My “Travel Made Easy” posts are meant to provide easy access to new destinations, hotel groups or airlines, with a quick summary and links to more in-depth information you might be interested in about the brand. Today’s post provides a summary of all the information around the Wyndham Worldwide Hotel Group, their brands, the experience you can expect at their hotels like Super 8 or Days Inn and the Wyndham Rewards program to earn points for free stays and more!
The Hotel Group: Wyndham is the largest hotel company in the world with more than 7,800 hotels in 72 countries. Most of those hotels (76%) are in the budget segment, led by the biggest and most recognized brands Super 8 and Days Inn, which alone make up 60% of all hotels in the group! You will find a growing number of more upscale Wyndham branded hotels and they have acquired the luxury hotels Dolce, giving you more high-end choices! Wyndham has 80% of their properties in the Americas, yet has still more properties in Asia or Europe than many of the other chains due to its huge number of hotels! You can find more details in the Wyndham Facts & Figures!
The Experience: Wyndham has a total of 13 brands. You’ll find Super 8 and Days Inn at the bottom of the corporate scale in the budget segment, together with Knight’s Inn, Howard Johnson, new-built Microtel and Travelodge. Positioned just slightly above, you’ll find Ramada, Baymont and Tryp. All of these brands have Average Daily Rates of less than $75/night (for comparison, IHG’s low-end Holiday Inn Express is $110/night!), making it difficult to differentiate between the brands. At the higher end you have the flagship Wyndham brand and the luxury Dolce hotels for a more upscale experience.
Defining the experience for any of the Wyndham brands is made more difficult by the large number of older properties and only loosely enforced brand standard. The stay experience can vary greatly between a new or renovated and well managed hotel and poorly managed ones, resulting in a lot of overlap between the brands: A nice & new Super 8 might provide a better stay experience than an un-renovated, poorly managed Ramada hotel!
My Experience review for each brand provides tips on how to pick the good properties in each brand and what to expect at those! Click on the highlighted brand name to find out more for all the brands I have reviewed so far!
And check out my Travel Made Easy – How to book & save at Wyndham Hotels to find the best Wyndham hotels and best price!
The Rewards Program: The Wyndham Rewards program has been rated the best hotel rewards program in the industry for the great value it offers in earning & redeeming points as well as its innovative features, like fixed-priced redemption rates! I have also found great value in the program, yet the attraction for many business travelers and travel bloggers is limited by the small number of upscale hotels to spend a dream vacation at! That’s getting better with the addition of 17,000 homes & condos to the program and the recently updated Wyndham Rewards Visa card to earn points more quickly. You can read my detailed review of the program here!