Wyndham Finally Joins Competitors With Discounted Loyalty Rates

It only took a little less than two years, but Wyndham Hotel Group is finally instituting what many of its hotel peers launched in 2016 — discounted room rates for its more than 53 million Wyndham Rewards loyalty members. It's in an effort to incentivize more consumers to book direct instead of using an online travel agency like Booking.com or Expedia. Dubbed the Rewarding Rate, this 10 percent discounted rate applies to all of Wyndham's more than 8,000 hotels worldwide and is available on all of Wyndham's brand channels, as well as to travel agents. Consumers don't need to be a loyalty member to see the rate, but they do have to be signed in as a member to book the rate on a Wyndham channel. Wyndham had offered a 15 to 25 percent discount for a limited time in 2016. But vice president of worldwide loyalty and partnerships Eliot Hamlisch, who took over Wyndham Rewards at the end of last year, said the new Rewarding Rate doesn't have an expiration date. The 10-percent discount, Hamlisch added, is also "among the most generous in the industry." Wyndham's peers who have discounted loyalty member rates include Choice Hotels (up to 7 percent); Hilton (up to 10 percent on weekends); Hyatt (up to 10 percent); InterContinental Hotels Group (2 to 10 percent depending on region); and Marriott (up to 2 percent on weekdays and up to 5 percent on weekends). Wyndham Hotel Group CEO Geoff Ballotti told Skift about the new loyalty member