Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Delivers Major Milestones In Its Integration Of La Quinta

Cut-over of Technology Systems Completed less than a Year after the Acquisition

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Apr 09, 2019, 06:30 ET

PARSIPPANY, N.J., April 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH) today announced that it has achieved several major milestones in its integration of La Quinta by Wyndham. Following last week's migration off of legacy technology systems, La Quinta's more than 900 hotels are now operating on the same central reservation, property management, loyalty, digital and call-center platforms as Wyndham's 19 other hotel brands.

This migration of La Quinta systems had been in the planning and testing phases for months, but it was implemented over a ten-hour period last week by a large cross-functional team from Wyndham and its technology partners. Because it involved the simultaneous transition of La Quinta's reservations software, customer-facing websites and property management system for more than 900 hotels, the Company believes it was one of the largest same-day systems migrations in the history of the hospitality industry.

As a result of this transition, guests can now browse and book La Quinta hotels on Wyndham's highly-integrated digital platform, WyndhamHotels.com, which features all of the hotels within the portfolio and offers engaging loyalty and account management features. In addition, Wyndham Rewards members are guaranteed to earn a minimum of 1,000 points on every qualified stay, achieve elite status after only five qualifying nights, enjoy free night stays at Wyndham Rewards participating hotels starting at just 7,500 points, and enjoy one of the largest and most diverse redemption portfolios in the industry, with over 30,000 redemption hotels, vacation club resorts, and vacation rentals worldwide. Lastly, La Quinta franchisees now have improved reservation distribution, real-time rate management, stronger data security, increased systems stability, and lower up-front technology costs.

"We are extremely proud of our teams' tremendous effort to accomplish this monumental transition, and we are excited to give La Quinta franchisees access to our state-of-the-art, cloud-based technology platform and to welcome La Quinta loyalty members to Wyndham Rewards," said Geoff Ballotti, president and chief executive officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. "We are confident that franchisees will recognize the stability, security and increased global distribution of our technology platform, and that La Quinta Returns members will appreciate the simplicity and generosity of our world-class Wyndham Rewards loyalty program."

The successful systems cut-over gives Wyndham Hotels further confidence in its ability to deliver $60 to $70 million of annual synergies from La Quinta and in its ability to reach that level of synergies in the second half of 2019, just over a year after Wyndham's May 2018 acquisition of La Quinta.

About Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH) is the world's largest hotel franchising company, with approximately 9,200 hotels across more than 80 countries on six continents. Through its network of approximately 810,000 rooms appealing to the everyday traveler, Wyndham commands a leading presence in both the economy and midscale segments of the lodging industry. The Company operates a portfolio of 20 hotel brands, including Super 8^®, Days Inn^®, Ramada^®, Microtel^®, La Quinta^®, Wingate^®, AmericInn^®, Hawthorn Suites^®, The Trademark Collection^®, and Wyndham^®. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is also a leading provider of hotel management services, with more than 400 properties under management. The Company's award-winning Wyndham Rewards^® loyalty program offers more than 70 million enrolled members the opportunity to redeem points at tens of thousands of hotels, vacation club resorts and vacation rentals globally. For more information, visit www.wyndhamhotels.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include those that convey management's expectations as to the future based on plans, estimates and projections at the time Wyndham Hotels makes the statements and may be identified by words such as "will," "expect," "believe," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "goal," "future," "estimate" and similar words or expressions, including the negative version of such words and expressions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Wyndham Hotels to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements related to Wyndham Hotels' current views and expectations with respect to the integration of La Quinta.

You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements include without limitation general economic conditions, the performance of financial and credit markets, the economic environment for the hospitality industry, operating risks associated with the hotel franchising and management businesses, the impact of war, terrorist activity or political strife, risks related to our spin-off as a newly independent company, risks related to the acquisition and integration of La Quinta, risks related to our ability to obtain financing and the terms of such financing, and the timing and amount of future share repurchases and dividends, as well as the risks described in Wyndham Hotels' Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 14, 2019. Except as required by law, Wyndham Hotels undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, subsequent events or otherwise.

SOURCE Wyndham Hotels & Resorts