At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts shared a look back over the company's 2022 accomplishments.
“Last year was an incredible year for the travel industry and for Wyndham,” Geoff Ballotti, president and CEO, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement. “Amid the backdrop of the industry’s continued recovery, hoteliers across the world turned to Wyndham and our brands to help them elevate their portfolios and drive their businesses forward. Now, with consumer travel demand holding steadfast, anticipated tailwinds from continued infrastructure spend, and our iconic, trusted brands resonating with travelers like never before, Wyndham and its franchisees remain well positioned for success in 2023.”
In its latest forecast, U.S. Travel estimated domestic travel spend to increase more than 8 percent in 2023, adjusted for inflation, while London-based Economist Intelligence expects global tourism to rise 30 percent. Wyndham is also anticipating significant tailwinds from the recent $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, the largest signed into U.S. law in the last 70 years. Wyndham’s business travelers primarily come from infrastructure accounts, which generated double-digit revenue growth compared to 2019 and are anticipated to climb further as these workers begin new projects to repair America’s highways, bridges and ports.
New Brands, New Markets, New Hotels
Wyndham saw continued expansion of its global footprint in 2022, adding new brands, entering new markets and attracting new hotel owners.
Among the highlights, the company:
- Tapped into the extended-stay market in the U.S. with the launch of Echo Suites Extended Stay by Wyndham, exceeding early development expectations by growing its pipeline to 170 hotels and more than 21,000 rooms in nine months.
- Grew its presence in the all-inclusive space, adding 14 new resorts to its Registry Collection Hotels brand. Wyndham now has nearly 30 all-inclusive resorts across Latin America.
- Nearly doubled the size of its upscale footprint in Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa with the acquisition of the Vienna House brand from Berlin-based HR Group, a longstanding Wyndham franchisee, adding over 40 new hotels and more than 6,400 rooms.
- Expanded 13 brands into a combined 22 new markets, opening, among others, the first Dolce by Wyndham in Brazil, the first Wyndham in Canada, the first La Quinta by Wyndham in China, the first Trip 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. Globally, 22 of the company’s brands now have multicountry representation.
- Bolstered its commitment to diverse hotel ownership, becoming the first major hotel company to launch a program focused on the advancement of women hotel owners (Women Own the Room) and introduce a program for Black entrepreneurs (Bold by Wyndham).
Owner Initiatives
To support owners across sales, marketing, operations, design and construction, Wyndham:
- Delivered record levels of contribution through Wyndham.com channels, with web traffic increasing over 9 percent year over year and longer booking windows compared to 2021.
- Debuted a new, cloud-based, mobile-first revenue management platform, RevIQ, that can be paired with one of the company’s two cloud-based property management systems (SynXis Property Hub and Oracle Opera Cloud).
- Launched a mobile key solution, enabling franchisees to upgrade existing door locks instead of replacing them. Combined with existing offerings like mobile check-in and franchisee opt-in services like front desk call routing, these initiatives are designed to help franchisees improve operating margins while moving fixed labor costs out of their hotels.
- Grew The Meetings Collection, a collection of aspirational hotels and resorts, to more than 160 hotels and resorts globally. The Collection works in coordination with other sales initiatives, like Wyndham Business, to help drive increased corporate and group bookings at Wyndham hotels.
Wyndham has approximately 9,100 hotels across more than 95 countries.