Wyndham Hotel Group’s CEO and President Geoff Ballotti kicked off the company’s annual conference Tuesday at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas emphasizing a commitment to making every brand “best in class.”
“It’s absolutely vital for our franchisees and hotel owners around the world that our powerhouse brands deliver on their promises and continue to evolve with the changing needs and demands of today’s travelers,” Ballotti said.
Ballotti explained to the crowd of more than 6,000 franchisees that an organizational structure with dedicated resources for each brand has been put in place to focus on operational and brand consistency. It has hired a brand strategist to more clearly define each brand’s positioning, and Wyndham will also continue to push out lower-quality hotels that do not meet brand standards.
Wyndham also announced plans to fund more than 5,000 hotel photo shoots as part of a content push that includes allowing guests to feature their own content on Wyndham websites.
Wyndham Worldwide’s CEO and Chairman Stephen Holmes echoed Ballotti’s call for excellence and added several anecdotes emphasizing the importance of inspiration for both personal and professional success. “There is inspiration all around us — we just have to be open to it,” Holmes said.
Wyndham’s team of executives outlined several key initiatives aimed to grow the success of the company’s 16 hotel brands drawing upon the themes of inspiration and aspiration to become the industry’s leader.
Technology and management solutions
Wyndham entered into a multi-year agreement to migrate its central reservations systems to Sabre Corp.’s SynXis solution. The partnership makes Sabre the exclusive global central reservation system provider for Wyndham.
SynXis provides distribution of rates and inventory through all online and offline distribution channels; connectivity to global distribution systems, online travel agents, website and mobile booking engines; and integration of critical property, revenue management, loyalty and content systems.
“We are at a real transition in our company’s history,” said Keith Pierce, executive vice president, global systems operations support. “Now is the time for us to partner with best in class technology companies to create unique solutions.”
Wyndham will begin to migrate all of its properties to SynXis later in 2015 over an 18- to 24-month period.
Additionally, Wyndham announced plans to deploy a new, automated, software-as-a-service revenue-management system from Infor across more than 4,500 of its franchised hotels within the United States and Canada. The platform is designed to simplify revenue management by automatically analyzing each hotel’s booking data on a daily basis, recognizing trends and patterns, and providing each property owner with recommendations on how and when rates should be modified to help optimize the hotel’s demand.
“We want to provide a frictionless environment for hotels to do pricing,” said Kathy Maher, senior vice president of revenue management for Wyndham.
Sales and marketing
Dubbing it a “game-changing relaunch” of its loyalty program, Wyndham will now offer members “Go Free” and “Go Fast” rewards. “Go Free” rewards were designed to be simple and appeal to guests’ desire for a free night’s stay. With 15,000 Wyndham points, members will earn a free night at any Wyndham property worldwide with no black-out dates. However, members must book their stays directly through Wyndham.
“Go Fast” rewards will offer members a free night’s stay for 3,000 points plus “a little bit of cash” ranging from US$25 to US$95 depending on the level of the hotel.
“This new program is designed to get us to be the best loyalty program in the world,” said Noah Brodsky, vice president of worldwide loyalty and engagement for Wyndham. “We are making aspiration possible for the masses.”
Brodsky added that Wyndham will make every rewards program enrollment at the front desk free plus issue a US$250 fee if a property does not sign up 10 members per month.
Conference attendees also got a first look at Wyndham Rewards’ new advertising campaign featuring actor Kristofer Hivju as the “Wyndham Wyzard.” The television campaign is set to debut in May and is an umbrella campaign for all of the company’s brands.
“We need to talk about our hotels in a fun and inspiring way,” said Josh Lesnick, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Wyndham. “We are projecting personality and lifestyle into our brands.”