From a new loyalty program and improved technology solutions to a renewed emphasis on improving hotel and brand quality, major changes are afoot at Wyndham Hotel Group, which has more than 7,600 properties across 70 countries. A year into his tenure as president and CEO, Geoff Ballotti announced several key initiatives during the hotel company’s global conference, which drew more than 6,000 franchisees to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this week.
One of the biggest opportunities for the company surrounds technology, Ballotti said during a press conference. “We have such an opportunity to provide best-in-class, outsourced, cloud-based solutions that franchisees don’t have to worry about in terms of hardware in their hotels.”
To ensure properties can drive market share and stay competitive, the company is rolling out a cloud-based property management system from Sabre Corporation called SynXis with a fully connected and automated revenue management tool powered by Infor’s EzLITE. The new solution will be deployed across approximately 4,500 franchised properties that are currently using the outdated WynGuest platform. Keith Pierce, Wyndham’s EVP of global systems operations support, estimated that it will take about a year and a half to migrate these properties to the mandated tech platform. Larger and more complex Wyndham assets that currently use the Opera PMS will not be required to make the switch.
The company also announced that it will migrate all of its central reservations systems to Sabre’s SynXis central reservations solution beginning late 2015. The agreement makes Sabre the exclusive global CRS provider for the company.
Brand repositioning is another major initiative of the company. To more clearly define the positioning of each of its 15 brands and their core value propositions, Wyndham Hotel Group has engaged the help of Siegel+Gale, a brand strategy firm. New prototypes for Baymont Inn and Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Wingate, Microtel Inn and Suites, Super 8, and Days Inn also will infuse distinct personality into the brands and allow them to stand apart from one another.
On average, the Wyndham Hotel Group has been adding two properties per day to its roster, opening 120,000 rooms since the last global conference convened in September 2013. But the company also is laser-focused on removing rooms that don’t meet its quality standards, Ballotti said. Since the 2013 conference, Wyndham took out nearly 300 percent more rooms than it did in the two years prior. In terms of future growth, the company has a robust pipeline of 117,000 rooms, of which more than 60 percent are located overseas and nearly 60 percent are new construction, Ballotti said.
Between new properties, transfers of ownerships, and renewals, the company licenses roughly 800 hotels every year, said COO Bob Loewen. “We need to ensure those decisions are rooted under the premise of making each one of our brands stronger and more relevant tomorrow than it is today,” he said.
One way Wyndham intends to leverage its distribution and footprint is via an improved and simplified rewards program. “At the end of the day, it’s about getting free rooms faster and easier,” said new Chief Marketing Officer Josh Lesnick. Once the program rolls out worldwide on May 11, members can redeem a free night at any of the company’s hotels for only 15,000 points—no blackout dates. Members who want to redeem their points sooner can book a night for 3,00 points plus a little bit of cash (about $25 to $95 depending on the hotel). And for every qualified stay, members now earn 10 points for every dollar spent or a minimum of 1,000 points per stay, whichever is more.
“We don’t have the top loyalty program in the industry,” admitted Noah Brodsky, Wyndham’s new VP of worldwide loyalty and engagement. His goal is for the new program to become one of the best in the travel industry. “We believe the value proposition is so strong that that’s where we can be.”
For owners, the reimbursement structure will stay the same, Brodsky added. That means if hotel occupancy is at 95 percent, they’ll always receive 100 percent of their average daily rate when a redemption is made. If hotels fall below 95 percent occupancy, owners will receive a flat-rate redemption, which has been raised by 5 percent this year.
Wyndham Rewards currently has more than 40 million members worldwide. In order to make the new program a success, the company is counting on an increase in new enrollments. Last year, 2,000 properties didn’t enroll a single member the entire year, Brodsky told attendees. To incentivize owners, the company is changing its fee-credit program. Instead of charging fees for every guest a hotel signs up, all enrollments made at the front desk will be free. If properties don’t accrue 10 qualified enrollments in a calendar month, however, they will be required to pay a $250 Wyndham Rewards retraining fee. That money will be refunded if the property gets 20 enrollments the following month.
The new Wyndham Rewards will be promoted via a $20 million umbrella brand advertising campaign. In addition to a strong TV presence, Wyndham will build a strong digital presence on outlets such as Facebook, Hulu, and YouTube. Conference attendees got a sneak peek of the company’s new campaign, which employs the use of a “third-party device” (think the GEICO Gecko or Flo from Progressive). Enter the Wyndham Rewards Wyzard, portrayed by Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju.
The company also outlined some major digital content enhancements. In a push to upgrade its digital content and drive central bookings, Wyndham will fund more than 5,000 individual hotel photo shoots worldwide through its marketing funds.
“We just came off the best year we’ve ever had from a metric point of view, but I’d love to see us have much better brand quality than we have today, much better technology, and be recognized as the sales and marketing leader with the best loyalty program in the industry,” Ballotti concluded.
