Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is a hotel company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. The company is known as the largest hotel franchiser in the world, with 9,280 locations across 22 unique brands. Some of those brands include the well established Howard Johnson, Days Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, Baymont, La Quinta, and Wyndham. There is partially a brand for every market out there (economy, extended stay, full service, luxury, etc.)

So what’s the problem with Wyndham? Well, many of these brands are very established meaning many locations are very old, outdated and are becoming less appealing. Throughout the years as Hilton, Marriott, IGH and many others rolled out new designs, updated their brands and upped their standards, Wyndham just fell silent and kept on going. So, now many of these brands across the country are becoming less appealing due to this. Another reason for this is with these brands being franchises, it also means on top of being outdated, some locations aren’t run very well giving Wydnham a bad image. Lastly, the standards Wyndham has are very soft compared to what other companies have. They are jokingly called the “relaxed” hotel company which ties into the first point made above. 

All these factors give Wyndham a poor image. However, it is worth pointing out that not all locations or brands are terrible. It all boils down to the ownership and management at that particular location. Between 2018 and 2021, Wyndham finally woke up and came out with new concepts, updated designs and rolled out new standards. In today’s post we will be taking an in depth look into Wyndham Hotels & Resorts most recent brand prototypes and what the future holds for some of these brands. So without further ado, let’s jump into our first brand!

Days Inn – Bask in the Sun

The Days Inn brand was founded in 1970 by Cecil B. Day, who opened the first location in Tybee Island, Georgia. From the very start, this brand was innovative and creative with playing with new concepts and ideas. For example, when the second location was constructed, it featured a restaurant and gift shop combination called Tasty World. In addition to this, the hotel also had on-site gasoline pumps to sell unbranded fuel to motel guests. Days Inn was one of the first hotel chains to offer discounts to senior citizens. It was also among the first to locate its properties along suburban and rural exits on the Interstate Highway System, as opposed to more urban locations.

The brand is now a part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. As of December 31, 2018, Days Inn includes 1,728 locations worldwide with 137,678 rooms.

Throughout the years under Wyndham’s control this brand has fallen from its roots and just sat quite with no new room designs or innovations done. Pair this with very loose and poor quality control measures, the brand really has fallen to a cheap, hit or miss roadside motel brand. Finally, after many years in 2018, the brand announced it would be refreshing everything from room designs, branding and more.

As someone who works for this brand, I have to say this new room design really excites me as it really embraces the original spirit of the brand and takes the color scheme of Days Inn and really builds on it. As someone really into marketing, I love when companies make subtle references to their brand by using their color scheme or logos in creative ways. I can definitely see, at least in my hotel, the rooms going for a higher rate once we roll out this design.

Howard Johnsons – Go Happy. Go Hojo.

The history and story behind this brand is actually very interesting and a cool story to really take a look at. The Howard Johnson brand actually started as a chain of famous restaurants that were the first to sell 28 flavors of ice cream and create the classic diner experience we all enjoy today. Continuing to build on the very successful concept, Johnson began pairing new restaurant locations with lodging to target more travelers and families. 

Sadly, much like many of Wyndham’s economy or mid-tiered brands, this brand has also suffered the same fate of falling far from its roots and developing a poor brand image. Perfect example, the Howard Johnson location not far from my hotel I work at is notorious for police activity, drugs, prostitution, and other questionable activities. The hotel really is a hive for all these troublesome people and activities. However, just because this one location is like this doesn’t mean they are all exactly like this. My point is many of these locations suffer similar issues while some locations are much better off. It honestly all depends on the operators and owners of the property.

I have to say out of all the prototypes released, this is one of my favorites since it really takes the classic Howard Johnson style and brings it into the 21st century. It really reminds me of something you would see from HGTV or from one of those renovation shows. Like I mentioned above, the past few years this brand really has strayed far from its roots. I feel like this design really shouts Howard Johnson. One thing I do dislike about the design is I feel like there is way too much going on with the first design with the blue accent walls while in the other room there is too little going on. I feel like these designs clash with each other since one room has too much furniture, accents and decorations while the other is slightly too simple. Regardless this is 100% a major improvement over what the brand currently has.

Super 8 – See You On the Road

Ron Rivett and Dennis Brown created the new Super 8 Motel corporation with each of them owning 50% of the stock in the new company. Super 8 got its iconic name from how much a room used to cost back then, $8.88 which is about $50.00 in today’s money. The first Super 8, with 60 rooms, opened in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1974, built near a Holiday Inn with just some drawings made by Rivett as blueprints. The stucco exterior with an English Tudor style was inspired by Rivett’s father-in-law, who was a stucco; the English Tudor style and placing of Super 8’s near Holiday Inns was an established procedure for setting up new Super 8’s for years to come.

Out of all the prototypes I looked at that Wyndham released, these were by far my least favorite by a long shot. I feel like all they really did was take dull, drab and outdated and tweaked it barely. It really feels like these rooms are just more updated versions of old dated rooms. I feel like there could have been more effort put into these rooms. The color pallet in each variation feels too dark and clashes with everything else in the room.  

Not only did I feel like the interior was not amazing, the exterior was no better. If you look at the images of what new locations would look like, they look like an office building and not a hotel. While I do give them credit for trying to stand out from the standard box like design, I feel like they could have done a better job of making it look less office-like and more welcoming and relaxing like a hotel should be. Even the lobby also has an office building and commercial like atmosphere to it. Regardless, it is definitely a step in the right direction for the brand over what exists now.    

Ramada

Like many of the brands we already discussed, Ramada also had very humble routes and was innovative from the very start. Founded by Marion W. Isbell with the investment help of Michael Robinson and Del Webb, the brand started in 1953. 

Ramada opened its first hotel, a 60-room facility, on U.S. Route 66 at Flagstaff, Arizona in 1954 and set up its headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, where the chain built the Sahara Hotel on North 1st Street downtown in 1956 (which later became the Ramada Inn Downtown) and a 300-room Ramada Inn in the 3800 block of East Van Buren in 1958 that would become the chain’s flagship property and headquarters. 

Inspired by rival hotel chain Holiday Inn, Ramada seeked to develop a chain of roadside motor hotels conveniently located along major highways which would provide lodgings with hotel-like quality at near-motel rates plus amenities such as TV, air conditioning, swimming pools, and on-premises restaurants.

I always found Ramada an odd brand because it’s so widespread. Some locations have ballrooms, event space and are full service. Those are generally the nicer locations. Have an old school Hilton feel to them. Meanwhile there are also the select service locations that are just dumpy roadside motels. 

One thing I find interesting about Ramada is how much nicer the locations are in Europe, Canada and Asia. It just speaks volumes of where the brand currently is and what it hopes to be. Overall, I find the rooms are pretty much copy and paste from the Days Inn prototype. For Days, it works all the colors and the design. I think here it’s just too similar to Days. Also the design for Days Inn works since that is a select service/economy brand whereas Ramada is more of a full service midscale brand. I think Ramada is trying to be something it’s not. It’s trying to become like a Hilton, Marriott or IGH brand which it will never come close to.

AmericInn

The AmericInn Franchise was founded by Jim Graves, and the first location opened in 1984. By 1990, there were more than 20 AmericInn properties located in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1994, AmericInn began franchising with the help of Wyman Nelson, an entrepreneur known for expanding the Perkins Restaurant and Bakery chain in the 1960s and 1970s.

Expansion outside the Midwestern United States began in 2000. AmericInn has 240 motels, with more than 80 percent of its locations in the Upper Midwest.

All AmericInn properties include a recreation area with pool and whirlpool, as well as fourteen different types of guest rooms. A complimentary hot breakfast, called “AmericInn Perk,” is also offered at each hotel and includes bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, waffles, pastries, cereals, juice, and fruit. Rooms are built with masonry block, sound deadening foam and heavy drywall between rooms, as well as concrete slabs, to minimize noise within rooms.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts acquired the brand in July 2017.

This honestly does not look like a brand Wyndham Hotels. It honestly has more of a Holiday Inn, Hilton or Marriott feel to it. We mentioned throughout this post, the contestant problems Wyndham has across its portfolio from poor cleanliness, bad management, outdated standards and more. AmericInn feels like the total opposite to all these issues. This is honestly the way Wyndham should be going portfolio wide. These rooms are definitely a good way to repair their damaged image from many of their brands without moving too far over to the luxury side. Genius move by the brand acquiring this chain back in 2017.

La Quinta

Just like all of these brands, La Quinta also started out as a separate independently owned and operated hotel company. The brand got its start in 1968 from a pair of brothers Sam and Phil Barshop. However unlike most of these brands, where many locations are poorly run, not clean or maintained, La Quinta has actually been setting the standards for new Wyndham brands and renovations. The brand is actually looked at as one of their top brands and is often compared to a Hilton or Marriott brand. Think about that for a second, most of the brands we have talked about, are not even remotely close to or comparable to Hilton or Marriott. This brand actually did such a good job, it’s now even helping the brands up their game and up their standards. 

The brand has also been so successful that it is now beginning to be used in dual branded hotel prototypes. A dual branded hotel comprises two similar hotels from the same brand family – such as a Residence Inn and Moxy by Marriott – in a single building. The brands share the same back of house areas and oftentimes share common areas.

Sadly, it is very difficult to find many development plans, images or renderings for the rooms that are publicly available. However on Wyndham’s franchising site, there are images showing what current locations look like.

https://development.wyndhamhotels.com/brand/la-quinta/

Overall, this is honestly Wyndham’s best and strongest brand they currently have in their portfolio. I would honestly love for all of their brands to get on La Quinta’s level. I think if Wyndham got their economy and mid-scale brands to this level, they could easily compete much better with the top hotel companies like Marriott, Hilton or IGH.

Final Thoughts

With Wyndham scrambling to play catch up to the competition, I think these new prototypes and standards will go a long way to improving all the brands and the experiences guests will have. 

Will these prototypes be enough though? I honestly don’t think so since Wydnham has such lax standards as it is. Many locations are poorly run and not maintained so in locations like this, I think this would just be a waste of time. You can make a hotel look as nice as you’d like but it won’t hide the problems of the hotel as maintenance wise or management wise. In locations like that, it’ll just look nice for a few months to a few years before it is back to where it is. However, in locations where management is good and the ownership cares, these upgrades can definitely go a long way. I honestly think Wyndham needs to step it up and follow in La Quinta’s footsteps since that is honestly their best brand (of course not including the luxury brands or resorts). 

What do you think of Wyndham Hotels and these new prototypes? Will these new changes convenience you to stay at a Wyndham Brand? Let us know your thoughts down below.