Wyndham Hotel Group announced that it is providing a 10 percent discount—one of the highest in the industry—at all of its 8,000 hotels for the 53 million Wyndham Rewards loyalty members, if they book their rooms directly through the hotel.
Why Now?
Wyndham Hotel Group CEO Geoff Ballotti says the company waited to launch the discounted rate due to several things, including Wyndham’s technology platform, digital platform, website and relationships with its online travel agency partners.
“All those things came together, and we have been focusing on laying down the foundation for our property management central-reservation system,” he says. “Our websites have all transformed dramatically in the last two years.”
Wyndham’s new rewards website is updated to offer a more user-friendly experience that works well with desktops and mobile devices.
In 2016, the company offered a 15 to 25 percent discount to members, but it was only for a limited amount of time. But according to Eliot Hamlisch, vice president of worldwide loyalty and partnerships for Wyndham, this new discount has no expiration date. It Is part of the effort to get travelers to book directly with the hotel, instead of going through an online third-party travel website such as Expedia or Trivago.
What’s next for Rewards?
Hamlisch plans on continuing the growth of the two-time winner of the annual Hotel Reward Payback Survey by keeping the program simple and loophole-free. The company’s share in its North American occupancy with loyalty members is now 37 percent, up from 31 percent in 2015, when Wyndham Rewards was relaunched.
“The past three years have been an incredibly busy time for the program,” Hamlisch says. “In 2015, Wyndham Rewards was fully relaunched. In 2016, we introduced member levels and introduced experiences. The year 2017 was all about expanded partnerships like those we established with Caesars Entertainment and Six Flags. There’s opportunity for us to continue to extend the relevance of our value proposition in a really simple and generous way.”
