Management's tone during Thursday's earnings call betrayed an uncomfortable truth: September caught Wyndham off guard with a sharp deterioration in hotel demand in a few U.S. Sunbelt states and in China.
Wyndham's cut to its forecast is modest, at about 2%. But it's notable that Texas, Florida, and California showed particularly soft results, as well as China, during the third quarter.
Is the U.S. hotel sector entering a recession? Will other hotel groups join Hyatt in layoffs? These are some of the things that Skift is looking out for during earnings season.
Wyndham is monetizing the very concept of being a repeat hotel guest, while providing discounts on bookings with other travel suppliers. Expect the industry to watch this move closely.
Major chains tout hundreds of millions of members, but a new Skift metric reveals wild disparities in how they build their programs. Marriott, for instance, is in the middle of the rankings when measured by members per room.
Wyndham is wooing indie hotel owners who take extra pride in creating memorable stays within budget constraints. The franchisor will let them join its system by paying only a flat fee instead of the customary percentage of revenue.
Wyndham's got a side hustle in what you might call frontier markets. While rivals crowd familiar ground, it's planting flags in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and chasing gaps in branded residential.
It's the second deal for Wyndham in just a few weeks: One bolsters its budget and midscale footprint in South Asia, the other adds some lifestyle flair across Asia Pacific.