Cendant's Hospitality spin-off to be named Whyndham Worldwide
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Cendant's Hospitality spin-off to be named Whyndham Worldwide
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Category: Worldwide
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2006-03-20
Wyndham Worldwide will become the name of the new hospitality company expected to be created by Cendant Corporation (NYSE: CD) later this year in the previously announced spin-off of its lodging, vacation exchange and rental, and timeshare resorts businesses, it was announced today.
Upon completion of the spin-off, Wyndham Worldwide will be an independent, publicly traded, pure-play company focused on the development and performance of its nine hotel lodging chains including the Wyndham®, Ramada®, Super 8®, Wingate Inn® and Days Inn® brands; its vacation exchange and rental businesses including RCI®, Novasol® and Landal GreenParks®, and its timeshare resorts business including Fairfield® Resorts and Trendwest® Resorts.
Stephen P. Holmes, Cendant vice chairman and the new company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Wyndham Worldwide "represents the elevation of a signature brand with high consumer appeal to serve as our new corporate identity."
"As the leading provider of hotel, vacation exchange and rental, and timeshare accommodations across six continents, we will leverage a name that provides us with a familiar corporate identity that unquestionably conveys who we are and what we provide to millions of consumers worldwide," he said.
Noting that the Wyndham hotel brand is widely known "for its distinctly personalized approach to hospitality," Holmes said, "We believe Wyndham Worldwide translates perfectly as the bold new identity for a company that provides consumers with the widest choice in global travel accommodations for virtually any occasion, price point and experience."
Wyndham Worldwide will be one of the world’s largest hospitality companies and preeminent providers of hospitality products and services, encompassing more than 6,300 franchised or managed hotels with over 530,000 hotel rooms worldwide; serving more than three million members of the RCI exchange network with access to over 4,000 resorts worldwide; more than 55,000 vacation exchange and rental properties located in more than 100 countries, and over 140 timeshare resorts serving more than 750,000 timeshare owners throughout North America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.
"Even as we adopt a new corporate brand to represent the sum of our hospitality businesses, we recognize the tremendous value and equity of each of our brands," Holmes said. "Our commitment to our total brand portfolio remains just as strong, and we will continue to grow and enhance the presence of our brands within their respective market segments."
To further leverage RCI's unique brand equity in the timeshare exchange businesses, and in recognition of the recent integration of RCI with our European vacation rental businesses, the combined vacation exchange and rental businesses will be renamed the RCI Global Vacation Network. The new name will reinforce the groups’ established global business network of partnerships and distribution channels enabling the individual brands to flourish in existing and new markets.
Since the Cendant name will be retired, the company’s timeshare development subsidiary, Cendant Timeshare Resort Group, Inc., will change its identity to Wyndham Vacation Ownership, Inc. It will continue to operate under its two highly-regarded resort development brands, Fairfield Resorts and Trendwest Resorts, as well their respective timeshare programs, FairShare Plus® and WorldMark®.
Concurrently, Cendant Hotel Group, the unit that manages the company’s franchised and managed hotel lodging business, will change its name to Wyndham Hotel Group, and the company’s namesake hotel brand will become Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
"Wyndham will provide an integrated brand identity to bridge our businesses as we pursue new growth strategies, including mixed-use hotel and timeshare development," Holmes said. "As an upscale brand, Wyndham provides both our hotel and timeshare development businesses with a common platform from which to pursue further growth in higher-end segments."
"These and other integrated strategies will not only help further extend our brands globally, but will also dramatically redefine Wyndham as a worldwide leader in all facets of lodging hospitality," Holmes concluded.
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