Wyndham Rewards (formerly TripRewards) - Franchisees: "TripRewards is killing us financially"

An article (http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=7F5E26FDD64A439DB67C1ACD3142C4CD) in the IndUS Business Journal offers a few glimpses into the world of hotel loyalty programs.

Here are some excerpts:

Jay Patel, a franchisee: “Wyndham has TripRewards structured so that when a guest checks into the hotel, they don’t have to show their membership card or even mention that they are a member,” he said. “Of course, if the guest doesn’t present us their card, then we have no clue if they are enrolled in the program. So at night, Wyndham tries to match each guest up with a membership number, and if they are a close match, then Wyndham assesses the hotel a 5-percent fee.”

Wyndham Hotel Group vice president of communications Rich Roberts:

“... it is worth noting that loyalty programs are a competitive necessity in today’s lodging market. The vast majority of the 6,000 franchised hotels that participate in the TripRewards program have embraced it. One measure of success is the program’s popularity with guests. The TripRewards program is attracting an average of 280,000 new members each month, and more than 7 million people have enrolled since its inception four years ago.”

That company is a total mess. I don't know much about their other divisions, but their hotel group is horrible. I feel bad for the Wyndham Hotels/Resorts, Wingates and even Super 8's, to an extent, that they have to be affiliated with Cendant/Wyndham Corporation.

I feel also sorry with the hotels to a certain extend.

Although the chaos does not surprise me very much because the owner of the company is a financial investor (i.e. Blackstone). Such investors are complete dumbasses and are only after profit. They never learned to think in a medium and/or long term range. The same happens with the Hilton group: Since a financial investor took over the company, service has been decreasing since then. One example is the closure of their Diamond desk in Glasgow and their call center in Tallin. Since then, European members have to deal mainly with Hiltons completely clueless US agents. :td:

I am not sure I belive everything the hotels are saying though. The part where the president of the Baymont group claims that "This customer-loyalty program was designed to encourage repeat clientele by awarding guests points for each stay at a Wyndham property, thus benefiting the individual properties. But TripRewards has achieved neither of these goals, according to Patel,". So he is saying that loyalty programs do not work? I know that is not the case, because I have stayed at several brands of Trip Rewards hotels specifically due to the program, and I have to believe that I am not the only one.

They might not be in an ideal situation, I don't know. But I bet they are doing better then if they were not affiliated with a program, and instead each hotel were an independent and called Mom and Pop Inn or Local Hotel, especially without a website for finding hotels and making reservations at them. When was the last time you stayed in a local hotel, and not one that was part of a loyalty program?

I am with you. There are several proerties that I would not have given a look had they not been part of the program.

But I bet they are doing better then if they were not affiliated with a program, and instead each hotel were an independent and called Mom and Pop Inn or Local Hotel, especially without a website for finding hotels and making reservations at them. When was the last time you stayed in a local hotel, and not one that was part of a loyalty program?
But the question is not the difference between being affiliated with some sort of chain vs mom & pop, but being affliated with one with a loyalty program vs one without.

FTers are not represntative of normal people, especially normal people who stay at lower-end hotels. Those people are more often price driven than points driven, and exhibit no "loyalty". (It takes an FTer to know how to earn lots of points while still not exhibiting any "loyalty"! :) )

Motel 6 is just one example of being affliated with some sort of chain yet not having any loyalty program. (The only "program" they have, My Motel 6, simply speeds up repeated bookings, but doesn't earn you anything.) And isn't Motel 6 in about the same space as several of TripRewards' brands? (Tho not Baymont.)

Meanwhile, there's a ton of people (in fact, probably the majority of non-FTers) who don't check any hotel family's own website, and instead only use booking engines from the like of Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, or travel agents (who may have their own booking websites a la AAA these days), or blind bidding, or whatever. As long as the hotel appears there, they don't care (and generally don't know) whether it's part of some multi-chain family (or which multi-chain family). At these third-party booking sites, you just see that it's a Baymont, and you have to know from elsewhere (or research elsewhere on the web) to find out whether it's part of a points-earning umbrella like TripRewards (and if so, which one).

This is especially true withg groups like TripRewards which don't (to my knowledge) advertise as a group heavily. (At least Choice appears on the bottom front page of almost every USA Today, appears in every AAA TourBook, etc, listing all their brands each place. I haven't seen TripRewards showing an ad grouping all their brands many places like that...)

And, btw, they can't effectively adversise heavily as a family until they settle for good on a family name (see the threads on TripRewards becoming WyndhamRewards soon)! :)

FTers are not represntative of normal people, especially normal people who stay at lower-end hotels. Those people are more often price driven than points driven, and exhibit no "loyalty". (It takes an FTer to know how to earn lots of points while still not exhibiting any "loyalty"! :) )

...

Meanwhile, there's a ton of people (in fact, probably the majority of non-FTers) who don't check any hotel family's own website, and instead only use booking engines from the like of Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, or travel agents (who may have their own booking websites a la AAA these days), or blind bidding, or whatever. As long as the hotel appears there, they don't care (and generally don't know) whether it's part of some multi-chain family (or which multi-chain family). At these third-party booking sites, you just see that it's a Baymont, and you have to know from elsewhere (or research elsewhere on the web) to find out whether it's part of a points-earning umbrella like TripRewards (and if so, which one).

Excellent point. FTers tend to forget this a lot. This group is not representative of the travelling public.

I also believe that since these brands do lack a lot of the loyalty that other chains have, many of their guests book on third-party websites cause of a cheap rate.

That's their niche... economy. Nothing at all wrong with that. ^

I like the point of matching a name with triprewards number. i can say more then this. I have booked one of their properties (to do BRG) and didn't have any triprewards membership. i have received an email later from them that they "assigned" me a number that I can earn points. Now i can see how you can get 7 million new members. Most of them would never use these points for miles or hotel nights (they have never asked to be enrolled in the program and know nothing about it's benefits) , but hotel owners pay to corporate 5% of the rate. Seems like nice way to earn some serious money for the corporate.

That is criminal. No.....that is Cendant.

That is criminal. No.....that is Cendant.

It might be possible for hotel owners to sue corporate. Depends on their terms.

Gee, my buddy just completed a 6-night stay at the HoJo in Santee, SC, for a golf vacation. If I had known about matching, I would have signed him up in TripRewards (& for the spring 2x promo) instead of just leaving him a message that he should do so!
OTOH, when I tried to phone him there, the receptionist did not know which room he was in because the trip organizer had put all the rooms in his own name ;) !

Well the automatic enrollment worked to get my loyalty, so the franchisees can quit complaining about me. If the problems are really that bad, can't they switch affiliations? I know a motel I stayed at in DC last year did that.

So what did Wyndham do to earn my loyalty? Not a whole lot. The points are reasonably generous, and the rewards redemption is pretty easy. That's what's on their end. On my end, the company wants me to stay in the best bargain I can find, and their properties are in that range. So I figure I might as well get the points and not have to screw around with other websites. I never get questions about my expense reports when Super 8 is my hotel. Though I've been kind of grossed out at a couple (Super 8, Lansing, MI comes to mind).

When I travel on my dime, it's a whole different story. I will screw around with a few websites to find a good rate. Or see if I can find a free night due to pricing discrepancies. Or use my points. Or camp in good weather.

Franchisees pay franchisors in the vicinity of 8% of all of their room revenue for franchisee fees. Franchisees then pay the franchisor approximately another 5% in fees to "buy" the points from the franchisor for all guests that get points. I would guess that no matter which brand you chose it would not be too hard to get 13% more revenue being part of a franchise.

Now as far as I am can tell TripRewards has what I call a bunch of bottom feeder brands. They have a lot of shabby hotels that migrate to these lesser acclaimed brands.

If I had to guess I bet that Mr. Patel's (the quoted franchisee) problem is not really that he has to pay for points or pay for franchise fees, but more with the quality of hotel and or quality of the brand that he chose. It is probably natural in the franchising world for franchisor and franchisee to blame the other for their problems.

The local hotels do get benefits beyond the loyalty program ... advertising and promos like stay X get X free will lure in vacationers that drive, guidebooks, having a brand .. .though with some of these brands that might not really be a plus. any of these franchisees have an opportunity to leave the franchise when they want, but Ramada will look better on a sign that Bates Motel ... even if they are sometimes one and the same.

"That is criminal. No.....that is Cendant." -- and Trilegiant .. and ... (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tlg*greatfn+cendant) :mad:

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