The purchase and name change of Travel + Leisure was simply to buy massive lists of names that they can market to. Perhaps it was also to try and give them more credibility since Travel + Leisure was a more trusted name than Wyndham Destinations.
Jeremy,
My theory on this also so Wyndham can have different brand for an easier path for other “Resort Brand acquisitions”. If I remember correctly before Hilton acquired Diamond, the was some sort of bidding going back and forth with Wyndham and Diamond trying to acquire Hilton, and I believe the issue with Wyndham being successful was the conflict between the two hotel brands each where attached to and being to many issues in regards to that. So Hilton initially agreed to being purchased by Diamond but there was perception blowback from investors and Wall Street. So once that deal fell apart Hilton and Diamond devised a plan to flip the offer around and make it so Hilton bought Diamond and the rest is history.
So I believe from things I have heard and to my understanding what motivated Wyndham to go an a acquire another more “neutral” brand that they can now reclassify the mothership under, to be able to go out and acquire other resort brands with less pushback and resistance from those other companies shareholders, investors and existing hotel brand deals other companies have in place already without the “conflict” of completing brands.
Also it’s so they do not have to pay licensing fees to Wyndham for these other companies they acquire if they choose to not “re-brand” them as Wyndham timeshare Resorts.
Two current examples that I know off that they have already done this with and don’t seem to be “reflaging” them under the Wyndham name but are now being developed and operated under just the “Travel and leisure” brand are Accor Vacation Club (which was the 2nd largest timeshare group in the Asia Pacific region only behind Wyndham Asia pacific them self’s). And it appears as of now the plan to keep operating it under the Accor brand and leaning in it as they mention Accors strong hotel brand recognition in Asia pacific, Middle East and African markets. I believe wants to keep this brand alliance going between them now to benefit from a bigger pool of people customers that they will have access to from the Accor Hotel side.
The next example is an old “very recognizable” brand name that “Travel and leisure” just purchased the rights to, called “Sports Illustrated Resorts”. Which was / is a new brand concept that was / is being developed to open and operate mixed use timeshare properties in college towns and near other major sporting venues to tap in to the college sports fans & all sports fans customers base and market to sell them on this new brand concept. It also appears that “Travel and Leisure” is not going to have these projects and programs linked to the Wyndham brand name at all. However I theorize that owners in both/ all travel and leisure owned programs will have some sort of brand cross booking ability probably through club pass or some form of it.
