For anyone who has experienced the Day of the Dead in Mexico, they understand how important this celebration is—one that combines tradition, spirituality, and culture. It is something that truly must be experienced in person.
14.12.2023 - 15:57 / thepointsguy.com / Patrick Pacious
The budget hotel brouhaha boiled over Tuesday morning as Choice Hotels launched a hostile bid for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Choice, the owner of brands like Comfort Inn and Radisson's Americas operation, launched a $7.8 billion offer for Wyndham earlier this year. But Wyndham repeatedly rebuffed Choice's advances. Wyndham owns a variety of budget brands like Days Inn and Super 8 but also higher-end options like the Registry Collection, Wyndham Grand and the Alltra all-inclusive resort brand.
It appears Choice is done playing nice and is now going the hostile route, planning on appealing directly to Wyndham shareholders.
"While we would have preferred to come to a negotiated agreement, the Wyndham Board's refusal to explore a transaction has left us with no choice but to take our proposal directly to Wyndham's shareholders," Choice CEO Patrick Pacious said in a statement. "Wyndham chose to publicly reject our last proposal without any engagement even after we addressed their concerns, including adding significant regulatory protections for their shareholders."
Wyndham leadership has portrayed any Choice takeover as too drawn out, peppered with risk and too much of a lowball offer. That sentiment continued later Tuesday.
Wyndham noted it would "carefully review and evaluate the offer to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of Wyndham and its shareholders" but that "the offer looks to be unchanged from Choice's previous highly conditional offer the Board reviewed and rejected, which failed to address the serious concerns repeatedly expressed by Wyndham."
Choice Hotels leadership previously indicated talks with Wyndham took place over six months earlier in the year before breaking down. Depending on who you talk to, there could be other suitors out there, like financial firm Blackstone.
The budget hotel segment is widely seen as the future of the industry, both in terms of where a bulk of development and guest demand will come from. Hilton's new premium economy Spark brand is slated to grow on the premise of owners of existing hotels converting to that brand. The first Spark hotel was previously associated with a Wyndham brand, and it's highly likely the brand will continue to feed off existing Wyndham and Choice hotels.
Marriott entered the space with its acquisition of Mexico-based City Express and the launch of Four Points Express by Sheraton overseas. Hyatt is similarly entering a more affordable segment of the market with its Hyatt Studios extended-stay brand.
There was chatter in the hotel industry that IHG Hotels & Resorts might also be interested in Wyndham, but that would go against IHG's recent focus on the luxury and lifestyle segment of the market with its
For anyone who has experienced the Day of the Dead in Mexico, they understand how important this celebration is—one that combines tradition, spirituality, and culture. It is something that truly must be experienced in person.
Choice Hotels International’s hostile buyout offer of rival Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has entered a new phase: recriminations.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced that its Board of Directors unanimously determined the unsolicited exchange offer from Choice Hotels International to acquire all outstanding shares of the hospitality company is not in the best interests of its shareholders.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts‘ board of directors said in a filing on Monday it had unanimously rejected Choice Hotels International’s unsolicited exchange offer last week to acquire it.
A survey of hotel owners found many of them raising concerns about Choice Hotels‘ proposed hostile takeover of its rival Wyndham. Issues include the effect on their revenue and a potential increase in fees they pay.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, December 13. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Choice Hotels International announced the completed integration of the Radisson Hotels Americas business, just 16 months after Choice acquired the brand in August 2022.
Choice Hotels said on Tuesday it had bought enough Wyndham stock to nominate candidates to the board of Wyndham, its takeover target.
Never mind that its $7.8 billion hostile takeover bid for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts was publicly spurned in October or that three other proposals have also been rejected. Suitor Choice Hotels now wants to take a new offer directly to Wyndham shareholders.
The Biden administration’s infrastructure spending blitz has put more construction laborers on the road for work this year, fueling a race by extended-stay hotel operators to win their business.
Dubai’s home-grown hotel group FIVE is looking at potentially expanding beyond the emirate into the world’s largest hospitality markets. This includes a potential resort in party haven Las Vegas and in the conservative Gulf kingdom Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of new hotels are expected to open in 2024, from smaller boutiques to lavish resorts in cities both small and large across the globe, resulting in substantial revenue for the multi-billion-dollar hotel industry.