Travel + Leisure Co.

Last updated
Travel + Leisure Co.
FormerlyWyndham Worldwide (2006–2018)
Company type Public
Industry Hospitality
FoundedJuly 8, 2006 (2006-07-08)
Headquarters Orlando, Florida,
United States
Key people
  • Michael D. Brown (president & CEO) [1]
  • Michael Hug (CFO) [2]
  • Noah Brodsky (chief brand officer) [3]
Products Timeshare, vacation rentals, resorts
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$4.043 billion(2019) [4]
Increase2.svgUS$812 million(2019) [4]
Increase2.svgUS$507 million(2019) [4]
Number of employees
22,500 [5]  (2019)
Subsidiaries RCI
WorldMark by Wyndham
Website www.travelandleisureco.com
Footnotes /references
[6] [7]

Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. [8] It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownership clubs, including Club Wyndham and WorldMark by Wyndham, and provides timeshare exchange services, primarily through RCI.

Contents

The company operates three business lines: Wyndham Destinations, the world's largest vacation ownership business; Panorama, operating vacation exchange, membership travel, and travel technology businesses; and Travel + Leisure Group, offering consumer travel products, including online and subscription travel services and product licensing. [9]

Wyndham Worldwide was formed as a spin-off from Cendant Corporation in 2006, with ownership of Cendant's hotel and timeshare businesses. In 2018, Wyndham Worldwide spun off its hotel division as Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and changed its own name to Wyndham Destinations and then to Travel + Leisure in 2021 following the acquisition of the brand from Meredith Corporation, later known as Dotdash Meredith. The Travel + Leisure magazine is published independently by Dotdash Meredith under a long-term license agreement. [10]

History

The company's origins can be traced to the founding of Hospitality Franchise Systems (HFS) in 1990, created as a vehicle to acquire hotel franchises. By 1995, it had acquired the Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada, and Super 8 brands. HFS then expanded into other businesses. In 1996, it acquired the timeshare exchange service Resort Condominiums International. In 1997, HFS merged with CUC International to form Cendant Corporation. Cendant increased its involvement in the timeshare business by buying Fairfield Communities in 2001 and Trendwest Resorts in 2002. In 2005, Cendant bought the Wyndham hotel brand from the Blackstone Group.

On July 31, 2006, Wyndham Worldwide was created as a spin-off from Cendant with ownership of its hotel and timeshare businesses, as part of a plan to break Cendant up into four separate companies.

In 2013, Wyndham acquired Shell Vacations Club for $102 million plus $153 million of assumed debt. [11]

In August 2017, Wyndham announced plans to spin off its hotel division to shareholders as a separate publicly traded company, thereby becoming a pure timeshare company. [12] The spin-off of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts occurred on May 31, 2018, and what remained of Wyndham Worldwide was renamed as Wyndham Destinations the same day. [13] [14]

Wyndham Destinations

Wyndham Destinations, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is the largest vacation ownership program in the world. [15] It includes a network of more than 245 properties, 25,000 individual units, and over 867,000 property owners. [16] Locations are in North America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. Wyndham Destinations includes marketing and sales of vacation ownership interests, consumer financing in conjunction with the purchase of vacation ownership interests, property management services to property owners' associations, and development and acquisition of vacation ownership resorts. [17]

Wyndham Destinations brands

Panorama

Panorama was formed in 2020 to manage the company's timeshare exchange and membership travel and technology businesses, including RCI. This division operates the businesses formerly part of Wyndham Destination Network. Wyndham Exchange and Rentals officially changed its name to Wyndham Destination Network on January 1, 2016, and formerly operated over 110,000 vacation properties worldwide in more than 100 countries. [19] To help diversify from its traditional exchange business, the company bought Love Home Swap in 2017. [20] On May 9, 2018, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation completed an agreement to sell its European vacation rental business, which included cottages.com, Hoseasons, James Villa Holidays, Landal GreenParks, Novasol, and several others to Platinum Equity for around $1.3 billion [21] Wyndham Destinations sold its North American Vacation Rental business and associated brands to Vacasa in July 2019 [22] and purchased Alliance Reservations Network in August 2019 for $92 million. [23]

Panorama brands

  • RCI
  • 7Across (formerly DAE previously Dial An Exchange)
  • The Registry Collection
  • Love Home Swap
  • Extra Holidays
  • Panorama Travel Solutions
  • @Work International
  • Alliance Reservations Network

Sales practices

Wyndham Vacation Resorts was the focus of investigations regarding their sales practices in 2016 in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Real Estate Commission for Pennsylvania fined Wyndham and their broker at their Shawnee-on-Delaware location, Craig Roberts, a total of $15,000. Eight months earlier, Wyndham settled similar allegations in Wisconsin paying $655,000 in restitution to 29 consumers. [24]

Also in 2016, a San Francisco jury awarded $20 million to Trish Williams, a former Wyndham timeshare sales representative, who was wrongfully terminated in 2010 for reporting timeshare fraud on the elderly. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeshare</span> Property with a particular form of ownership or use rights

A timeshare is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cendant</span> Defunct American company

Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New York City, the majority of its headquarters employees were in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vacation rental</span> Furnished dwelling for short-term stays

A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. Other terms used are self-catering rental, holiday home, holiday let, cottage holiday and gite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budget Rent a Car</span> American car rental brand

Budget Rent a Car System, Inc. is an American car rental company that was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles, California by Morris Mirkin. Budget is a subsidiary of the Avis Budget Group, with its operations headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.

In the leisure industry, a destination club is a form of timeshare system where members pay a membership deposit and annual dues to access the club's properties.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is an American hotel company based in Parsippany, New Jersey, United States. It describes itself as the largest hotel franchisor in the world, with 9,280 locations. It has a portfolio of 20 hotel brands, including Baymont, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, La Quinta, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, and Wyndham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ILG, Inc.</span> American timeshare company

ILG, Inc. is an American timeshare company and a subsidiary of Marriott Vacations Worldwide. It was formerly a subsidiary of the corporation IAC. ILG is the parent company of Interval International, a provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry. ILG consists of two operating segments: membership and exchange. ILG's principal business segment offers travel and leisure related products and services to owners of vacation interests and others primarily through various membership programs, as well as related services to resort developer clients. As of December 31, 2012, nearly 2,800 resorts located in over 75 countries participated in Interval's primary exchange network. As of that date, the Membership and Exchange segment had approximately two million members enrolled in its various membership programs including approximately 1.8 million in the Interval Network. The biggest competitors for Interval are RCI, and Platinum Interchange. Interval is the second largest timeshare exchange company after RCI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marriott Vacation Club</span> Timeshare resorts

Marriott Vacation Club is the primary timeshare brand of Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation. The brand comprises around 70 Marriott Vacation Club properties throughout the United States, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Marriott Vacation Club resorts consist of one, two, and three-bedroom villas, with more than 400,000 owners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RCI (company)</span> Timeshare exchange service company

RCI is a timeshare exchange company with over 4,300 affiliated resorts in 100 countries.

Trading Places International (TPI) is a corporation located in Lake Forest, California. TPI provides a full spectrum of vacation services to vacation interval owners, resort associations, and resort developers. They rank third worldwide in independent vacation exchanges confirmed annually at hundreds of resorts. The company specializes in association and resort management, vacation exchanges, rentals, owner resales, traditional travel, and developer support offerings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilton Grand Vacations</span> American timeshare company

Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. is a multi-national company that is based in Orlando, Florida, United States. It manages and operates the Hilton Worldwide timeshare and vacation ownership brands under an exclusive licensing agreement with Hilton Worldwide. HGV was formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide until it was spun off into a publicly traded company in 2017. Even though HGV is an independent company post spin-off, Hilton Worldwide still retains full ownership of the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, Hilton Vacation Club, and Hilton Club brands that HGV manages and operates for them. These timeshare brands are all part of Hilton Worldwide's portfolio of 22 hotel and resort brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club Mahindra Holidays</span> Indian holiday resort operator

Club Mahindra is the flagship brand of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited (MHRIL), an Indian Hospitality company founded in 1996. It is a part of the Leisure and Hospitality sector of the Mahindra Group and provides family holidays on a timeshare basis. MHRIL offers family holidays primarily through vacation ownership memberships for over a period of 25/10 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WorldMark by Wyndham</span>

WorldMark by Wyndham is the developer and marketer of WorldMark, The club, a vacation ownership program. Worldmark by Wyndham is part of the Travel + Leisure Co.. The original development partner of the club was Trendwest International (TWI), a subsidiary of Jeld-Wen, a door and window manufacturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club Wyndham South Pacific</span>

Club Wyndham South Pacific is a wholly owned subsidiary of Travel + Leisure Co. which operates as a vacation ownership, allowing vacationers to own real estate interest in one of the Wyndham resorts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua-Aston Hospitality</span> Hotel management company based in Honolulu, Hawaii

Aqua-Aston Hospitality, LLC is a Honolulu-based hotel management company operating a multi-branded line of hotels, condominiums and vacation resort properties primarily located in Hawaii. The chain was purchased by Marriott Vacations Worldwide in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Holiday Club</span>

Royal Holiday Club is a vacation club membership operator and resort developer based in Mexico offering points-based vacation ownership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marriott Vacations Worldwide</span> American timeshare company

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is a pure-play public timeshare company. Formerly a division of Marriott International, Marriott Vacations Worldwide was established as a separate, publicly traded entity focusing primarily on vacation ownership in November 2011. Marriott Vacations Worldwide runs more than 120 resorts with over 700,000 Owners and Members. Its brands include Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Vacation Club Pulse, Grand Residences by Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club. The Company also operates Interval International, which offers an exchange network and travel membership programs through a network of more than 3,200 affiliated resorts in over 90 countries and territories.

Diamond Resorts is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Grand Vacations. Diamond Resorts was an independent timeshare and vacation ownership company until it was purchased by HGV in 2021. Following the purchase, Diamond's resorts became part of HGV's resort portfolio, and Diamond itself became a brand and subsidiary of HGV. The majority of Diamond Resorts have been or will be rebranded as Hilton vacation Club properties, however the original brand will continue to exist as some resorts are slated to retain the Diamond Resorts name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vida Vacations</span> Mexican timeshare company

Vida Vacations is a vacation membership company, which allows its customers to purchase a Right to Use and, more recently, a real estate interest in 15 resorts in Mexico. It was founded in 2010 by Grupo Vidanta, and was originally named "Vida Vacation Club". Before that, in the 1990s it was called Vidafel and sold only timeshares. The total number of rooms is approximately 7,000.

The Beekman Group is a leisure hospitality provider and property developer headquartered in Port Shepstone on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The group is known as a leisure services provider of holiday accommodation and resort management services. It also has a portfolio of property development, including leisure, residential and commercial properties. It started operations in 1970.

References

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