ownership and exchange company Wyndham Destinations has embarked on a five-year, US$1 billion investment focused on new resort developments and renovations, brand and marketing projects, customer relationship management and digital experience enhancements.
Among the bigger announcements this week from the company that became independent from Wyndham hotels last year is new brand identities for its flagship timeshare clubs – Club Wyndham and WorldMark by Wyndham.
Reports suggest Wyndham Destinations will spend as much as US$25 million on modernizing sales centers and US$10 million on new customer relations tools.
The company also just announced the grand opening of its newest resort in downtown Portland, Oregon as it moves to up its game in urban destinations to attract a younger crowd (over 60% of Wyndham Destinations new owners are millennials or Gen Xers). It has new resorts in New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco and will open in Nashville later this year.
“In order to reshape our brands and set the direction for the future of timesharing, we are leveraging the company’s size and scale to drive continued growth while using our capital efficient development approach to add new inventory and sales centers in locations travelers want to visit,” said Michael Brown, president and chief executive officer of Wyndham Destinations, which has returned nearly US$500 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases since the company was established in June 2018.
The new identities for Wyndham Destinations’ two largest timeshare products have been positioned as follows: Club Wyndham – Live Your Bucket List and WorldMark by Wyndham – More time to share. There are 220 Wyndham vacation club resorts and exchange at 4,300 affiliated resorts in 110 countries with the RCI exchange network.
“These new brands are our way to take back the word ‘timeshare.’ Not just with amazing visuals and content that evoke the spirit of unique vacations, but also with a real evolution of how we put people on vacation every day,” said Noah Brodsky, chief brand officer for Wyndham Destinations.
The re-branding effort was managed in partnership with global branding firm Siegel+Gale. “With Club Wyndham and WorldMark by Wyndham, our goal was to define and develop new brand experiences that owners could connect to, and, very importantly, a clear and focused way for Wyndham to sell them to different targets,” said Daniel Golden, group strategy director at global branding firm, Siegel+Gale. “Through an immersive program that included property tours, sales center visits, leadership interviews and owner focus groups, we developed a go-to-market strategy and new visual identity to help them deploy their brands effectively and consistently.”