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Expansion Policy
What is your policy to strengthen your company worldwide?
Our primary objective is to grow our system size while increasing our revenue and profitability by providing world-class service and support. We provide our franchisees with operational and administrative services that include access to an international central reservations system; marketing and sales support; technology; training and education; and volume purchasing.
In addition to our franchise business, we operate the TripRewards® loyalty program, the largest in the lodging industry based on the number of participating hotels.
In conjunction with the acquisition of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in October 2005, we established a full-service management company to attract developers of upscale hotels.
What are the main obstacles – benefits in expanding your brands?
Challenges
One of the most significant challenges is developing product standards that are global in nature but that meet the needs of the local market. In the international market, standards must be fine-tuned to each country.
In addition, consumer preferences and demands are ever-changing and consumer research in the international sphere is limited. We need vision to understand what consumers will be looking for in the future.
Benefits
The greatest overall benefit of expanding our company is to provide both guests and franchisees with a wide array of hotel brand choices.
Our guests want our products in the destinations that they travel to for business and leisure. If we can meet their expectations of quality, location and price, then we will be able to add value to our shareholders and grow our company.
When we grow our brands, our franchisees benefit from the brands’ increased exposure in multiple markets.
Which destinations have more dynamic potentials?
Our strategy for international growth is to aggressively expand our business in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America through the Wyndham, Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8 and Howard Johnson brands.
In the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, we will pursue growth in the number of franchised hotels through our direct franchise model for our Ramada and Wyndham brands and through our master franchise model for our Super 8, Days Inn and Howard Johnson brands. In addition, we will pursue growth in the number of managed hotels.
There is enormous opportunity in China for the Super 8 brand in the two- to three-star hotel segments. Target cities include: Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai.
We also see great opportunities for the growth of our brands in India, where there is a growing middle-class population and a significant shortage of rooms in the two- and three-star level.
How did your company expand the previous decade, and where are you going to invest in the next decade?
After focusing on development primarily in North America since our company’s founding in 1990, we now are very focused on international development, which we accelerated with the acquisition of Ramada International two years ago.
We have ramped up the development of hotels outside of the United States, where we currently franchise 767 hotels and 80,239 rooms in 52 countries under the Ramada, Days, Howard Johnson and Super 8 brands.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
