PARSIPPANY, New Jersey—Eric Danziger’s seven-year career detour has taken a route that has led him back to his first love. The longtime hotel-industry leader assumes the role of president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group, a part of Wyndham Worldwide that has (as of 30 September, 2008) 6,970 properties with about 583,400 rooms.
“I wanted to get back in the hotel industry for years,” said Danziger, who added that he passed on several other opportunities to get back into the industry because they didn’t feel right. “It was always who I was. It sort of defines me.
“Finding the right company and the right group of people, it took awhile.”
Danziger will assume the helm of the company on 01 December. He replaces Steve Rudnitsky, who left the company in September. When Danziger starts, he will take control of a company that has 12 hotel brands (AmeriHost, Baymont, Days Inn, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Microtel, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, Wingate Inn and Wyndham Hotels) with locations in 65 countries.
Howard Johnson and Ramada compete in STR’s midscale-with-food-and-beverage segment. AmeriHost, Baymont and Wingate compete in the midscale-without-food-and-beverage segment, while Days Inn, Knights Inn, Microtel, Super 8 and Travelodge compete in the economy segment. The Wyndham and Hawthorn Suites chains are classified as upscale by STR.
With a heavy contingent of limited-service brands, Danziger said he recognizes one thing right away.
“In the limited-service space, it’s all about being close to the owner constituency,” he said. “You help add value. You help ensure the brand, which is the promise, is being delivered to the expectation of the owners and the guests.
“In these kinds of economic times, the opportunity for limited-service growth is significant,” he said. “That is all about owner relations.”
“The growth is global,” said Stephen Holmes, chairman and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide. “There are opportunities for all the brands to grow in international and domestic markets.”
Twenty percent of the company’s existing portfolio is located outside of the United States, according to Wyndham’s Web site. Wyndham’s overall development pipeline consists of about 990 hotels with more than 111,000 rooms, of which 51 percent are new construction and 41 percent are international, according to the site.
A system the size of Wyndham’s is new to Danziger, who has spent 30 years in the hotel industry dating to a job as a bellman at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Danziger most recently was CEO of WhiteFence, an online one-stop comparison shopping and transaction site for home services, and before that, served as CEO of a startup online real estate company, ZipRealty. He never lost touch with the hotel industry as he served on the board of directors for Kimpton Hotels during his time away from day-to-day hotel work.
Danziger’s hotel career stops included: Doubletree Hotels, where he ran a chain of 120 hotels; Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which he grow to 100 hotels; Starwood Lodging, as president and CEO, helping to grow the portfolio from 11 to about 1,600 hotels; and as president and CEO of Carlson Hotels Worldwide, where he oversaw about 800 hotels.
“Many of the hotel companies I was in were small and went to big,” he said. “I understood developing a consumer-centric company that adds value to the consumer. That’s really no difference between an online company like ZipRealty and a hotel experience. They’re all a people business.
“Making small companies big is a great lesson that every leader has to go through because you learn to make fundamentals a reality in terms of wanting to grow.”
Holmes said that type of outlook is one of the reasons that he clicked with Danziger during the interview process.
“Eric has incredible passion and energy and was looking for an outlet to vent that to the hospitality industry. He will bring a presence, an energy and excitement to the industry,” Holmes said. “(Danziger’s experience with Internet companies) was a plus, without a doubt. However, his knowledge of the industry and his connection to the industry is, frankly, more important.”
It is somewhat ironic that Danziger again works for Wyndham, although it is quite a different company than it was when it was headquartered in Dallas. The current Wyndham Worldwide, then known as Cendant Corp., acquired the Wyndham brand in 2005.
“I think back 15 years when we were running Wyndham, we were looking at the next day, the next month,” Danziger said. “What these guys have done with that brand is give it a great home. It’s a credit to Steve and the team that they did not dismantle things that were important. It’s a meaningful brand to its consumer.”
The executives said the company is poised to take the Wyndham brand to new heights.
“There are a lot of the same characteristics that the Wyndham brand holds today that it held 15 years ago,” Holmes said. “There was a time that it kind of lost its direction. When we bought the brand, the focus was on bringing it back to where it was.”
“All the brands have global opportunities, but that brand has the most,” Danziger said.
However, the other brands in the portfolio won’t be forgotten, he added.
“Wyndham has one special feature than no one does: heritage,” Danziger said. “(For example,) you think about Howard Johnson as a brand, and it ought to give people shivers. Or Days Inn with its history. I look at all the wannabes as those heritage brands that haven’t figured it out.”
Danziger said that heritage could play a role in future growth. He also said guerilla marketing tactics aren’t out of the question and that franchisees and guests alike should know what the brand is supposed to deliver.
“I don’t know marketing from schmarketing, but here’s what I know: A brand is a promise. You have to develop your plan of what you stand for and what can you do for guests and franchisees,” he said. “I’ve tried to always run a company, (from my view as) how am I as a consumer, how do I feel, and what is it that will move me to make a choice.”