How Wyndham Uses Experiences to Drive Direct Bookings

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. It’s your hospitality friend Glenn here in the rain forest in Puerto Rico. And I don’t know how this happened. Just walking, minding my own business. And I bump into this guy. Michael Shiwdin, global VP of loyalty with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, are here at the Grand Rio Mar. Great to see you, man.

Mike: [00:00:19] Great to see you as well.

Glenn: [00:00:21] So let’s take a let’s take a little walk through the rainforest because I’m excited because today we’re going to be going doing some kayaking. And it’s a great experience. I love how this resort is tied into the rainforest, and I’m absolutely loving it. And I can’t help but think normal people love to do this all the time and have experiences. And you’re the loyalty guy. You can tell me a little bit about how they’re seeing it.

Mike: [00:00:42] I mean, it’s this, this resort just went through a $70 million renovation and is really a focal point of the expansion of what we’re doing with Wyndham Rewards, right? Consumers want more than just a hotel stay. They want these experiences. And right now we’re walking through Arjunk national rainforest. Look at this beautiful landscape, the only resort in Puerto Rico that touches Atlantic Ocean as well as rainforest. And so, so much to do here.

Glenn: [00:01:09] Yeah. And we’re actually going to be going kayaking down the river that goes right into the ocean. And because I picked up this information, the Rio Mar the river into the sea. Right? Right. So this is pretty great. This is a very, very special place.

Mike: [00:01:25] It is, it is. And, and, you know, one of our marquee properties here and really ties into last year, we completely expanded out our opportunities for our members for experiences. Kayaking is one of them. You know, our partnership, our long standing partnership with Viator, our members can not only leverage that relationship for discounts, but more importantly, earn Wyndham Rewards points, right and leverage their points for these types of experiences.

Glenn: [00:01:48] Right? And when you’re talking about experiences, we might be in the rainforest, but I know like Viator can get you into the to the loop and you can skip the line and stuff like that. So whatever your experience is, loyalty can help you get closer to having those moments.

Mike: [00:02:03] And that’s been our key focus is we want the program to really focus not just on the hotel stay, but even if you’re looking for a local concert, we have that partnership with Ticketmaster and Madison Square Garden for incredible concert opportunities and VIP experiences.

Glenn: [00:02:17] You know, I live near Madison Square Garden. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta talk. Maybe I should just pause this video. Yeah, but yeah, so that’s the kind of experiences I like. I love rainforests, I love going to concerts, I love art museums. I love all of these kinds of, of things. But that’s me as a consumer. Why should owners of hotels care about this sort of thing?

Mike: [00:02:36] So that’s what’s been so exciting since we launched Wyndham Rewards Experiences in May. We’ve seen almost A5X increase in member engagement and what those consumers are their LTV in terms of booking direct with our franchisees, cheapest cost channel costs for our franchisee and our system. Ultimately, we’re seeing double digit increases. And so our members are getting the opportunity to leverage their points or earn points on these experiences. And then ultimately driving back to the Wyndham portfolio for their next hotel stay.

Glenn: [00:03:08] Yeah. If not only was that a great answer, but you should have seen what we just had to walk through over there.

Mike: [00:03:13] So multitasking.

Glenn: [00:03:14] Dude, you gave that effort. That was effortless answer while walking through an obstacle course that should be a new TV show.

Mike: [00:03:20] And then look at this view.

Glenn: [00:03:21] Yeah. It’s. Yeah. All right. Well, I’m gonna turn the camera around for one second so you can see the view. We got some some folks down there. So it’s great because we’ve been walking through the forest and we’re just like literally going to a merge out at the the ocean. So guests are more loyal to loyal to a brand when they feel more comfortable. And that really helps drive that owner revenue.

Mike: [00:03:41] That’s exactly right. And so our goal is how do we ensure that Wyndham remains top of mind every day? And it’s these experiences, whether you’re staying at our hotel or if you simply want to take a trip to your next minor league baseball game. Just last summer, my son and I threw out the first pitch at the Brooklyn Cyclones game.

Glenn: [00:04:01] Are you serious?

Mike: [00:04:01] And to this day, I am the best dad in town. Yeah. And so that’s what matters. Those memorable experiences. And ultimately, now I’m distracted by the beach.

Glenn: [00:04:11] Yeah. No, this is great. No. Absolutely. This is absolutely incredible. And really, what you’re really talking about is experiences enabling connections. Experiences enable connections with family, with friends. Experiences enable connections between customers and owners.

Mike: [00:04:26] That’s right. And that’s that’s the heart of hospitality, right? It’s the memorable moment. Yeah. And that’s our goal for winning rewards is whether you’re at a hotel stay or not. How do how does Wyndham Rewards create those memorable moments to truly become once in a lifetime opportunity?

Glenn: [00:04:40] All right, I love it. Well, how about we go have a memorable moment?

Mike: [00:04:42] Yes. Let’s go kayaking.

Glenn: [00:04:43] All right. And one quick shout out to the shorts. I mean see you later. Bye.