Skift Take
Eight things jumped out at us from Wyndham annual financial filing. One surprise was that it has introduced an AI risk disclosure. That is something we expect will become commonplace in travel company filings.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.
Wyndham is the world's largest hotel franchisor, and we found a handful of noteworthy details in its annual 10-K filing.
1. Wyndham essentially hasn't grown in property count over the past five years.Five years ago, as of December 2018, it had 9,177 hotels. At the end of last year, it just had one more hotel.
How is that possible? Wyndham has seen hotels leave its system, and it has added ones. Over time, the mix has shifted to hotels with more rooms, expanding the total number of rooms under management. The group managed nearly 809,000 rooms five years ago. It now manages 7.7% more, at 871,794.
Wyndham plans to grow its system by between 3% and 4% in 2024.
It has an ambition to speed up to a "3% to 5% pace" annually by 2026. It thinks it can do this by getting better at retaining franchisees, even though it already has leading retention rates. It also thinks it can speed up its growth by "expanding into adjacent market segments [with new brands] and new geographies."
2. Wyndham is becoming more global.When the U.S.-based company went public in 2018, about 70%