Wyndham, Palladium Hotel Group Forge a Perfect Resort Partnership

Two of the world’s largest hospitality companies partnered this summer when Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which franchises 8,900 hotels in 95 countries, forged a “commercial alliance” with Palladium Hotel Group, one of Spain’s largest hotel companies, adding 6,500 rooms to Wyndham’s Registry Collection.

Under the pact, Palladium’s 14 all-inclusive TRS Hotels and Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Brazil, join Wyndham’s portfolio. The “long-term” agreement brings Wyndham’s all-inclusive resort portfolio to 26 hotels, said company officials.

The alliance also confirms Palladium’s commitment to the American market, while additionally linking the Palladium and Wyndham Rewards programs.

The companies celebrated the agreement at an October 21 event at the Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort & Spa. Immediately prior to the event, TravelPulse spoke with Jesús Sobrino, Palladium’s CEO and Lisa Checchio, evexutive vice president and chief marketing officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, to learn how the companies will mutually benefit from the new union.

TP: How will Palladium properties benefit from the alliance?

JS: With this alliance we can actually become stronger in the US market. We have a distribution mix that is healthy, but the idea with this alliance is to become stronger in the U.S. market, which is a market that for Wyndham is the biggest. We will be able to be in the platform for all the members of Wyndham rewards, one of the largest programs in the hotel industry with 95 million members, right? So the idea of the structure is to become stronger in the U.S. market.

TP: How does the agreement impact the Palladium and TRS brands?

JS: While we have 23 brands in our portfolio, we had a gap that this relationship helps us to fill. This relationship [brings] our luxury brands into the Registry Collection. So we have the benefit of the relationship from a distribution perspective. Now not only do we have an all-inclusive luxury product which our members were asking for.

We really pride ourselves on having a hotel for every guest regardless of you your reason for traveling so now to be able to offer luxury all-inclusive resorts all over the Caribbean to a member base from the U.S., which is the biggest driver-demand market. Si for these resorts yes, it really was a perfect match.

TP: Do Wyndham and Palladium Hotel Group have common values, and if so, what are they?

LC: There are, values like a focus on the guest, a focus on doing things right, a level of integrity and accountability, and having fun! We value helping people vacation around the world and creating fun is core to the relationship. We’re having fun doing it and we are we’re benefiting both companies at the same time.

TP: What initiated the partnership?

JS: Palladium has been around for 50 years in the industry, but we started talking only like a year ago more or less. It was easy to get to where we are right now, because we’re looking for a strong partnership that will make us stronger in the U.S. market that without losing our brands. That’s another key thing to mention from this deal, is that the hotels are still [branded] Grand Palladium and TRS.

TP: How do Wyndham officials feel about continuing the TRS and Grand Palladium brands?

LC: That was very important to us as well, because these are very well-known, trusted brands in these markets particularly the all-inclusive market. We wanted to be able to just amplify that but not take anything away. We didn’t want to lose any of that branding identity.

TP: What’s on the horizon for the TRS and Palladium properties?

JS: We’re doing a major refurbishment of Jamaica right now and we’re in the planning process for a second phase in Jamaica [with] another 1000 rooms. We have land beside this resort which is ours, so we’re planning for hotels more in this beach. We will probably bring other brands that are in Europe here.

TP: How are you working with travel advisors?

JS: Advisors have so many choices so as a hotel, you want to make their lives easier. So we developed a sub-platform called Palladium Connect that is a rewards program. We’re rewarding travel agents for choosing Palladium.

And it doesn’t have to be from our inventory. It’s not always a direct relationship with the travel agent. If they book through a tour operator and are getting to our platform they way, they get points as well. So we reward their preference for Palladium of no matter where they’re looking.

[Advisors] get points from rewards and by receiving training. We train the agents how to sell our products. They have many, many choices they have so the more they know about our properties the easier they can sell them.