Wyndham Hotels

In 1981, Dallas real estate mogul Trammell Crow, alongside his son Harlan Crow, founded Wyndham Hotels. The name itself was a nod to a friend, Wyndham Robertson, an editor at Fortune magazine who had profiled Trammell. The initial concept was to create a hotel chain that catered to the upscale traveler, a step above the mid-market offerings of the time. The first property, the Wyndham SeaWorld in Orlando, set the tone for this new venture in the hospitality space. The company grew steadily, but the real turning point came in the late 1990s. In 1998, a group known as Patriot American Hospitality acquired Wyndham, merging it with their existing hotel portfolio. This created a significantly larger entity. Following this, the entire company was rebranded as Wyndham International. This period marked a strategic shift, consolidating various hotel brands under the well-regarded Wyndham name. A pivotal chapter in Wyndham's journey began in 2006 when it was acquired by Cendant Corporation, a massive conglomerate in the real estate and travel sectors. Cendant then made a strategic decision to split into four separate companies, one of which was Wyndham Worldwide, focusing entirely on hospitality. This move allowed Wyndham to streamline its operations. The final major corporate event occurred in 2018 when Wyndham Worldwide spun off its hotel division to become Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. This established Wyndham as an independent, pure-play hotel franchising and management company, a global leader in the economy and midscale segments of the industry.