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Wyndham Hotel Group Aligns Wingate Brand
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| RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico (May 15, 2007) � Wyndham Hotel Group is affiliating
its Wingate® and Wyndham® brands to leverage marketing, sales and
training and reach an expanded consumer base, Wingate franchisees attending
their brand conference here learned today.
This affiliation creates a combined brand that encompasses more than 230 hotels as of March 31, comparable in size with key competitors that offer upscale and midscale tiers.  To
formalize the relationship, the Wingate brand has been renamed Wingate®
by Wyndham and will be identified with a new logo. The logo retains
the defined shape of the original Wingate identity while integrating key
design elements of the Wyndham logo.
Prospective guests now will have an opportunity to search for both Wingate and Wyndham hotels on both brand Web sites, and travelers who call either reservations number will be offered the other brand if their first choice is not available. The Wingate conference is being held at the Wyndham Rio Mar resort, a 600-room luxury resort and spa located on 500 acres along a mile-long section of tropical beach adjacent to the Caribbean National Rain Forest of El Yunque and the Mameyes River. The resort joined the Wyndham system on May 10. �Geographically, the brands complement each other with Wyndham properties primarily in resort and center-city locations and Wingate hotels largely in secondary markets,� said Steven A. Rudnitsky, Wyndham Hotel Group president and chief executive officer. �The Wyndham name provides the Wingate brand with increased consumer awareness. Conversely, the Wingate brand offers the Wyndham brand an established counterpart in the midscale-without-food-and-beverage segment.� The Wingate brand will adopt the Wyndham brand�s One-to-One training program, which focuses on personalization and guest satisfaction, and it will align brand standards by introducing Wyndham amenities including an MP3 clock radio and single-cup coffee maker, both designed by the Michael Graves and Associates. All franchises located in the United States and Canada will be required to display the Wingate by Wyndham logo by the end of this year. In conjunction with the launch, Wingate introduced a new Web site, www.wingatehotels.com, featuring the new logo. Wyndham Hotel Group, one of three principal components of Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE:WYN), encompasses nearly 6,500 hotels and more than 539,000 hotel rooms on six continents. All hotels are owned individually and operated independently or by a Wyndham Hotel Group subsidiary, Wyndham Hotel Management. Wyndham Hotel Group�s TripRewards® loyalty program is the largest in the lodging industry based on the number of participating hotels. Wyndham Hotel Group, based in Parsippany, N.J., employs 1,500 worldwide. Additional information is available at www.wyndhamworldwide.com. |
| Contact:
Christine Da Silva
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