At the close of the Wyndham Hotel Group’s 2016 Global Conference at Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, the more than 6,000 attendees left with a wealth of information about new brand initiatives and owner perks. But that only scratched the surface of the massive amount of information that was covered during the event. Here are some of the insights from Wyndham’s top executives on the company’s latest initiatives and issues having a great impact on the lodging industry.
Wyndham Rewards
Geoff Ballotti, CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group, was most excited about the huge jump in the Wyndham rewards program. “Two years ago there was an idea, there was a brand, and [we were] asking our franchisees to believe that we could create a loyalty program under the Wyndham brand that would support all of our other brands and would do so in a very powerful way. [We were] asking them to believe that we could create a program that would meaningfully contribute to their share of occupancy through our central system,” he said. “And loyalty, as we’ve been saying, has never been more important.”
Noah Brodsky, SVP, worldwide loyalty and engagement, focused on how the updated Wyndham Rewards program benefits hoteliers. He explained, “We deliberately built a program that was focused on taking all of the Wyndham Rewards redemption and redeeming it back into our hotel so now 88 percent of rewards redeemed go back into the hotel. That means we’re sending literally tens of millions of dollars instead of giving it away in gift cards, we’re now putting it into our hotels which is a huge incremental value to our properties that are competitors aren’t doing.”
Titanium Benefits
At the conference, Wyndham officially announced a new tier of Wyndham Rewards meant specifically for Wyndham owners—Titanium. Titanium card holders are entitled to a number of perks, including free room nights anywhere on the planet and access to a Titanium concierge who can help with trip planning. “It’s a win for us. It reinforces the program and its a nice free win for them,” said Brodsky.
Technological Upgrades
“I really think we are two million more years ahead of all of our competitors,” stated Bob Loewen, Wyndham Hotel Group’s COO, to the press. “I think you’re going to see them all go to a similar model, but its going to take a lot of time. We get all of our hotels and brands on the saver systems, its going to make it so much easier to distribute our rooms, to bring on new hotels, to market their customers, to drive things like automated revenue management, they will really transform our business.”
Lisa Checchio, Wyndham’s VP of brand marketing and insights, added that Wyndham is also looking to tackle initiatives that only luxury or upscale chains have been willing to try so far. “Opening the doors with your phone, setting your room temperature, setting your lighting, setting your music from your phone, self check-in and check-out as you’re walking, beaconing as you’re approaching the hotel so the hotel knows you’re coming, and when you walk in the door we can greet you by name. Things like that that will touch and can touch all of our brands, those are the types of initiatives we’re looking at” she said.
Appealing to Domestic Travelers—Globally
In a press panel with international brand heads, Barry Robinson, president and managing director of Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and Wyndham Hotel Group South East Asia and Pacific Rim, touched on the importance of making an impact with domestic travelers, as well as international ones. “I think that often as a U.S.-based company we think about how we appeal to a US or international traveler coming into international markets,” he said. “But I would completely reinforce that our strength is our ability to appeal to the domestic traveler.”
“I think what we do best as a hotel company is that we recognize that all great brands need to be locally relevant,” added Daniel Ruff, president and managing director of EMEA. “The F&B offering in China will be different than the food in Munich. And I think that’s really compelling. I think we do it better than anyone else. We’ve had competitors open up at the same time as us in Munich, and they’ve opened with U.S. concepts in a German market, and our Super 8 is crushing the comp set. And I think that’s really an example of everything we try to do with our brands.”
Appealing to Millennials
“Millennial travelers outside of the East Coast and West Coast are everyday travelers. I mean they are exactly the demographic that’s staying all the time in our properties. So many of our competitors talk about millennial travelers as consultants and bankers and first class fliers, and that’s a very small percentage of millennial travels across the country,” said Brodsky. “We think that so much of what we’re doing on the brand side is so applicable to them as we bring technology in and on marketing and the Wizard is a very clear nod to a different demographic.”
