Dive Brief:
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts saw strong pipeline growth in the second quarter of 2024, with its global pipeline increasing 7% year over year, according to an earnings report published Wednesday. In the U.S. alone, the company saw 5% year-over-year pipeline growth.
- Wyndham’s pipeline grew to a record high of 2,000 hotels and 245,000 rooms in Q2, marking the 16th consecutive quarter for sequential pipeline growth, the company detailed in the earnings report.
- Approximately 14% of Wyndham’s pipeline comprises hotels under its Echo Suites extended stay brand, which opened its first location earlier this month. With developer interest — and signed deals — ramping up, Wyndham President and CEO Geoff Ballotti said during a Thursday earnings call that the company “is in a stronger position than ever before.”
Dive Insight:
Strong developer interest in Wyndham brands continued into the second quarter, with the company awarding 180 new contracts, including 96 in the U.S., representing a 33% year-over-year increase.
“Owners are much more receptive and sitting down with us now that the uncertainty is behind us,” Ballotti said during the call, presumably referring to Choice Hotels International’s unsolicited bid to acquire Wyndham, a monthslong pursuit that ended in March.
Wyndham has “lots of deals out there on the horizon,” Ballotti said, adding that deals signed in Q2 bolstered “phenomenal” pipeline growth for the hotel company in the quarter.
A significant portion of the projects in the pipeline are Echo Suites, which launched in 2022 and opened its first location in Spartanburg, South Carolina, this month. The brand has a pipeline of roughly 270 hotels, or more than 33,000 rooms, making it Wyndham’s “fastest-growing brand,” Ballotti said during the call.
Jim Darter, CEO of Sandpiper Hospitality, which is managing the inaugural Echo Suites, told Hotel Dive earlier this month an affiliate of his company has several more brand projects currently under contract in Arizona and Utah.
Across Wyndham’s portfolio, the company opened more than 18,000 rooms globally in the second quarter, including more than 7,000 in the U.S., which represented a year-over-year increase of 16%.
Also in the quarter, Wyndham added 11 upscale extended stay hotels and 1,500 rooms to its network through a strategic partnership with WaterWalk. Extended stay remains a highly competitive category industry-wide.
Wyndham saw RevPAR and adjusted EBITDA growth as well in Q2. The company’s global RevPAR increased 2% in the quarter, while adjusted EBITDA increased 13% sequentially and 6% year over year.
The company now anticipates flat growth for RevPAR for full-year 2024, Wyndham CFO Michele Allen detailed during the call.
As for trends that will impact performance for the remainder of the year, Ballotti said “leisure travel sentiment continues to improve.” He added that Wyndham’s booking windows are up 6% year over year, and guests are also booking longer lengths of stay.
