During the early stages of Covid-19, the group introduced Wyndham Easy Book for the SME/MSME – “an initiative put into place to support the return of corporate travel, where we have seen some positive signs of recovery as of late,” points out Sharma. “Our hotels based in key leisure destinations saw a large uptick, as well as some positive signs of recovery in more business-focussed destinations such as Mussoorie, Udaipur, Jaipur, Kasauli, and Darjeeling. Weddings also made a return and supported the rise of revenues and occupancies.”

Another novel feature was the ‘Count on Us’ long-term hygiene initiative as part of the group’s long-term efforts to build confidence among guests and support its partners. The programme focusses on further enhancing a broad range of health and safety protocols at the hotel-levels such as consistent use of top-of-the-range disinfectants at hotels, introduction of new training and guidelines and ongoing access to critical health essentials through trusted suppliers.

Next, “We created Wyndham Easy Book to support everyday business travellers, targeting small to mid-size businesses,” says Sharma. “These travellers get more accessibility and a simplified booking process, along with competitive rates available at many Wyndham hotels around the world. As virtual interactions have become the norm for many during the pandemic, we wanted to bring something different by allowing attendees to join a live event while keeping the engagement high. Our hybrid meeting solution combines live-streaming capabilities with in-person participation to encourage higher attendance and support corporate business recovery.”

The group introduced the Oracle Hospitality Opera Cloud Property Management (PMS), a new mobile-enabled platform that helps hotels enhance guest personalisation, lower cost and improve operational efficiencies. The initiative provides hotels with tools to gain a competitive advantage. It is now available at nearly 100 properties globally. The group expects about 20 per cent of its full-service portfolio to adopt it in the next 12 months, with the majority migrating in the next few years.

Wyndham has also rolled out a new suite of revenue management tools for franchised and managed hotels in EMEA. The new initiative will equip participating hotels with stronger and enhanced visualisation of revenue performance metrics and is part of Wyndham’s long-standing partnership with OTA Insight, a leading cloud-based data intelligence platform.

Road ahead

Being the world’s largest hotel franchising company, we have continued our asset light strategy and delivered sustained growth, says Sharma. “Focussing investments on improving the engagement and motivation of existing staff and cutting down on unnecessary amenities is a great way to save on costs, without putting the business or the guest experience at risk,” adds Sharma.

Reviewing systems and operations and implementing technology that improves day-to-day operations or will support cost-saving is important as it helps businesses to be successful in the future. “We have provided recovery guides highlighting best commercial practices for preserving cash flow, marketing tools and resources for navigating through these challenging times.”

“Heading into 2022, our focus at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts will continue to be the health, safety and well-being of our guests, team members and partners,” stresses Sharma. “I believe domestic travel will maintain its stronghold on the market, as we continue on the road to recovery. Government guidelines and regulations will continue to impact the industry, with agility and adaptability playing a crucial role. As history has shown, the hospitality industry is notoriously resilient, and we feel confident that it will rebound faster than ever.” 

Wyndham, and the rest of Indian hospitality, will be keeping fingers crossed for that.

Better placed to recover?

Brands are playing a significant role in rebuilding consumer confidence, observes Nikhil Sharma, regional director, Eurasia, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “Being a part of a well-known brand gives hotel partners access to technology, safety, protocols, and distribution channels, which ultimately helps to rebuild guest confidence. Brands deliver more direct bookings through loyalty members, who stay longer and spend more. Brands also generate significant distribution and operating cost savings through lower procurement, technology, and labour costs.

“We have built our portfolio of renowned hotel brands primarily through acquisitions, enabling us to meet travellers’ leisure and business travel needs across a wide range of price points, experiences and destinations. We have established an extensive track record of successfully integrating franchise systems and enhancing the performance of brands post-acquisition by leveraging our operating best practices, significant scale, award-winning Wyndham Rewards loyalty programme and access to global distribution networks, producing substantial cost synergies for our franchisees and us. We intend to build upon our past success by opportunistically acquiring and integrating brands into our franchising platform.”