Wyndham grows midscale USA with La Quinta Inns acquisition

Wyndham Worldwide will grow its midscale hotel market segment significantly with the acquisition of nearly 900 La Quinta hotels in the USA. Wyndham Worldwide grows to over 9,000 hotels with this $1.95 billion purchase.

La Quinta hotels are almost all in the USA with 4 hotels in Vancouver, Canada; Medellin Colombia; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Cancun, Mexico.

Wyndham currently has 19 hotel brands with the majority of hotels located in the USA in economy hotel brands. Wyndham’s largest brands by far are economy market segment Days Inn (1,773 hotels) and Super 8 (2,854 hotels). Travelodge (413 hotels), Howard Johnson (356 hotels), Knights Inn (367 hotels) and Microtel (336 hotels) round out the economy sector. These 5,000+ hotels with average room rates from $53 to $84 comprise the core of Wyndham’s footprint across the USA.

Ramada (848 hotels), Baymont Inn (458 hotels), Wingate (153 hotels) and Hawthorn Suites (110 hotels) are the main midscale brands in the USA with average room rates $75-$85.

Wyndham hotel brands room rate date is from 2017 Q3 financial report.

AmericInn (200+ hotels) is another midscale brand acquired by Wyndham in a deal that closed Oct 2017. This is the hotel market segment boosted by the addition of 900 La Quinta Inn properties in Wyndham’s 20th brand.

Wyndham has so many brands that the latest press release on La Quinta states it is their 21st brand. I only count 20 brands.

Press releases describe the La Quinta deal as a route to grow its upper midscale market segment. With barely 200 hotels in the upper midscale market and most of those through predominantly international brands, it seems Wyndham might try and position more hotels into higher market segment rates for USA travelers.

I don’t recall ever having stayed in a La Quinta Inn. There was one La Quinta Inn in Monterey for several years that rebranded as Hampton Inn a couple years ago.

Looking forward to seeing how La Quinta integrates into Wyndham Rewards for GoFast reward rates. I don’t use Wyndham Rewards much for USA stays. Europe is where I find better value opportunities for my points.