In the past three years, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts introduced two new initiatives to expand hotel development and ownership opportunities for underrepresented communities through Black Owners and Lodging Developers — or BOLD — and Women Own the Room.
Wyndham is now further investing in these initiatives with its launch of the Accelerator Circle, which entails a quarterly, small-group virtual meeting for franchisees from BOLD and Women Own the Room led by owners and industry experts from the brand's network. The focus during these meetings will be "fast-tracking hotel openings and maximizing performance," according to a company news release.
Galen Barrett, vice president of strategic franchise initiatives at Wyndham, said in an interview that both BOLD and Women Own the Room were created to boost representation of Black and women entrepreneurs in regard to hotel development and ownership. Their newest initiative will bring the main pillars from both into one.
"In my mind, this Accelerator Circle initiative anchors in the two initiatives themselves and how we stood up both of these programs for Black and women entrepreneurs," he said.
The goal of the Accelerator Circle will be for members of BOLD and Women Own the Room to come to the meetings with any questions or issues they've run into, and have those questions and issues solved by experts who have been there before.
"Having that connective tissue, having a platform for these communities to be able to share best practices and have support from expertise — that was a thing that exists broadly within our industry, but was lacking and there was a gap that we knew we could fill with this program," he said. "The Accelerator Circle, built with that community thesis in mind, is exclusive for our BOLD and Women Own the Room franchisees to do a couple of things, to be able to learn from each other on a peer-to-peer basis, but then also have the support of expert mentorship in each one of these."
Since the launches of BOLD and Women Own the Room, there have been more than 90 hotel deals signed with Black and women hoteliers, with more than 20 of those hotels open and operating.
"It's really so fulfilling to see someone who comes with an idea, and to be able to help them solve some very unique challenges, to get them open and operating so that they can continue to drive performance and, frankly, support the communities in which they operate," Barrett said.
Mimi Oliver, CEO of WaterWalk — the upscale extended-stay brand that entered a strategic relationship with Wyndham earlier this year — will lead a discussion during the first iteration of the Acceleration Circle this fall.
Oliver said there are so many different parts to the hotel lifecycle, from looking for a site to identifying a market to underwriting a deal to opening a property.
"Everything I've learned along the way, putting together countless hospitality and hotel deals, I can really give back and help share those learnings," she said. "I'm hopeful that I can be helpful with just lending some wisdom, lending some guidance in every part of that process."
Being selected to lead the first meeting is "such a privilege," Oliver said. One of the main reasons WaterWalk decided to partner with Wyndham in the first place was its commitment to advancing women into more ownership and leadership roles with initiatives like Women Own the Room, she said.
"To be able to help launch this, it might be one of the greatest privileges of my career to help Wyndham with this initiative and further this goal and get to know these women and just help them fulfill their dreams," she said.