Wyndham Hotels & Resorts reported on Thursday that it saw weaker profitability in the second quarter. The operator of hotels with about 851,500 rooms worldwide faced tough year-over-year comparisons. Its portfolio skews toward affordable roadside hotels, which benefited especially strongly in the immediate months of the pandemic easing.
“Second quarter trends in the U.S. represented a moderation of the robust leisure travel growth we saw last year, which largely favored select service hotels,” said Michele Allen, chief financial officer, in a call with analysts. “Now, as travel habits are normalizing, we’re seeing a revival in center city and international vacations, partially counterbalancing the robust summer demand our hotels experienced last year, particularly in Florida and across the South Atlantic region.”
The operator of 24 brands — such as Days Inn, Super 8, and Wyndham Garden — saw its net income decrease 18% in the quarter. It said this drop reflected a few factors, such as higher interest expense primarily related to the company’s refinancing of a loan. EBITDA was down 15%.
The company’s loyalty program, Wyndham Rewards, had relatively sluggish growth. While larger companies saw double-digit percentage growth rates in their memberships, the company only expanded its rolls by 2 million members in the quarter, to 103 million.
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