After achieving several milestones globally in 2022, driven by the travel and hospitality sectors’ recovery, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has its sights set on continued expansion this year as demand for travel remains steady.
With the steadfast travel demand, and expected tailwinds from continuing to spend on infrastructure, Wyndham and its franchisees are well positioned for success in the new year, the Parsippany, N.J.-based company said. The company has 9,100 hotels in more than 95 countries.
According to a recent U.S. Travel report, spending on domestic travel is projected to rise more than 8% in 2023, adjusted for inflation, while global tourism is set to jump 30% as per an Economist Intelligence forecast. In line with this, Wyndham expects significant tailwinds from the latest $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the largest signed into the U.S. law in 70 years.
In a release, the hospitality major said its business travelers mostly come from infrastructure accounts, which generated double-digit revenue growth compared to 2019 and are expected to rise further as new projects begin to repair bridges, highways and ports across the U.S.
NEW BRANDS
Wyndham continued to grow its global footprint across its 24-brand portfolio in 2022 while launching brands, foraying into newer markets and adding diverse hoteliers.
Some of the highlights of the company are:
- Launched the ECHO Suites Extended Stay by Wyndham and tapped into America’s lucrative extended stay market. The brand has surpassed its early development expectations by adding 170 hotels and over 21,000 rooms to its portfolio within nine months.
- Grew its presence in the all-inclusive segment by adding 14 new resorts to the luxury Registry Collection Hotels brand. With this, Wyndham has around 30 all-inclusive resorts in Latin America.
- Acquired the Vienna House brand from Berlin-headquartered HR Group, a long-term Wyndham franchise. Wyndham almost doubled its upscale presence in Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa and added more than 40 new hotels totaling more than 6,400 rooms.
- Grew 13 brands into a combined 22 new markets. Worldwide, Wyndham’s brands now have multi-country representation. Notable openings include the first Dolce by Wyndham in Brazil, the first Wyndham in Canada, the first La Quinta by Wyndham in China, the first TRYP by Wyndham in Greece, the first Wyndham Grand in Mexico, the first Microtel by Wyndham in New Zealand, and the first Wyndham Garden in Turkey.
- Became the first major hotel company to introduce a program aimed at advancing women hotel owners (Women Own the Room) and launch a program for Black entrepreneurs (BOLD by Wyndham).
“Developers choose Wyndham for the power of our brands and because they know we’re going to be collaborative partners at every step of the journey. That starts with our team taking the time to understand their unique needs and then working with them to help ensure they’re putting the right brand in the right market at the right time,” said Chip Ohlsson, chief development officer of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
ENHANCING GUEST EXPERIENCE
The company introduced multiple initiatives to upgrade the guest experience. Some of them are:
- Launched Road Trip Planner, a tool to enable travelers to plan and directly book their road trip using Wyndham’s mobile app.
- Grew its loyalty program, Wyndham Rewards, with new free night redemption options, adding to its portfolio of more than 50,000 hotels, vacation rentals and vacation club resorts.
- Became one of the first major hotel companies to offer a virtually no-cost, mobile tipping platform to all its U.S. and Canadian franchisees.
SUPPORT FOR FRANCHISEES
The company used its size and scale in the past year to ensure its franchisees had strong levels of support and service across its sales, operations, marketing, design and construction. Highlights include:
- Web traffic on Wyndham.com channels climbed 9% YOY and longer booking windows compared to 2021.
- Launched RevIQ, a cloud-based, mobile-first revenue management platform that, when synced with one of the company’s two next-gen, cloud-based property management systems (Oracle OPERA Cloud and SynXis Property Hub), provides franchisees access to tech solutions designed to boost rate, streamline operations and improve efficiencies.
- Introduced a mobile key solution, helping franchisees to upgrade door locks instead of replacing them.
- Expanded The Meetings Collection, a curated collection of properties in key destinations, to over 160 hotels and resorts globally.