WHY IT RATES: Wyndham is bringing its advanced business-travel software solution across its three largest brands, La Quinta, Days Inn and Super 8, with an eye towards integrating the service into the rest of the company's portfolio later this year. - Laurie Baratti, TravelPulse Associate Writer
With a focus on finding impactful ways to drive more corporate business for its hotels, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts-a hotel franchising company with more than 9,000 hotels across 90 countries-today announced the expansion of Wyndham Direct, a unique booking, billing and business solution.
The service, formerly unique to its La Quinta by Wyndham brand, is now immediately available at Super 8 by Wyndham and Days Inn by Wyndham hotels in the U.S., with plans to expand further across Wyndham's portfolio of brands later this year.
Wyndham Direct is designed to help drive corporate bookings to hotels and simplify travel management for companies and their travelers. Using integrated virtual credit card technology from Corporate Spending Innovations (CSI), Wyndham Direct offers easier booking, faster billing and smarter business, supporting hotels as they work to attract small and medium-sized corporate business, grow market share and drive lower-cost reservations. By expanding across the Wyndham's three largest brands, the program now offers clients access to nearly 3,900 hotels across the economy through upper-midscale segments.
"Wyndham is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to helping our hotels drive more direct bookings, save time and get paid faster," said Carol Lynch, senior vice president of Global Sales for Wyndham. "Wyndham Direct is a comprehensive solution for our hotels that not only eases the strain on hotel teams, but also makes the client's experience easier and helps translate into revenues for our franchisees."
"CSI is excited to partner with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to help power the Wyndham Direct Program and we look forward to providing an innovative, streamlined solution for Wyndham clients," said Juliann Pless, senior vice president, Travel Payment Solutions at CSI.
Client Convenience and Simplicity
Wyndham Direct offers small- and mid-sized companies a streamlined travel program alternative. It allows company travelers to make reservations directly through central channels using virtual credit card technology charged at check-out-just like a traditional credit card-with no credit card authorization needed. Companies receive a single monthly bill and have the ability to manage travel spend within the Wyndham Direct customer portal, complete with flexible custom reporting features.
Helping Hoteliers
Hotel owners also benefit from the virtually risk-free program from Wyndham by getting paid simply and quickly. Guest folio data is automatically sent to clients, saving time and manpower by eliminating the need to print and send invoices or spend time on collections. Additionally, Wyndham Direct offers robust reporting and data collection to streamline reconciliation processes, simplify and accelerate the payment process for hotel bookings, and help minimize disruptions during the check-in process.
Positively Impacting Business
Wyndham Direct elevates and differentiates Wyndham's value proposition for corporate travel accounts by offering a simple, client-centric solution allowing corporate travelers to book, pay and track their travel. Appealing to companies seeking simplicity in managing employee travel, Wyndham Direct helps increase market share and drive additional business from weekday road warriors across diverse industry segments such as oil and gas, construction, merchandising, transportation and more. Wyndham's sales team works one-on-one to attract relevant business, including relief and recovery business, targeting those likely to drive room nights to upper-midscale, midscale and economy hotels.
Wyndham continues to evolve to deliver value to franchisees and capture additional travel demand, including in the mobile space. The Company recently introduced its Instant Hold feature, which facilitates last-minute, on-the-go bookings, requiring only a guest's name and mobile number to reserve a room for the same day, with no credit card required. The innovation has been particularly critical as road trips continue to rise in popularity and booking windows have shortened during the pandemic, with guest adoption increasing from travelers seeking nearby hotels they can book with ease.
Expansion to New Brands
The Wyndham Direct program debuted at La Quinta by Wyndham hotels across the United States in March, and Wyndham continues to expand the program to new brands, increasing its accessibility and footprint to economy hotels-a critical move as the company courts more diverse industries. By leveraging its scale and expansive U.S. presence in drive-to markets, Wyndham is proactively solving for customer's needs across multiple industries and services. The Company plans to roll out Wyndham Direct to all of its brands and hotels in the U.S. on the SynXisV3 PMS throughout 2020, with plans to further expand internationally in the future.
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