LAS VEGAS—Before thousands of franchisees at Wyndham Hotel Group’s Global Conference here, Wyndham Hotel Group revealed its new loyalty program, latest marketing initiatives and access to better technology, including the launch of a new revenue-management solution, and a renewed emphasis on quality and brands.
“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,” said Geoff Ballotti, Wyndham Hotel Group’s president and CEO. “Focusing our energy and resources on better product quality, valuable technology and innovative new marketing programs, as well as realigning our teams to offer the highest level of support to our properties, is paramount for the continued growth of our company.”
He added, “The initiatives outlined during our conference set a clear strategic direction and foundation to help ensure the continued success of our franchisees around the world.”
Key initiatives outlined during the conference included the relaunch of the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program. The new Wyndham Rewards program offers a simple offering by allowing members to redeem for a free night stay. Known as a “Go Free” award, the program offers guests a free overnight stay at any of the 7,500 participating properties worldwide for 15,000 points with no blackout dates.
“Primary research tells us that 89% of travelers want to redeem their points for a free hotel night, and that more than half feel that the majority of rewards feel unattainable,” said Josh Lesnick, EVP and chief marketing officer at Wyndham Hotel Group. “The new Wyndham Rewards program addresses these sentiments head-on. Our new program makes it easy for members to earn the points they need, understand what they have earned and redeem their points for rewards they actually want.”
Building on its new strategic partnership with Sabre Corporation, the roll-out of a cloud-based SynXis Property Manager from Sabre Corporation with a fully connected and automated revenue-management tool powered by Infor’s EzLITE is underway. Additionally, Wyndham Hotel Group will migrate its central reservations systems to Sabre’s SynXis Central Reservations solution beginning late this year.
A new organizational structure with dedicated resources for each of the Wyndham Hotel Group’s brands will attempt to focus on operational and brand consistency coupled with a continued push to remove a record number of lower-quality hotels, noted Ballotti.
Wyndham Hotel Group gave attendees a preview of its upcoming multi-brand advertising campaign. The new campaign features actor Kristofer Hivju from the HBO show Game of Thrones. Set to debut in May on national TV, the campaign is designed to leverage the scale of Wyndham Hotel Group’s 15 hotel brands, 7,600 hotels and the new Wyndham Rewards program.
In an aggressive push to upgrade its digital content and drive central bookings, the company will fund over 5,000 individual hotel photo shoots worldwide through its marketing funds. This content push is being further enhanced as Wyndham Hotel Group to feature user-generated content on its websites.
The company also announced that, in addition to its core focus of improving hotel and brand quality, it has engaged Siegel+Gale, a highly recognized brand strategy firm, to help lead efforts to more clearly define the positioning of each of Wyndham Hotel Group’s brands and their core value propositions.
Kicking off the three-day event at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the Wyndham Hotel Group’s Global Conference brings together more than 6,000 franchisees representing many of Wyndham Hotel Group’s more than 7,600 properties across 70 countries.