LAS VEGAS—If there’s strength in numbers, Wyndham Hotel Group had some power in its corner this week as it brought together all 12 of its brands at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
At Tuesday’s general session Eric Danziger, president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group, outlined the division’s strategic goals and made some announcements to an audience of approximately 5,700 people.
The strategy, which Danziger called the Apollo Mission, outlines four new missions for the company:
• Redesign of all brand websites and the addition of expert resources to manage them;
• refinement of the rate management strategy, organization, process and technology to help ensure consistency of rates across all distribution channels;
• consolidation of the central reservation system from two platforms to one;
• new online functionality that will enable shoppers to see all Wyndham Hotel Group brands on the company’s branded websites.
Each brand also has its own initiatives within the Apollo Mission.
Danziger focused on motivating the audience of owners and managers to strive for excellence. “Nobody knows what they can do until they do it,” he said. “We are in the hospitality business, so it’s not just about heads in beds, feet in sheets.”
Planet Hollywood deal
The breaking news of the day was the announcement of a license agreement with Planet Hollywood International to franchise the Planet Hollywood Hotel brand, making it Wyndham’s 13th brand.
Robert Earl, founder and CEO of Planet Hollywood Resorts International, LLC was on hand to discuss the deal, which was finalized Monday night.
“We’ve talked with a lot of people over the years about partnering, but at Wyndham there was this space where at other companies they might not have had an opportunity,” he said. “It’s a very exciting deal and they’ve been a pleasure to deal with.”
Planet Hollywood currently has one 4,000-room hotel in Las Vegas. It will retain the management rights to that hotel.
It will be a few months before Wyndham can discuss franchise opportunities, according to Danziger, but the lion’s share of growth will come from management contracts.
“We’re tightening up what it is, but when those attributes are decided, when we talk to owners every day, will we be able to talk to those owners in Hong Kong? You betcha,” he said. “We can move fast even within the confines of a public company.
“At this point, every major city in the world is a possibility,” Danziger said. The product will be positioned in the upper-upscale segment and the typical property will have about 200 guestrooms.
Wyndham Hotel Group, a division of Wyndham Worldwide has 13 brands: Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Planet Hollywood Hotels, Tryp Hotels, Wingate by Wyndham, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, Ramada Worldwide, Days Inn, Super 8, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inn & Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, and Knights Inn.
The company has 606,755 guestrooms in 7,161 hotels worldwide as of 30 June 2010.