Following the lead of other major hotel mergers—Marriott and Starwood as well as Commune and Destination Hotels—Wyndham Worldwide recently announced the acquisition of La Quinta Holdings, which will officially take place in the second quarter of 2018.
“La Quinta will immediately become one of our flagship brands,” says Geoff Ballotti, president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group. “It is an exceptionally strong brand that is led by service-minded associates who deliver some of the highest customer engagement levels in our industry.”
For $1.95 billion in cash, Wyndham Worldwide will acquire La Quinta’s approximately 900 hotels making it the world’s largest hotel business based on number of properties. Its now more than 9,000 hotels throughout more than 75 countries, for instance, will far surpass the 5,500 properties under the Marriott-Starwood merger. The hotel group will span 21 brands, making it one of the industry’s most diverse hotel businesses.
Both Wyndham and La Quinta have a strong midscale presence, and through this acquisition, Wyndham plans to go after the upper-midscale segment. “We expect that La Quinta guests and franchisees will benefit from our intense focus on product quality and our best-in-class technology, digital, loyalty and distribution platforms,” adds Ballotti. “This acquisition also significantly expands our hotel management business and provides us with substantial new opportunities to drive increased growth in our business.”
Of course, meeting planners who make up the 13 million members enrolled in the La Quinta Returns loyalty program will be happy to know it will be combined with the Wyndham Rewards program, which currently has 53 million enrolled members.
