Forget Business or Leisure: It's All About Essential Travelers

The profile of the typical guest at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has changed dramatically in the past year: It’s now making room for the “essential traveler.” In contrast to serving business or leisure guests, the essential traveler has specific needs that the chain is addressing in partnership with Google. According to Wyndham CMO Lisa Checchio, the majority of business travelers at its more than 6,000 locations across the U.S. are construction workers, utility workers, truckers, and other infrastructure and logistics workers. Shutdowns don’t apply to these folks. So, Wyndham kept 90% of its U.S. locations open throughout the pandemic. That strategy paid off. By the end of Q2 2021, revenue per available room more than doubled from the same time last year. While it was still down 5% from 2019, that beats the 21.7% revenue collapse that hospitality data firm STR says U.S. hotels suffered during the same span. Hotels.com’s Captain Obvious Expands His Spokes-Captain Work for Resorts World Las Vegas Where the office meets the road “Our business traveler needs the road,” Checchio said. “Their office is the road, and our digital business traveler is very different than some of the white-collar city-centered, airline-driven, white-collar business travelers.” Wyndham claims most Americans live within 10 minutes of one of its 21 hotel brands. But that doesn’t matter if those Americans aren’t leaving home. Wyndham needed to find essential travelers "who are traveling, when they’re traveling, and meet them where they are,” said Checchio. That's where Google and its data trove came in. “It's hard to predict what will happen in the short term,” said Nelson Boyce, Google’s managing director of travel. “But we've been really working hard with our partners in the industry to think mid- and long-term about how they should prepare for whatever comes next.” For the moment, the best Google can do is focus on extracting data and insights about the evolving impact of the delta variant. Hotel CitizenM Turned Its Own Windows Into an Art Exhibit About LA’s Less-Famous Locals Changing reservations According to Google’s analytics, Wyndham’s core business travelers are still on the road. And it appears that at least some leisure traveling were continuing their odysseys. Wyndham watched fun seekers migrate from amusement parks and city-center destinations popular before Covid-19 to national parks and spots along the Great Lakes—places that afforded prime social distancing. Google knew which parts of the country were on lockdown and which were open. By March 2020, the search giant was posting travel advisories when people searched hotels and flights. Meanwhile, Wyndham’s guest data indicated that uncertain travelers were looking for stays at places they knew and trusted. When they found those brands, whether it was discounted lodgings such as Days Inn or La Quinta, they wanted information—and lots of it. Guests specifically wanted to know about mask policies, social distancing, cleaning, amenities and restaurant availability well before arrival dates. “Last year when it came to booking, some people wanted to be able to know they were booking with confidence,” Checchio said. “Confidence came from knowing they were getting the best price, knowing that we're going to have a safe stay, knowing if they had to cancel for whatever reason they would have flexibility.” Wyndham Destinations Bought Travel + Leisure for the Brand, Not the Product Up for grabs Earlier this year, a Google-commissioned pandemic travel poll by Ipsos found that 1 in 3 consumers would book with a travel company they hadn’t used before. Roughly 71% of travelers wanted sustainable travel options, while 57% sought to change bookings without penalties. That’s who Wyndham targeted with digital marketing in 2020. Basing its program on Google’s models, it identified potential new customers. Its guests, meanwhile, were allowed to change reservations up to 48 hours before arrival (though cancellation policies still vary by hotel). Finally, in October, Wyndham used its combined data to launch a mobile app that allowed guests to check in and check out of any Wyndham property. Whether a guest stays at a Travelodge or a Wyndham Grand, they can use the Lightning Book feature to reserve a room at the nearest Wyndham in three taps, then use their phones as a digital key. Amid a worker shortage, the app's automated features helped Wyndham cut expenses by $293 million in the first half of 2021, compared to the same six months of 2020. Brand loyalty’s value diminished The impending holiday travel season hasn’t tempered travel and hospitality companies’ uncertainty. According to Google and Ipsos, just 30% to 40% of consumers will make travel plans for the holidays a month or more in advance this year. The overwhelming majority will plan less than a month ahead. While price and discounts still drive holiday travel decisions in 2021, Google's Boyce says availability, health and safety procedures, and booking/cancellation flexibility are all a close second. Brand loyalty ranks dead last. “As we see things change,” Boyce said, “and the more companies like Wyndham observe these trends and insights, the better prepared they’ll be for the eventuality that business will return.” A River Runs Through It: Small Cruises Are Back—But Pandemic Challenges Complicate Resurgence