The Chairman and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide, Stephen Holmes prefers checking in at the hotels of the company spread across different countries as a mystery guest. Wyndham Worldwide is the largest franchiser of the hotel brands in the world including Howard Johnson and Ramada. The seasoned hotelier understands that being a mystery guest can scrutinize the different touch points that contribute to the customers’ stay at the hotels. Unfortunately, he says that the staffs in the hotels recognize him most of the times.
The latest trip to the city of Mumbai was for a different purpose he stated. Wyndham Worldwide is working with Mahindra Holidays that is a part of the former’s RCI time share exchange network. The $5.3 billion Wyndham is the largest seller of the time share properties and it has an extensive association with Mahindra Group based in India. The company launched the Days Inn brand as a joint venture with the Mahindra Group in the year 1989. The US based hospitality chain Wyndham Worldwide has been in the country for quite sometime. Its presence is thinner in comparison to its rivals such as Radisson brand’s owner, Carlson Rezidor.
In Asia that is the third largest economy in the world, Wyndham has 25 hotels in comparison to Carlson Rezidor that has over 100 properties. Understanding the small presence, Holmes said that the company intends to change this. This can be done with the growing Indian economy and increasing income and aspirations of the Indians that will boost the business. Wyndham is in plans to open 1,000 hotels in the country in a time frame of 10 to 25 years, he added. The chain has reached the figure of China where it entered in 1980s as in India.
He is in plans to bring the mid-scale brand called Super 8 to India in the near future. Though the global slowdown might be a concern for the businesses operating globally, Holmes said that it has not shown up in the performance of Wyndham.
