April 3 2010
This update has information on the software upgrade, new customer service fees and Wyndham Rewards Pro active matching.
SOFTHOTELS UPGRADE
As you all know, the software upgrade signing deadline has passed on March 31, 2010. We continued to work throughout
previous months to get WHG to address our concerns regarding the software training costs and the overall pricing and issues
with the software. We decided to send out a letter to WHG officials asking for a larger multi site discount in order for the
remaining 20-25% of the franchisees to upgrade to the software and become compliant. In an effort to tackle this from another
angle, officials from some of the WHG brands were contacted in order to obtain a multi site discount. After several weeks of
follow up and communication, we were able to obtain a group discount of $3000 plus a $1500 self training credit for each group
of 6 or more sites. Further, depending on the age of your hardware, you have the ability to sign up for just the software and
related expenses or can opt to obtain new hardware. Many of those that signed up with our initial group essentially just bought
1 workstation with the warranty and were left with the option to purchase or upgrade their own monitors. Also, most of those
sites are continuing to use the printers that they upgrades a few years ago during the last upgrade.
Although the deadline has passed, WHG will continue to accept sites that sign up soon.
The best thing is for any organized group of properties to provide the site numbers (min. of 6 sites) directly via a email to Brian.Lombra@wyndhamworldwide.com. He can then assign a group to a designated member of his team to manage the quote
generation and distribution to the sites. Please keep in mind that the pricing WHG presented is based on the assumption that
the properties can (and will) agree to install all around the same time; this is how they can save most on the travel fees and work
to combine training efforts where/when possible. To pull this off, the groups need to be on the same page and truly ready to move
forward together. This also means they need to receive payment promptly so they can coordinate the installs. If you need any
further assistance with this after contacting Brian Lombra at WHG then you can email us at info@owners8association.org
NEW CUSTOMER SERVICE FEES
Recently, on my portal and also by mail, franchisees were notified of the new customer service fees. The fees have jumped
dramatically and pay upto $160 in fines for non responsive complaints. We are very concerned with these fees and are sending communication to officials at WHG regarding the timing of this and the fact that we at O8A have been discussing this issue for
several years now and rather than reduce these fees and the rationale for fines, WHG has decided to increase these charges.
WYNDHAM REWARDS CHARGES
While we are glad to see that WHG at the direction of Mr. Danziger had stopped the auto enrollment process into Wyndham Rewards
in November 2009. As a follow up to this issue, we hope that Mr. Danziger will also consider putting an end to proactive matching.
Pro active matching involves the automatic assignment of wyndham rewards points to guests by way of the property management
systems. The process that concerns us most is the fact that a guest could check into your hotel and not provide you a wyndham
rewards number at check in. Then through the propery management system, through some type of address and name verification
and matching, the guest will be assigned wyndham rewards points and your property will be charged the 5% in fees. It is in our best
interests for the program to work to its fullest extent and for guests to utilize their points and redeem points through extensive
knowledge of the program. This can only be done with well informed guests who demand their points. Proactive matching works
somewhat counter productively as the guests often lack knowledge of their point values and therefore are less likely to redeem and
earn benefits. We continue to urge WHG and Mr. Danziger to also consider actively evaluating this process and bring it to an end.
Date: March 20, 2010
To: Mr. Eric Danziger - WHG President
From: Owners 8 Association Officers
Re: Recent Issues
It has been our goal to create a franchisee group that can independently voice member concerns and bring forward our issues to
our franchisor. We have always hoped of developing a relationship that would bring the franchisees and franchisor together to
help improve the profitability for both of us while advancing and protecting our brands and investment.
Initially, we had been treated in a questionable manner by the hierarchy at WHG as they had sent out letters and communications to franchisees that portrayed us in a negative manner. This continued for several months and had set the grounds for a turbulent relationship between our group and our franchisor. In February 2009, we were fortunate that you were given the opportunity to
lead WHG and its brands. One of the most significant decisions that you made was to notify the franchisees that you were
changing the website reservation process from Opt Out to Opt In. This was one of the issues that we had been tackling for over
a year and a half before you took the helm of WHG. We all felt that this was a significant positive step forward for WHG. In
subsequent months and at your direction, WHG made additional changes such as many positive modifications of the current
inspection process, changes to the Best Rate Guarantee, changes to the approved vendor process and positive changes to the
customer service case process. We commend you for spearheading these positive changes for the brands and do understand
that you "Get it" and have made many positive changes that affect the franchisees of WHG brands.
Another significant step was the meeting that was set up with the Super 8 FAB in August 2009. Officers from our group
attended the meeting and discussed several issues. Despite good positive dialogue during this meeting, we found that information such as improvements that had been completed on Softhotels were never forwarded to us. In fact, during our meeting with Super 8
officials and the FAB, we discussed the Softhotels rollout and it appeared that due to the severe financial condition of the
economy and the financial concerns of hotel operators that WHG was working to delay rollout. Initially, we were told that we
would be required to upgrade at the four year anniversary for each site installation. From all our discussions, we repeatedly
requested updates that were promised to us by the officials from Super 8 but there was no further follow through from these
individuals. This was quite disheartening and we felt that you had spearheaded a positive step towards working together to
address the franchisees issues but now there was no continuity and these officials were not willing to share information with
our members.
A few months later in the fall of 2009, we were taken by surprise when the mandatory upgrade and dates of compliance were
sent out to franchisees. There were many members of our group that have technical backgrounds and felt that there were other
options available to reduce the capital outlay for franchisees during these tough times. This information was sent out by our
group in an effort to obtain some assistance from WHG and this data is what created the latest strain on our communications
with our franchisor. Also, we had sent out subsequent follow up communications based on information provided to us from other technicians, HSS, MSI, and internal software techs that work for WHG.
Recently, board members from AAHOA and the officers had met with you in order to help create a scenario where those that
still needed to upgrade could work to come into compliance. The current upgrade involved extensive training periods and
AAHOA had attempted to work to request a review of this process. Also, during the discussion with you, one of the board
members of AAHOA requested information as to how many franchisees had not signed up for the upgrade. You had asked your
Chief Technology Officer for these data items and it appears that he inadvertently told you that 346 locations had not signed up
for the upgrade. After further review and discussion from different sources, we wanted to let you know our findings. Our
sources indicated that 346 locations Days Inn have not signed up and almost 400 Super 8 locations have not signed up for the
upgrade. Therefore, from these two brands alone there are almost 750 locations that still have not signed up for the upgrade
that WHG requires. The reason that this is significant is that this information will help you better understand why we are
concerned with the current upgrade and this represents almost 25% or more of these two brands.
Now, that we have a more clearer picture as to the PCI compliance issue and the reasoning behind the current upgrade we would
request that you consider multi site discounts (greater than 3) that could be given to groups of franchisees that have considered
working together to come into compliance. This would allow WHG to maintain the integrity of its pricing strategy that had been
in place and further allow you to comply with your current agreement with the software installation company. It has further been indicated to us that the training/installation cost is just a pass through and that at this stage it is very difficult for WHG to
modify this process.
The group discounts that could be given to groups of franchisees will give the many that have not signed up for the upgrade an
opportunity to comply with WHG standards during these difficult economic times. In the state of NC, we have collected data that
shows that 29 of 79 Days Inn locations are still not upgraded and 24 of 39 Super 8 locations in NC are still not upgraded. While
this just represents one state, we think you will find this information quite significant. We have also conducted similar surveys
for a number of other states and have found that compliance varies significantly however it appears that 20-30% of the locations
have not signed up to upgrade.
We are quite confident that you will agree with us that it is in everyone's best interest to have increased compliance with the
current upgrade and further hope that you consider this request as a way forward. If you are willing to discuss this further, we
will work towards improving compliance among franchisees and members. Recently, some of the critical information that had
been distributed has resulted in no positive developments. Essentially this has created a situation which is not beneficial to any
of us and for this we would like to apologize to you. Regardless of what some may say our goal has always been to create a group
of franchisees that can help represent our concerns in order to positively grow the brands and create a better relationship
between the franchisees and franchisor while protecting our investments in the brands.
We hope that you will consider this information and create further positive steps forward.
Thank You
Jay Patel - Interim President
Jim Miller - Interim Vice President
Robin Prema - Interim Secretary
Firuzi Mehta - Interim Treasurer
Owners 8 Association
Owners Working Together
March 16, 2010
We must all act now to stop this bill!
This bill if passed will cause a significant amount of issues to our monthly tax payments to the state as well as city
and county occupancy taxes. The OTA's will continue to benefit from the additional amounts of tax they continue
to collect from our guests and will create extra financial burden on all of us. The government organizations that
have already filed suits against many OTA's will then begin to look to us for these tax shortfalls.
Lodging Hospitality
Online Travel Agencies Seek Unfair Advantage
Mar 15, 2010 4:38 PM, By Ed Watkins
The swines who run online travel agencies are once again trying to screw the hotel industry. Under the innocuous
title of
The Internet Travel Tax Fairness Act, the OTAs are quietly attempting to slip a bill through Congress that
would transfer a portion of their tax liability to the nation’s hoteliers.
“It’s completely outrageous,” says Marlene Colucci,
executive vice president, public policy, for the
American Hotel
& Lodging Association. “If you look at the fine print of this bill, it’s providing tax relief for online travel agencies at
the expense of hoteliers.”
The proposed legislation boldly calls for a federally mandated exemption for OTAs on the taxes they should pay to
local jurisdictions on the spread between wholesale
hotel room prices (what they pay to the hotels) and the retail
prices paid by consumers. Should this legislation become law, local tax officials would undoubtedly turn to hotels to
make up the shortfall in
tax revenues. (Another, even more egregious version of the bill would exempt OTAs from
paying any state and local room taxes.) And to add insult to injury, Colucci says another provision of the legislation
would prevent hotel companies from setting up their own
online travel agencies in order to gain the same
tax
advantages the OTAs would have.
If the situation is a little fuzzy for you, here is an example of how the system currently works: A hotel wholesales a guestroom to an OTA for $160 a night. The OTA sells it to a consumer for $220, $200 for the room and $20 for a 10-percent local occupancy tax. But instead of remitting $20 to the local taxing organization, the OTA only pays $16,
basing the tax on the wholesale price of the room. The proposed legislation would prevent taxing jurisdictions from attempting to collect the extra $4 from the OTA. In that case, all know cash-strapped cities, counties and states
will go after the hotels for the difference.
“This is not an issue for Congress, but one for states and localities to decide,” says Colucci. “It’s a question of tax
fairness: Your tax liability shouldn’t suddenly become mine.”
The
hotel lobby headed by Colucci is working feverishly to shine light on this issue, which the OTA lobbyists hope
gets tacked onto some other bill and passes before legislators understand the issues involved. If the proposal can’t
be squelched immediately, Colucci at least wants
Congressional hearings on the bill.
In the meantime, she and other industry advocates are asking hoteliers to buttonhole
members of Congress to voice
their opinions on the issue. A phone call or personal visit is best, but if that’s not possible a letter will do. The
AH&LA crafted a
sample letter members of the hotel industry can use to communicate their views.
Please take action today.
December 23-25, 2009
DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments of individual franchisees expressed herein are solely the opinions of those individual franchisees and do not necessarily state or reflect the opinions of the Owners 8 Association or its attorneys.
Please read the following comments made by members of O8A.
John, I just saw your "minute with John" http://www.oneminutewithjohn.com/pages/11-23-09.php great information about the compliance requirements. I totally understand why the change have to take place. I have no problem implementing the Softhotel System. I would how ever like to know who do I pay first, my staff, my bills, franchise fee's, mortgage, property taxes, or the upgrade. Any one of them will leave short for another. No payment plan can help when you don't have the income to cover the cost. The threat of taking us of the reservation system right now would not be a loss at all, since we don't get much from Super8. We get more reservations at the property level. I know the franchise agreement says you can mandate changes, but I'm sure no court would up hold it, if it means the business cant afford the change and would put it in further dept or even bankruptcy. I have a -30% return on my investment, and 2 of us have worked 12 hours a day for $1500 a month total (not each) that works out to be about $2.50 p/h per person, for the last year. Its just a matter of time before I file bankruptcy. So please do have a great vacation for the holidays, and hope your family have great gifts, on Christmas day, but remember who helps pay the salary, and bonus. They are still working and not having such a good Christmas.
Thanks
We're all realing a level of desparation. Hell, 90% of the country is feeling it. I have college educated 40 year olds with homes and families applying for $6.50/hr desk jobs! Everyone talks empathy, but Wyndham's, along with the governments, seems indifferent. We have seen the extravegances of Wyndham's new headquarters in NJ, yet they're telling us to save money by switching out our lightbulbs, all the while they're sipping Starbucks in their "green, eco-friendly" hq. Let them work out of a warehouse. They can only do so many give-aways and programs to sell rooms to people who aren't buying. How about some real measures to cut our expenses, like actually negotiating REAL savings with vendors or waiving the mandated HBO @ $130/month for my property that noone uses. We're paying more, more, more and getting less, less, less. In case Mr. Valetta and Wyndham doesn't get it yet, we need to communicate with them that we are not trying to just be pain in the axxes. We are truly hemoraging financially (which strains everything including our families) and are in survival mode. We are getting no real help from the government. In fact our businesses are even more in jeopardy if we are forced to buy healthcare for our workers and unionize (initiatives on this administrations table). I'm not sure lawsuits or cursing him out is going to do it. I'm a fierce capitalist, but am coming to the conclusion that these mega-corporations like Wyndham are so out of touch with us as small businesses that they are truly evil, self-serving and hence bad for our nation.
Thanks
Attached is the quote I have got from tom chowning from micros. When I requsted the quote I have filled out all my existing equipment information for it to use it again. According to tom he says we must buy a new server and worksation from him. When I asked him who is the person he is been talking to at wyndham he mentioned christine and barbara. He told me he has not forwaded the existing server information to wyndham to get a waiver. My total cost is about 27,000 to install the system. Out of that nearly 12,000 is the installation cost. and on top of it there will be 8000 for the tech support every year. During these tough times we are facing while revenue has not gone up they want us to spend money on something that will not generate revenue and guests will not benefit out of it.
Bottom Line
cannot use existing equipment ($7000)
Ridiculous Installment Cost ($12000)
Outrageous Tech support fee ($8000)
All this will not have any impact on guests we are serving and will drive franchisees into bankrupcy if they do not do what is been asked to do.
Thank You
Hello:
I am in same situation as all of you have mentioned. I am not sure what to do with this upgrade, I do not have financial funds to cover the upgrades, but on the other hand I do not want to loose central reservations. So can you guys suggest any other way around it. If anyone have installed soft hotel then let me know how is it working for you and is it worth it for you. How much did it cost you to do upgrade and what is your monthly tech support fees are. I would like to see if anyone is getting upgrade in near future please contact me at pantoonsuper8@yahoo.com
Thanks for you support and info.
Subject: Re: Season's Greetings from the Global Sales Organization
Mr. Hosking,
Franchisees worked hard to give franchisor a good year.................................
what did franchisor do to give good year to all franchisees?
Answer...................a hell.
You are correct, Franchisees worked very hard for Wyndhams success, in turn what Wyndham do for their franchisees?????................again nothing.........only thing Wyndham did is keep bringing new standards and introduce Wyndham approved vendors & forced franchisees only to utilize approved vendors to further financially bleed Franchisees.
Corporate level has totally forgotten that we as Franchisees have made Wyndham successful...................so stop pretence of your THANKS to us and start listening to franchisees.
THE ABOVE COMMENTS WERE SENT IN BY MEMBERS IN THE LAST FEW DAYS. REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN YOUR CONCERNS AND WE ARE ALL VERY CONCERNED WITH THE DIRECTION OF OUR FRANCHISOR. CONTINUE TO SEND IN YOUR COMMENTS AND CONCERNS TO OUR FRANCHISOR AS IT IS IMPERITIVE FOR THEM TO UNDERSTAND OUR FINANCIAL CONDITION IN THESE UNPRECEDENTED TIMES.
December 20, 2009
Survey Results from our latest survey below:
| What PMS system do you currently have? |
| Answer Options |
Response Percent |
Response Count |
| HSS |
40.8% |
89 |
| MSI |
9.6% |
21 |
| Softhotel |
33.9% |
74 |
| Opera |
1.4% |
3 |
| Other |
14.2% |
31 |
| answered question |
218 |
| skipped question |
2 |
| Are you planning to upgrade your software? |
| Answer Options |
Response Percent |
Response Count |
| YES |
3.7% |
8 |
| YES- Only as the Franchise is Insisting |
34.7% |
75 |
| No |
50.5% |
109 |
| Not Sure |
11.1% |
24 |
| answered question |
216 |
| skipped question |
4 |
| what amount of money do you consider a reasonable amount for an upgrade? |
| Answer Options |
Response Percent |
Response Count |
| Less than 1000 |
31.0% |
65 |
| Between 1000 and 2500 |
35.7% |
75 |
| Between 2500 and 5000 |
27.1% |
57 |
| Between 5000 and 10000 |
4.3% |
9 |
| Between 10000 and 15000 |
1.9% |
4 |
| Greater than 15000 |
0.0% |
0 |
| answered question |
210 |
| skipped question |
10 |
| How likely are you to leave the franchise if there were no liquidation damages? |
| Answer Options |
Response Percent |
Response Count |
| Very Likely |
45.0% |
99 |
| Some What Likely |
25.5% |
56 |
| Unlikely |
19.5% |
43 |
| Very Unlikely |
10.0% |
22 |
| answered question |
220 |
| skipped question |
0 |
CONTINUED ISSUES FROM SOFTHOTELS USERS
December 20, 2009
DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments of individual franchisees expressed herein are solely the opinions of those individual franchisees and do not necessarily state or reflect the opinions of the Owners 8 Association or its attorneys. The information in this email is the sole property of the Owners 8 Association and any duplication or reprint cannot be made without the consent of Owners 8 Association.
The following was sent in today by a member from Kansas.
Dear Sir,
I wish to let you know the issues I have with softhotel.I am using softhotel for the last 3 years and they still have a lot of glitchs. On 12/12/09 we had reservations for 2 rooms for trip rewards (SRB) rate code. With srb rate code the property cannot make any changes to the rate code.At the time of checkin the rate code changed to rack from SRB. This means that the system at audit will not be able to post room and tax charges. We have to calculate rate using revenue management report which differs by $4-$5 if manually calculated. Manual calculation adr is higher than the system calculation. I called tech support they could not explain to me why there is difference of $4-$5 in adr.Also tech support told me there are about 15-20 cases of srb rate code glitch a week and they are working on it. I also experienced the duplicate reservations so many other times and it seems like we at the hotel have to ask each guest at check in how many rooms they have reservations for. This has cost me so many times when we are sold out and we charge the guest for no show then they dispute saying they made only 1 reservation and tech support tells us there was a glitch in the system. I brought this issue to the attention of my DBD and they all tell us they are working on this issues. WHY should the hotel take a loss if it is the system issue. I do not recommend anyone signing with softhotel until all the GLITCHES are resolved.
CONTINUED ISSUES FROM SOFTHOTELS USERS
December 18-19, 2009
DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments of individual franchisees expressed herein are solely the opinions of those individual franchisees and do not necessarily state or reflect the opinions of the Owners 8 Association or its attorneys. The information in this email is the sole property of the Owners 8 Association and any duplication or reprint cannot be made without the consent of Owners 8 Association.
The following information was sent in by Sanjay Patel, who is utilizing the Softhotels system. Earlier in the week, we received a similar call from Rakesh Patel who experienced the same concerns. Several other members have also contacted us regarding this same glitch that has continued to occur in the Softhotels PMS. We also received info from Anwar in regards to his situation. An anonymous user of Softhotels sent in info supporting Softhotels however did not pinpoint the reason the reservations were duplicated only in the Softhotels PMS and not other Wyndham Property Management Systems.
Issue regarding Softhotel: The system had a glitch on 12-9 where reservations were tripled. We had a guest check in last night and the system showed 3 rooms and the guest only booked one. We called CRS and they confirmed one room. Softhotel support said it was a glitch and logged into our system and cancelled the other 2 rooms. Supposedly this is a known problem and happened throughout the system on that day.(this has happened many times is the past too. Also rooms that are cancelled do not come into our PMS sometimes also) How many properties could have been effected? This is not acceptable. I am usually supporting Softhotels but not this time. I think we should get paid for the 2 rooms by Wyndham. If they take a lose then maybe they will work to correct it fast. If we would have had a "glitch" at property level we would have had a penalty through customer service of $75 and would have had to give the customer some type of refund. I hope that someone at support is looking to see how many rooms were booked during the glitch time frame so they can cancel extra bookings for future dates. Thank you for your time.
Sanjay Patel
I have softhotels at my Travelodge property. This thing happened to us over there yesterday i.e. 12/17/09. When we pulled our reservation for the day in the morning we saw that every guest had 3 rooms booked. Then around 4 PM all these extra reservation disappeared automatically and only one room reservation was left for every guest. I thought someone might have found the error at CRS and cancelled these reservation. But like Sanjay mentioned these do not appear in the list of cancelled reservations as well if you search for it. A strange situation which left us wondering what’s going on and should we believe in what is coming through CRS.
Anwar
As a point of clarification - reservations being duplicated had nothing to do with SoftHotel - the CRS sent the reservations many times and the property management system was not at fault. I know you are trying to build a case against SoftHotel and you like to make a big deal out of any and every thing that happens regarding it, however I do think it is only fair to properly research and acknowledge where fault lies.
I have been a SoftHotel user for quite awhile now and while I do see your point on some things there are many other things you talk about and blame on SoftHotel that are totally incorrect. There are also things you write that are just incorrect - for example when you say you have to manually deal with cleaning schedules - it already does that. You report things as fact on your site with little or no research and then do not print any sort of corrections or retractions.
The problem is that it all gets blamed on the PM system when there are many other factors at play. VSAT is obviously one of them - everyone knows the speed and cost is an issue there. Pricing is sensitive to everyone these days. There are things around business rules, wyndham rewards for example that force the pm system to do things that may be annoying to the user. I don't know the exact problem of the duplicate/triplicate reservations - but I do know when I look at my logs I can tell they all came from the CRS and it didn't happen inside the pm system.
Also when I read through your site it looks like a lot of complaints are on functionality that isn't in the application - i think what might be good is for o8a to do a site like choice has for choiceadvantage - http://choicehotels.ideascale.com/ - this lets people vote on what they think is important. it's better than just listing random things on a website. also, on choice's site if you look the top voted things are things softhotel already has - and it looks like choice has not touched them for over a year.
Thank you,
A SoftHotel User
CONTINUED ISSUES FROM SOFTHOTELS USERS
DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments of individual franchisees expressed herein are solely the opinions of those individual franchisees and do not necessarily state or reflect the opinions of the Owners 8 Association or its attorneys. The information in this email is the sole property of the Owners 8 Association and any duplication or reprint cannot be made without the consent of Owners 8 Association.
The following information was sent in by Sanjay Patel, who is utilizing the Softhotels system.
Earlier in the week, we received a similar call from Rakesh Patel who experienced the same concerns.
Several other members have also contacted us regarding this same glitch that has continued to occur in the Softhotels PMS. We also received info from Anwar in regards to his situation. An anonymous user of Softhotels sent in info supporting Softhotels however did not pinpoint the reason the reservations were duplicated only in the Softhotels PMS and not other Wyndham Property Management Systems.
Issue regarding Softhotel: The system had a glitch on 12-9 where reservations were tripled. We had a guest check in last night and the system showed 3 rooms and the guest only booked one. We called CRS and they confirmed one room. Softhotel support said it was a glitch and logged into our system and cancelled the other 2 rooms. Supposedly this is a known problem and happened throughout the system on that day.(this has happened many times is the past too. Also rooms that are cancelled do not come into our PMS sometimes also) How many properties could have been effected? This is not acceptable. I am usually supporting Softhotels but not this time. I think we should get paid for the 2 rooms by Wyndham. If they take a lose then maybe they will work to correct it fast. If we would have had a "glitch" at property level we would have had a penalty through customer service of $75 and would have had to give the customer some type of refund. I hope that someone at support is looking to see how many rooms were booked during the glitch time frame so they can cancel extra bookings for future dates. Thank you for your time.
Sanjay Patel
I have softhotels at my Travelodge property. This thing happened to us over there yesterday i.e. 12/17/09. When we pulled our reservation for the day in the morning we saw that every guest had 3 rooms booked. Then around 4 PM all these extra reservation disappeared automatically and only one room reservation was left for every guest. I thought someone might have found the error at CRS and cancelled these reservation. But like Sanjay mentioned these do not appear in the list of cancelled reservations as well if you search for it. A strange situation which left us wondering what’s going on and should we believe in what is coming through CRS.
Anwar
As a point of clarification - reservations being duplicated had nothing to do with SoftHotel - the CRS sent the reservations many times and the property management system was not at fault. I know you are trying to build a case against SoftHotel and you like to make a big deal out of any and every thing that happens regarding it, however I do think it is only fair to properly research and acknowledge where fault lies.
I have been a SoftHotel user for quite awhile now and while I do see your point on some things there are many other things you talk about and blame on SoftHotel that are totally incorrect. There are also things you write that are just incorrect - for example when you say you have to manually deal with cleaning schedules - it already does that. You report things as fact on your site with little or no research and then do not print any sort of corrections or retractions.
The problem is that it all gets blamed on the PM system when there are many other factors at play. VSAT is obviously one of them - everyone knows the speed and cost is an issue there. Pricing is sensitive to everyone these days. There are things around business rules, wyndham rewards for example that force the pm system to do things that may be annoying to the user. I don't know the exact problem of the duplicate/triplicate reservations - but I do know when I look at my logs I can tell they all came from the CRS and it didn't happen inside the pm system.
Also when I read through your site it looks like a lot of complaints are on functionality that isn't in the application - i think what might be good is for o8a to do a site like choice has for choiceadvantage - http://choicehotels.ideascale.com/ - this lets people vote on what they think is important. it's better than just listing random things on a website. also, on choice's site if you look the top voted things are things softhotel already has - and it looks like choice has not touched them for over a year.
Thank you,
A SoftHotel User
O8A WILL BE ASSISTED BY PATEL AND ASSOCIATES LEGAL FIRM
November 21, 2009
Dallas Attorney, Mr. Mahesh Patel of Patel and Associates will assist O8A through the communications process with WHG. Patel and Associates represents many franchisees with franchisee litigation and also practices in other fields of law.
Patel & Associates:
301 S. Central Expressway
Richardson, TX 75080
(T) 972-643-1813
www.Patellaw.net
ANOTHER POSITIVE RESULT FOR FRANCHISEES DUE TO EFFORTS OF O8A
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS POSTED ON MY PORTAL:
Date: October 13, 2009
To: Owners and General Managers
From: Wyndham Rewards
Re: A Message Regarding Wyndham Rewards
As Wyndham Hotel Group C.E.O. Eric Danziger announced earlier this year at some of our brand conferences, the process for Web site enrollment into the Wyndham Rewards Program will be changed. Currently, consumers booking online must click a box if they do not want to enroll in the program. With an active membership base of over seven million members , and given the feedback from the franchisee community, the process ill change to require an opt-in to enroll. Therefore, effective November 15, those booking online will proactively have to click the box to be enrolled in the program.
New membership acquisition efforts will launch in 2010 to ensure the member base continues to grow. This includes acquisition opportunities through partner channels, Wyndham Vacation Ownership and Global Sales. Also, we will look to the properties to more proactively engage their guests in the program to help drive enrollments.
We thank you for your feedback and appreciate your continued support of the Wyndham Rewards program.
MEETING WITH WHG
Jim Miller, Robin Prema, and myself all were present for our meeting with the Super 8 Fab and Mr. Valletta on August 13, 2009, we discussed with them the attached presentation which addressed a number of the current and continual issues we are facing. Jim is working on the summary of our visit and as soon as it is completed we will send it out to the membership for review.
We have come a long way with this association. Although, we will never be satisfied as newer issues with the operations of our franchisor continue to develop, we do not think that in less than 2 years O8A would have the ability to discuss its issues directly with WHG This same feat took the Econo Lodge Franchisee Association 10 years to accomplish. Our meeting with WHG was a siginificant step for our association as it allowed us to have a face to face meeting with the indiiduals that are supposed to be listening to the franchisees and their concerns. Now, we shall see if any further communication from WHG is received by the association and lets hope that we can continue the positive dialogue. Further, it is the opinion of the officers that attended the meeting that none of this would have been possibe without the direction of the WHG President Mr. Eric Danziger. To that effect we would like to thank him for allowing us the opportunity to work with our franchisor.
Jay Patel - Interim President
O8A
MEETING SUMMARY
Parsippany, NJ: On August 13th, three Owners 8 Association officers had an opportunity to speak with WHG-Super 8 regarding present issues concerning the franchisees at Wyndham headquarters in New Jersey. O8A Interim President, Jay Patel of North Carolina, Interim Secretary Robin Prema of Arizona, and Interim Vice President, Jim Miller of Wisconsin shared a two-hour PowerPoint with the Franchise Advisory Board and Super 8 corporate staff, including the President of Super 8, Mr. John Valletta and VP of Operations Mr. Jim Darby.
Key items discussed by the O8A were technology issues with Direcway and Softhotel, Wyndham Rewards, QA scoring and customer service fees, and MyPortal navigation.
Mr. Valletta reported that Wyndham has been continuing to work out any deficiencies with Softhotel and has been able to reduce its price by eliminating or combining some aspects of training. Initially, the PMS was required for properties running IPTU as these properties did not have any onsite PMS systems in place. Also according to Mr. Valletta, there isn't as much urgency for properties running HSS to convert to Softhotel however at some point Wyndham expects diminishing support for HSS and properties will have to convert to Softhotel. Costs will vary depending on the condition and age of hardware at each property. O8A urged the FAB and Wyndham to continue working on reducing this cost for franchisees to give us the best value when the time comes that we have to convert. We also stressed the importance to getting all the issues with the software that have been reported by the O8A resolved before any continued rollout of the system. Mr. Valletta and the FAB responded to our concerns by indicating that most of the 50-60 Softhotel issues on the O8A website had been resolved. We asked that someone from the brand send us some type of communication regarding the changes and this will allow us to update the information on the O8A.org website to allow it to be more current.
We reported to the Franchise Advisory Board that many properties cannot afford any non-essential expenses in our tough economic climate. The Board reiterated this point. We suggested proceeding cautiously with any mandates and upgrades even after the economy recovers, as many property owners have had to take on huge amounts of debt just to keep their doors open. The FAB and corporate staff discussed further financing options for certain capital expenses that are available to the franchisees. We thanked them for these opportunities; as many franchisees took advantage of the sign incentives, but we reminded them that our properties need to be able to cash flow and many owners don't feel comfortable with continually taking on more debt.
In addressing Wyndham Rewards, we reiterated the importance of changing the program to an opt-in versus opt-out option on Super8.com. At our last convention in Orlando, WHG President Mr. Eric Danziger reported this change would be made, but it has yet to change and it is only scheduled to happen in the 4th quarter. We at O8A expressed that this should have been done immediately. Mr. Valletta reiterated that the change would be done in Q4 of this year. We will continue to make every effort to make sure that this is done within the given timeframe.
The O8A also presented problems with "Proactive Matching" of WR customers and properties that automatically sign guests up to take advantage of "Dash for Cash" promotions by corporate. O8A is concerned that many WR customers either don't realize the benefits of the system, or worse yet, have been signed up without their knowledge. O8A voiced the problem of franchisees paying 5% for guests that don't actively utilize the program; hence we are not getting a value for fees paid for those customers. The FAB suggested that perhaps the 5% fee could be reduced as the program grows enough to cover its liabilities to rewards payouts. Other hotel chains have done this and we hope that some improvements are made in the near future.
The O8A again asked for financial reporting of the Wyndham Rewards program. The FAB agreed in wanting to see this information; however, according to Mr. Valletta, this information is not available to us, nor has he seen detailed reports.
We asked Mr. Valletta to check into the arrangement vendors that benefit from WR have with the program, i.e. do they have to pay a fee to allow points to be redeemed at their chains (such as Home Depot), or are hotels the only businesses paying into the system. Again, we want to make sure that our marketing dollars are going to be spent according to our best interests.
As has been reported by Wyndham, they've continued to make additional information available to franchisees via MyPortal. Unfortunately, this large amount of information has made the site difficult to navigate. Many of the unnecessary graphic files have been eliminated to increase page-loading speed, and certain information will be submitted in bold type to highlight its relevance. The O8A pushed for corporate to send emails to property owner/GM's primary email in addition to posts on the portal email, as many owners do not log on to the portal frequently. This posed a significant problem since Wyndham eliminated sending customer service cases via fax and now only posts them on the portal. O8A suggested that any time-sensitive or critical information be sent in this manner. Wyndham is looking into the feasibility of sending emails to a primary email address.
Wyndham reported the same findings that we have been hearing regarding Quality Assurance. For the most part, QA scores have been improving and customer service cases have been fewer. This may be temporary in part due to the state of the economy and change in customer behavior. We all agreed that the ability to open a case prior to a guest contacting Customer Service has helped and to the benefit of the franchisees has reduced the amount of allotted or penalized cases. Corporate reported that they are continuing to move toward helping properties do ‘self-inspections' so corporate resources can be used on properties that repeatedly do poorly on inspections. The O8A would like to see a system that worked with failing properties to make improvements, citing that heavy QA fees take away critical resources that could be used for capital expenses. We, along the FAB, discussed how generally good properties can get a failing grade, whether it is from recent customers that were extremely hard on the property, a temporary situation in housekeeping like being short-staffed, or an inconsistent inspector. The O8A suggested the possibility of lessening the fee of a first time failure, but utilizing a sliding scale or progressing fee to assure that properties don't become repeat offenders.
The above issues obviously represent a portion of our members concerns and by no means represent all of our issues. However, as always we have focused on a number of issues and hope that the officials at WHG and the Super 8 brand will act in a positive manner in addressing these specific issues. We hope that this continued positive dialogue continues and results in a better relationship between the franchisees and franchisor.
If you have any ideas, suggestions, or concerns that you would like the Owners 8 Association to advance upon the behalf of franchisees, then please contact us. In only a short period, we have spoken loudly upon your behalf. We are very pleased that Wyndham is starting to listen and undergoing positive changes. Now that we have established a favorable relationship, we need to foster it for the viability of a strong brand AND healthy returns for franchisees.
Jim Miller - Interim VP O8A
ANOTHER POSITIVE RESULT FOR FRANCHISEES DUE TO EFFORTS OF O8A
CURRENT ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION AT FAB MEETING ON 8/13/09:
If you have been following our progress over the past few months, you will know that some improvements have been made by WHG. A majority of these improvements can be attributed to Mr. Eric Danziger, who has attempted to bring some changes at our franchisor. However, there continue to be several more issues to tackle. Please read the comments for discussion sent in by a few of our colleagues:
MY PORTAL ISSUES and other communication Concerns
Dave from Michigan wrote:
dear jay,
My name is dave and I am the owner/manager of the super 8 in michigan. I just wanted to take a minute and thank you and the other members for your efforts in changing the culture at wyndham. I hope you can continue to have an impact in at least getting them to treat their customers with a little more consideration. I will be leaving the super 8 family this fall and trying to make it as an independent hotel, but again, I wish you folks the best of luck in your future success. my property has never scored less than an A on inspections and I think we have represented the franchise very well, but I can no longer tolerate the feeling of indifference that wyndham gives me when I deal with them. I am one of the people that almost never opens my portal, as I am just too computer stupid or impatient to try to navigate my way through the maze to get the one piece of information I am looking for. I have tried calling people directly, only to be stonewalled by no one calling me back, or the old transfer routine. I am tired of NEVER getting a monthly statement that is right, and I am tired of paying for a direcway system that doesn't work. I am tired of being forced to go to regional meetings where all I hear about is what else 'I will be doing for them' instead of the other way around. I am puzzled by the fact that I need to replace a perfectly good sign and my cousin that owns his own sign making business can't do the work. I am dumbfounded that in the worst economy since the great depression I am being asked to replace a smooth running hss system. I am further amazed at the lack of ideas I hear from corporate as to how we can increase our business. I am also confused that no one from corporate has tried to get me to change my mind....I must be a bigger pain than I realized. but enough of my complaints, I have a favor to ask of the members. if anyone has a suggestion as to a front end system or any tips for a soon to be independent, please let me know...iId be glad to hear some advice. again, thanks so very much for your efforts and the best of luck to you all.
dave
Deepak from Super 8 wrote:
I am sure that a lot of Super 8 owners have been having problems with the new commission process. The used to fax or e-mail the commission report every Friday to us and we would check it. The last month or so they stopped and informed us that we can look for it on my portal and make corrections. This is interesting because this also the time frame that we started having problems with the report. The SS1 reservations were listed twice, once as rack with commission and once as SS1 at no commission. I have e-mailed a requested to the DBD and the FSM to see if they can have the myportal management team go back to e-mailing the commission report every week. I also suggested that they should send us an alert to myportal every time a new report or updated of any kind is posted in the system. We should not have to hunt and look for what has been posted or updated. Maybe you can talk to John about these issued for the owners.
Thanks,
Deepak
THE ISSUE AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Many of us including our officers have had a terrible time navigating through my portal. The system is very slow and very user UNfriendly as it makes any process quite difficult. WHG is becoming more modern in that they are utilizing the my portal system for many of the functions however, they have not tracked whether the franchisees are logging into the system. They typically appear to be blind to the fact that many of our colleagues are NOT computer savy as many of our mom and pop operations never demanded so much use of these web systems. Compared to some of the competitors systems, my portal rates a low C in terms of usage. Many of our members avoid using the system and the results are catastrophic. If you do not access my portal then you are subject to higher commisions, higher WR reimbursement, missed Customer Service Cases, Royalty Reporting issues from WHG, missed inspection notifications, lack of awareness of Medalia scores (which we do not agree with as a justifiable measurement of economy lodging properties), and the list goes on.
These are a couple of solutions:
1. WHG must revamp the software to make it more user friendly.
2. WHG needs to have someone available to help the franchisees without getting a run around or being on hold for long periods to help out on my portal.
3. Send out emails with pertinent information to a designated email account or two with the pertinent information. EX. customer service case opened please go to this link to review (Choice does this now)
4. Change the navigation screens completely in order for them to be easily navigated.
WYNDHAM REWARDS AND MARKETING Concerns
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Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009, 4:45 PM
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Hi Jay,
Well Wyndham has started again and are now signing up guests for the rewards even if they dont want to sign up. The customers have even mentioned being asked to sign up and they have said no, but Wyndham still signed them up. When the guests make their reservations, an hour or two later there will be a change and the only change to the reservation is Wyndham signing the guests up for Wyndham Rewards.
Thank you,
Mike
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Hi Jay,
To substantiate with fellow WHG. franchisee & a member, my property started receiving reservations from Brand.Com. Initial reservations would be normal transmittal without WR #. Later on, very same reservation is transmitted with the " CHANGE". So we are looking for the change, ie change of room type, arrival date and so on,,,,,,,,,but guess..... the change we find is with the WR #. I have had instances the Guest have called property to reconfirm their reservations and at the time Guest was asked if they made any changes to their reservation? The Guest in turn have asked us a question what change? & responded to us that they have not made any changes. We then asked the Guest if they become WR member? the Guests have responded with surprise and a question to us " what is that".I have kept all reservations which were transmitted in this fashion. In short WHG wants to forcefully enroll more member into WR program so 1. To claim high membership Numbers, 2. To claim the success of the program 3. To generate more members before the discontinuance of opt. in default. 4. More importantely, generate 5% in revenue.
Thank You
Dilip
Lack of marketing concerns
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 09:23:56 -0500
What marketing? I have not seen a Super 8 commercial for months….except for a logo on a race car (NHRA) last week. Joan
LACK OF GOOD DIRECTION AND INITIATIVES FROM WHG:
THE FOLLOWING INFO IS FROM SAM, A FOUNDING MEMBER FROM O8A, HE HAS BEEN HAVING DIFFICULITIES AS MANY OF US ARE HAVING RIGHT NOW. HE RECEIVED A GENERIC SET OF KNOW IT ALL ANSWERS FROM A WHG EMPLOYEE THAT HAD NOTHING NEW TO ADD BUT RATHER CRITICISM OF WHY 3RD PARTY ROOM SALES WERE SIGNIFICANT AND IMPORTANT TO HIM.
Greetings Sam,
I just wanted to follow up from our visit yesterday and keep Jim in the loop. As we discussed yesterday, my primary interest is to do anything possible to improve your business…just like you.
I don’t want to seem like I am harping on this, but I spent some more time addressing your display on OTA websites. I did a search (see below) on Expedia for 7/7 and as I mentioned will happen, your hotel is unavailable on that date. The second example demonstrates selling discounts first. However, our strongest customer as a brand and probably with your site also, are AAA and AARP. These rate plans, along with SGV and STR are intended to offer value to our largest groups of customers and you have them all loaded at 1 penny off! 1 penny? There is certainly room to expect poor booking activity with this strategy. It also, as we discussed, would explain why you appear to be selling RACK on all channels, because the penny is frankly difficult to even see when searching. Certainly, as with loading a more competitive rate, it is reasonable to consider loading these rate plans consistent with the brand, the industry and the long standing expectationsof the customer.I also noticed that these rate plans are closed for the weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and you have only one reservation for the entire weekend! You mentioned in your response to Jim, that nothing as changed this year versus last year. I will say that there is some accuracy in your comment. Last year you also trailed your competitors and consistent with our STAR discussion for 2009 you are about $10 higher than compset with severely lagging occupancy in 2008. Sam is there a better time than now to reconsider some of our strategy decisions and really put our effort into being available on all channels? But not just available, but available in the very best and most sellable manner? Given our situation with poor revenue, I would also embrace the loyalty program and give it a chance to bring you a $60 dollar room and try to resist the temptation of focusing on $3 WR fees.I reviewed your last inspection and much of the deficiencies are correctable and I did not see anything that was particularly inaccurate or unfair. The above mentioned items would tend to support Jim’s position in seeing your site as not “making an effort to maximize ways to help itself” Sam, our visit yesterday was maybe our best and as always with your site, I am passionate that reconsidering parts of our business strategy, though not done previously, is needed now more than ever!
Sincerely,
Noel from Wyndham Worldwide
SAM'S RESPONSE to Noel from WHG
Thanks for your response, it is very enlightening to know all the things that you discovered .
It seems that all the problems that you have pointed out are to blame for my property's poor performance. It looks like President Obama needs you as a financial consultant.
It seems you are the one who knows everything about running a business. Looks like I need to go back to school and do my MBA again.
But what you don't see is that I did not take over the business yesterday.
I have been operating this property for 5 years.
You are singing another tune in this email than what you were when you visited us.
I don't blame you, you're insecure about your job and the ability to find another one in these hard times.
Let me know which properties you are a DBD for I will personally forward them what you are advising, so they also can learn how to run a profitable business in these hard times.
If you were so sincere about your work, you would have done yr homework on OTA website listings for my property before you came here. I see a lot of professionalism in yr essence of punctuality. There has never been a time that you have not cancelled yr appointment with me atleast once and never showed up on time. Your time may not be precious but mine is.
This type of support from WHG is not exactly what we are seeking in the current economy.
REMOVAL OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PENALITES:
JAY, WE MUST ASK MR VALLETTA TO SUSPEND THE COMPLAINT PROCESSING FEE $60,S INCE THIS WAS A PART OF FRANCHISE SERVICES. MR ERIC DANZIGER MIGHT HELP US IN THIS MATTER. ALSO NOWADAYS A CHUNK OF OUR BUSINESS COMES FROM THIRD PARTY INTERNET. WE HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT. THEY ARE TAKING A BIG CHUNK OF MONEY AS COMMISSION.
MR. DOSHI
THE ABOVE LIST OF EMAILS ADDRESSES THE MAJORITY OF CONCERNS THAT HAVE BEEN VOICED BY OUR COLLEAGUES. IF YOU WISH TO ADD ANY OTHER CONCERNS THEN PLEASE SEND IT TO US SOON.
May 15, 2009
Recent letter sent to WHG officials
During the recent convention for Super 8 and Days Inn in Orlando in February, you had notified the franchisees that WHG would move enrollment into Wyndham Rewards from Opt OUT to Opt IN however as of today these progressive and positive changes have not been made. We continue to hope that this update is made to the Wydham family of hotels reservations websites as it is imperitive that our guests are made aware of the Wyndham Rewards program before signing up for membership. The franchisees want the program to succeed as it is imperitive that we continue to hold and grow our market share within our segments. However, with the current format of Opt OUT there is a disconnect between our guests and the success of the Wyndham Rewards program.
Within the last 10 days, it had come to our attention that Choice hotels, one of our competitors, had begun a similar process of Opt OUT in February of this year. They had created a similar method of auto enrollment where the guest had to Opt OUT of enrollment into Choice Privelages (Choice's Frequent Stay Program). Upon receiving information regarding Choice's new methods of expanding the Choice Privelages program, O8A sent an email out to its members. We notified our members, who may also own Choice Hotel franchises that Choice had undertaken this questionable practice. The information was quickly forwarded by many of the franchisees to CHOC (Choice Hotels Owners Council - an elected board of franchisees), ELFA (Econo Lodge Franchisee Association - an elected board of franchisees), ROA (Rodeway Owners Association - an elected board of franchisees) and AAHOA. Consequently, Choice officials moved quickly to address the concerns of the franchisees. After discussion by the above associations, Choice officials notified the franchisees during an AAHOA town hall meeting that they would be stopping the Opt OUT process within days. The franchisees were given assurances that the practice would come to an end by next week.
Choice officials were very cooperative and have listened to their elected franchisee boards and will make the necessary changes in a very prudent manner. We hope that WHG can work in a similar manner and bring an end to the Opt OUT process that continues to be in place on all WHG brand websites. We can only be successful together and it is of great significance that positive communication and interaction continue in the franchisee and franchisor relationship.
Jay Patel
Interim President O8A
Working Together We Can Make a Difference
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO
The Orlando convention was a great opportunity for us to network with fellow franchisees and corporate staff. It was great to see so many of our members despite the high cost of this event in such an uncertain economy. Many of our members understandably didn't make the trip (give us a call or email if you have concerns). A lot of information was exchanged at the event, and it allowed us to show our continuing presence as an organization. As a result of the hard work of Jay and many of our members, we were able to strengthen the base of group and gain membership by meeting face-to-face.
Post-convention, we can reflect on the Owners 8 Association's original 4 issues to tackle, which we established more than 18 months ago.
Softhotel PMS and related hardware issues: O8A's 3 rules of front office technology, VALUE, VALUE, VALUE. We're working to get franchisees the best hardware, software and support and at the lowest price while minimizing costly refreshes. The inevitability of changing our PMS and hardware is upon us. The same questions remain; HOW MUCH? and WHEN? We've yet to get anything close to concrete in terms of answers from Wyndham on these issues. We meet numerous franchisees in Orlando with vast computer and IT knowledge. The consensus of these smart franchisees is that the proposed package has compatibility issues, particularly between Softhotel PMS and the Direcway/Hughes dish. Also, the hardware upgrade does not contain the latest generation of technology despite its high price tag. Issues also were brought forth about the language contained in the Addendums to our franchise agreements related to both the Hughes and Softhotel upgrades. Particular clauses allow Wyndham to increase our fees with no cap or limit and need more specificity regarding termination fees due to sale or transfer of the your franchise. READ THESE CONTRACTS CAREFULLY AND DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. We will continue pressing these issues to get the best bang for our buck.
Wyndham Rewards: The convention crowd applauded the announcement by Eric Danzinger that guests booking online would have to "OPT INTO" Wyndham rewards by checking a box stating their intentions to join the program. Currently, customers booking through brand websites are automatically enrolled unless they uncheck a box hidden in small print on the sites, a.k.a. "OPT OUT". This change has ongoing positive implications for all Wyndham franchisees in that it reduces the number of members who don't even know they're part of the rewards program, yet we pay 5% commission to the program on these guests stays due to "Proactive Matching" by Wyndham. Mr. Danzinger even hinted at a future reduction in the 5% fee associated with the program. Let's not hope he just making empty campaign promises!
O8A was extremely vocal early on about this loophole in the system. Along with pushing for more transparency any reporting from Wyndham about the program, we hope to see changes concerning unused and expired points that we a franchisees are billed for up-front. We did learn something quite puzzling regarding Wyndham Rewards membership. Wyndham Rewards now has over 7 million members yet they have only 450,000 email addresses for these members. That amounts to having email addresses for only 6.5% of the total membership in the program. As our members know, email communication is inexpensive and effectively reaches your audience and WR needs to make some extensive improvement with this issue.
O8A also discussed possible fees reduction for WR as we know boast the largest frequency program in the industry, however; members of the FAC indicated that WHG was not willing to reduce their fees or share their budget with the franchisees.
Guest Service/Processing Fees: We didn't get any new information in the General Session about these issues, but several "middle management" staffers of corporate stated that changed are being made concerning the allotment and fees. We'll keep you posted.
QA and Re-inspection Fees: The $1500 charge for re-inspection after a failing QA score has yet to be changed to our knowledge. O8A spoke at length to several Franchise Advisory Board members about the prospects of changing penalties, perhaps to a sliding scale, as we feel the current $1500 fee is far too excessive for a first time offense. O8A recognizes the need to ensure properties in the system are up to standard, and foremost clean. Habitual offenders need to be penalized or removed from the system, but the current practice by Wyndham is not the best manner in addressing these problems. We hope the FAB will make this issue paramount and help us get the changes we desire.
On a positive note, QA points are no longer accessed for Medalia scores. O8A has always maintained that Medalia is a good tool, but it's bases on perceived value by guests, and by nature, has no place in QA.
Additional Changes: Much to our delight, Wyndham is changing the format of its conventions. The parent companies extensive brands (Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Microtel, etc.) will have a joint convention with breakout sessions for each individual brand, saving multiple brand owners the cost of attending several conventions each year. Hopefully we'll see lower costs, better trade shows and increased networking opportunities as a result of the consolidation.
We need your ideas: As we make breakthroughs with Wyndham on these issues, we need your input on shaping the direction of our franchise. We will try our best to help with site-specific issues, but ultimately we need to address any potentially harmful (or just plain dumb) policy imposed by corporate. If you have any suggestions, let us know. No idea is a bad idea. We'll bounce your ideas off our members, anonymously if you'd like, and if it has traction, we can collectively try to get it done. Wyndham is starting to realize the importance of listening to us as franchisees. Let's feed them with our positive ideas.
We need your leadership: Jay has done a phenomenal job of piloting the Owners 8 Association. The groundwork is in place for a living organization. Despite his heavy lifting, Jay Patel is not the Owners 8 Association. Our viability depends on members to come forth to fill critical positions in the group. In the near future, we hope to have nominations and elections for officers with set term limits. If you'd like to step up and help us with our mission or know someone who has a particular talent that could help us, please get in touch.
Final thoughts: Wyndham will probably never directly point to O8A as the cause for making changes within the system, but they undoubtedly are aware of our size and presence. Remember our focus and goal; to make our properties more profitable within the parameters of a large organization like the Super 8 brand. We need to be stewards of the brand as a whole to ensure its long-term viability while protecting the value of our motels as liquid real estate investments. As members of O8A, we're not working for recognition of our accomplishments. We're working for results.
Jim Miller
Interim Secretary - O8A
4/3/09
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THE FOLLOWING INFO APPLIES TO ALL SUPER 8, HOJO, AND TRAVELODGE MEMBERS OF O8A. IN THE FUTURE IT WILL LIKELY APPLY TO OTHER WHG BRANDS.
This information was sent in by Tim, a member of O8A. Although, we find education very important to the success of the franchisees, we did want to make you aware of the possibility of opting out of the online learning charges if you wish to do so. You are currently being billed $60 for this service from WHG.
IF YOU DECIDE TO OPT OUT YOU MUST DO SO BY MAY 1, 2009.
TIM HAS ATTACHED A FILE THAT SHOWS YOU WHERE TO GO ON MY PORTAL'S HOME SCREEN.
Here are the online learning library opt-out procedures:
1. Login into MyPortal
2. Click on the "Online Learning Library Opt Out" yellow link located below the logout button of MyPortal (picture attached)
3. Complete form and click send. You will be removed from the program and credited $60.
The opt out page looks like this:
Jay Patel - Interim President
O8A
The Owners 8 Association Website
Owners Working Together
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By Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC
March 2009
1. Do You Know About O8A?- A group of Super 8 hotel owners recently organized and formed the Owners 8 Association (O8A) which is the only independent association of Wyndham Hotel Group franchisees. The Association currently consists of over 1,276 members who have joined together to create a more unified voice to represent their concerns with the franchisor. During the past year, O8A has played an integral role in bringing many positive changes for franchisees, O8A continues to try to forge new relationships with Wyndham Hotels officials to create a better working environment.
Currently, because of O8A's efforts, an important decision by Eric Danziger, President, Wyndham Hotels Group stopped automatic enrollment into the Wyndham Rewards Program. O8A considers this action to be a significant victory which will result in immediate savings for franchisees. For more information regarding O8A, visit their website at www.O8A.org or call Jay Patel at 336-998-9116.
2. Do Hotel Franchisees Need Independent Associations? In the volatile world of franchisor/franchisee relations, reconciliation often seems hopeless because the franchisor usually has the upper hand. Even the modest proposals embodied in the AAHOA 12 Points of Fair Franchising are seen as revolutionary and radical.
At the center of the dialogue between franchisors and franchisees are the sometimes invisible franchise advisory councils (FACs). These organizations are created and subsidized by franchisors with the idea of fostering and controlling communication and franchisee participation.
As the name indicates, FACs are usually purely advisory and their bylaws determine issues the franchisor will address. The franchisor usually shapes meeting agendas and appoints the franchisee members who serve on the FAC.
Franchisors, of course, claim that the FACs are a progressive force in promoting good relations and cooperation with franchisees, some of whom are likely to define them as little more than window dressing. FACs can be an inexpensive mediation tool to solve conflicts in the entire system, because they enable the franchisee, who has hands-on experience, to be able to filter information back to the franchisor. According to some industry observers, those tools can get tarnished pretty quickly, especially if the creation of an advisory council is nothing more than an extension of the franchisor's power in a polite "Rubber Stamping" process.
It has come to my attention that over the past ten years significant improvements in franchise systems were due to one major factor: the formation of independent franchisee owner associations. In 1992 in all U.S. industries, there were fewer than 30 independent associations; by 2007 about 300 such groups had formed. In the past, franchisors turned their backs on these associations, claiming their own franchise advisory councils were sufficient outlets for complaints.
But, as corporate attitudes hardened, Dairy Queen, Burger King, KFC, 7-Eleven, GNC, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Quiznos, UPS Stores, among other franchisees, have formed independent associations.
In hotel franchising there are three independent franchisee associations:
- EconoLodges of America Franchisee Association (ELFA) is a 28 year-old independent franchisee association (the oldest in the U.S.)
- Association of Starwood Franchisees & Owners North America (ASFONA) was formed in 1997 by owners of Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton hotels in North America. In January 2006, the Board of Directors approved a motion to expand ASFONA to include all brands in the Starwood Hotels and Resorts portfolio
- Owners 8 Association (O8A). See Above.
3. FACs: Powder Puffs or Powerhouses? On February 11, 2009, I was the luncheon speaker at the AAHOA Franchise Advisory Council Summit in Orlando. In my talk, I made the following points:
- The essential requirements for a successful hotel brand are critical mass, brand awareness and name recognition by potential customers. If the hotel brand fails in any of these vital areas, the franchisee will suffer failure also. The universal image of a franchise is of a business person striving to share in the American Dream of business ownership-driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, but cautious enough to buy a franchised business to ensure success of the enterprise.
- This model franchise conjures up an image of the franchisor and franchisee working hand-in-hand to achieve financial success. The franchisor has been described (mostly by franchisor organizations) as a partner, a mentor, a big brother, a coach in your corner- all images of benevolent, experienced, knowledgeable support center and resolve who is ready, willing and able to nurture, support and protect the franchisees of the system of the good of all.
- However, the history of franchising in the United States reveals a far different scenario. In 1971, after a rash of scams, rip-offs and franchisor horror stories, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held public hearings on these fraudulent business practices. After 30,000 pages of testimony describing some 5,000 complaints, the FTC instituted its Rule on Franchising which mandated that all franchisors must provide a Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC). This document must disclose all material information to help prospective franchisees to make an informed franchise purchase decision. More recently, the UFOC has been renamed the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and requires more information than before.
- Nevertheless, franchise agreements are one-sided documents, drafted by franchisor attorney's and presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis to franchisees. Why do hotel franchisees agree to these agreements? They do it for these vital and important reasons:
- To gain brand name awareness
- To join a system that is identifiable and attractive to the traveling public
- To join a system that has appropriate system growth
- To receive beneficial reservation contributions
- Despite what many franchisees may think there are no federal rules, no duty of due care, no fiduciary duty even when the franchisor collects franchisee money in pooled advertising funds. The language of the franchise agreement is all that defines the relationship between the franchisee and the franchisor. It is for this basic reason that franchise advisory councils are so carefully named: they are mostly "advisory" only with no real negotiating clout.
- Are franchise advisory councils powerhouses or powder puffs? My long experience with hotel franchising reveals many of them to be paper tigers with no real clout and no independence. On the major issues: encroachment and impact, termination and liquidated damages, transferability, choice of venue and dispute resolution, FACs have little negotiating strength and no veto power.
4. The Best FACs- However, there are some FACs which are better than others: 1. International Association of Holiday Inns (IAHI)- created by Kemmons Wilson in 1956, it claims to be an independent association. Despite its good works and its valuable voice, it nevertheless does not meet the test of a completely independent franchise owners association. For example:
5. Quote of the Month
"In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but its effects."
J. William Fulbright
Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC operates his hotel consulting office as a sole practitioner specializing in franchising issues, asset management and litigation support services. Turkel's clients are hotel owners and franchisees, investors and lending institutions. Turkel serves on the Board of Advisors and lectures at the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. He is a member of the prestigious International Society of Hospitality Consultants. His provocative articles on various hotels subjects have been published in the Cornell Quarterly, Lodging Hospitality, Hotel Interactive, Hotel-Online, AAHOA Lodging Business, etc. Don't hesitate to call 917-628-8549 or email stanturkel@aol.com.
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| Also See: |
Nobody Asked Me, But No. 49 / Slave Trading at the Saint Charles Hotel in Washington DC, Why Are Some Hotel Franchise Companies Defranchising Exterior Corridor Hotels / Stanley Turkel / February 2009 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 48 / New President of Wyndham Ignores the Real Issues; Hotel Franchises Compared to Auto Dealer Franchises / Stanley Turkel / January 2009 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 47 / New CEO of Choice Misses an Opportunity; Lost and Forgotten Hotels; Little Known Hotel Facilities in New York / Stanley Turkel / December 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 45/ Remembering John Curry; Hotel Owners Have The Power / Stanley Turkel / October 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 44 / Hotel Franchise Companies Performance Appraisal Report, a Down-to-earth Assessment of the Hotel Capital Markets / Stanley Turkel / September 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 43 / Hotel Franchisor Companies Ignoring Critical Franchising Issues, Marriott Leads the Way with Aggressive Environmental Strategies / Stanley Turkel / August 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 42 / Remembering Jack Craver; World Record-Setting Hotels; At Last: A Major Gaming Facility in the Catskills / Stanley Turkel / July 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 41 / Landmark Belleview Biltmore Resort Saved; Hotel Developers Take Note - the Borough of Bronx in NYC Has 1.5 million Residents and Just One Hotel in the AAA Guide; Boutique Hotel Bandwagon / Stanley Turkel / June 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 39 / Say Goodbye To The UFOC; Dunfey Brothers To Be Honored; The Plaza Hotel Reopens After a $400 Million Renovation / Stanley Turkel / April 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 38 / Super 8 Owners Form an Independent Franchise Association; Why Is There a Bible in Every Hotel Room? / Stanley Turkel / March 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 37 / Remember the Savoy Plaza Hotel?; Is Economic Disaster Imminent; Cuba at the Crossroads / Stanley Turkel / February 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 36 / What the Advertisements for the Largest Hotel Franchise Companies Never Mention - Also Measuring Hotel Brand Value / Stanley Turkel / January 2008 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But No. 35 / Casino Expansion Has Transformed America, Exercise Awareness / Stanley Turkel / December 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 34 / IHG's Great Idea, Sound-Proofing Hotels, Best Western Enters the Upper Midscale Segment, How to Convert Confusion Into Order, Sign at a Tarrytown, NY Inn, 1798 / November 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 33 / 1957 Murder at the Park Sheraton Hotel; How Much Does A Franchise Really Cost?A Marriage Made in Heaven?; A Good Night's Sleep at the Benjamin Hotel / Stanley Turkel / October 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 31 - Rhode Island Improves Franchise Rules, What's Up With Canada? Conversion of a Jail Into a Hotel, The Richest (and Poorest) Places in the U.S. / Stanley Turkel / September 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 31 - Blackstone's Acquisition of Hilton, The Art of Groveling, The Origin of Franchising / Stanley Turkel / August 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... No. 30 / Impertinent Questions In Search of Pertinent Answers: Carbon monoxide detectors, exterior-corridor properties / Stanley Turkel / July 2007 |
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How American-Owned Can You Get?, ISHC's CapEx 2007 Report, The Bowery Hotel / Stanley Turkel / June 2007 |
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Hotel Franchising and State Laws, Is Immigration Important? Save the Biltmore, The Good Old Days, Quote of the Month / Stanley Turkel / May 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 27 / Hotel Franchise Agreements: Mediation, Arbitration or Litigation? / Stanley Turkel / April 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 26 / Energy Usage and Potential Savings; Great Art in Hotels; Lifestyle Hotels; The Minimum Wage Issue; Quote of the Month / Stanley Turkel / March 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 25 / Guestroom Design & Amenities, Get a Human, Best Luxury Hotels in the U.S., Turnpike, The Pineapple as Symbol of Hospitality, Fair Franchising / Stanley Turkel / February 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 24 / Loose Cannon, Fair Franchising, Manhattan Hotel Profits, Hotels of the Future, Interesting Miscellany, Quote of the Month / Stanley Turkel / January 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 23 / Biting The Hand That Feeds You?, By The Numbers, Shortage of Hotel Rooms, There is No Free Lunch, Iron Laws of Business Travel, Happy New Year / Stanley Turkel / January 2007 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But - No. 22 / Smart Elevators, Tony Marshall's Memorial, Women in the Hospitality Industry / Stanley Turkel / December 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 21 / The Drake Hotel in New York, Fair Franchising is Not an Oxymoron, By the Numbers, Another Secret Underground Shelter, Passing of Anthony G. Marshall / Stanley Turkel / December 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 20 / Turnabout Is Fairplay, Secret Underground Shelter, By the Numbers, Genuine Fair Franchising/ Stanley Turkel / November 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 19 / International Society of Hospitality Consultants, Great Miami Hotels, Reduce Carbon Monoxide Emissions, Turn Gray Into Gold / Stanley Turkel / November 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 18 / John Q. Hammons, Save the Belleview Biltmore, Chinese Tourism, CFLs, Ernie Byfield, Guestroom Entertainment in 1905 / Stanley Turkel / October 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 17 - AAHOA's 12 Points of Fair Franchising, Protected Territories, / Stanley Turkel / September 2006 |
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The Newest Independent (and Oldest Partially Independent) Franchise Association in the Hotel Industry / Stanley Turkel / September 2006 |
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In Hotel Franchising, Reality Trumps Wishful Thinking / Stanley Turkel / August 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 14; Impact Studies, Stretching Segments, Short-Stay Rentals, Smoke-free Marriotts, Franchising in China, Save the Belleview Biltmore Hotel / August 2006 |
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The U.S. Population Age 65 and Over is Expected to Double in the Next 25 Years; What Does this Mean for the Hotel Industry? / Stanley Turkel / July 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 12; Portman, Women Homeowners, Minimum Wage, Tipping, Brooklyn Bridge, Chinese Tourism, Impact Studies / Stanley Turkel / July 2006 |
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Do Hotel Franchisees Need Independent Franchise Associations? / Stanley Turkel / June 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 10 / Chinese Tourists, Gasoline Prices and Alternatives, GLBT Segment, Travel Agents, FAC's, Manhattan's Record Breaking Year, Impertinent Questions / Stanley Turkel / June 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 9 / Blang, Bathtubs, Best Green, Arbitration, Best Western, AAHOA, State Franchising Laws, VFR / Stanley Turkel / May 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But... No. 8; Bathtubs, Smokefree Hotels, Maps, Saving Water, Nevada Revenues, H.P. Rama, Ritz-Carlton, Statler Service Code, Mother's Day / Stanley Turkel / April 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But....No. 7 / Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC / March 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / February 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / January 2006 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / December 2005 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / November 2005 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / October 2005 |
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Nobody Asked Me, But.... / Stanley Turkel / September 2005 |
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2/15/09
FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
UPDATE FROM THE 2009 CONVENTION - GAYLORD PALMS - ORLANDO 2/15/09FIRST COMPREHENSIVE LETTER POSTED ON MY PORTAL BY OUR NEW WYNDHAM HOTEL GROUP PRESIDENT AND CEO POSTED BELOW. IT HIGHLIGHTS SOME EXTENSIVE POSITIVE CHANGES BEING IMPLEMENTED BY WHG. IT IS FURTHER PROOF TO THE FACT THAT MR DANZIGER AND HIS COLLEAGUES ARE FINALLY LISTENING TO OUR CONCERNS AND MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL THE BRANDS. WE AT O8A ARE HAPPY TO SEE THESE NEW CHANGES AND ARE PROUD TO HAVE PLAYED AN INTREGAL PART IN BRINGING THESE INITIAL CHANGES.
ANOTHER POSITIVE RESULT FOR FRANCHISEES DUE TO EFFORTS OF O8A
To: Owners, General Managers and Principal Contacts
From: Eric Danziger, President and CEO, Wyndham Hotel Group
Date: February 13, 2009
Re: Wyndham Hotel Group Update
I often say we have two ears and one mouth and should use them in that proportion. Communication starts with listening and that is what we have done over the past year - at franchise board meetings, regional meetings, and hearing your comments through various brand forums - and we are deeply committed to listening. In addition, I would like to thank the over 1,000 of you who responded to our franchisee survey. You have told us that driving revenue, managing rising costs and delivering quality customer service are areas we must focus on in 2009, especially given the challenging economy we all face. In response, we have implemented the following actions in key areas of our organization.
Communication and Support Actions:
.. Realigned our organization to focus on customer service with each employee accountable for specific customer service metrics.
.. Reduced franchisee touch points, making it easier for you to reach us through the implementation of the Operations Support Desk. This centralized team of representatives will ensure your calls to franchise services are answered by a person, not voicemail. They will be your primary point of contact for franchise support, available to answer your most frequently asked questions and concerns. Our goal is to respond to you within a 24 hour timeframe.
.. Improved the usability and enhanced communication/content of MyPortal. Brand specific e-mails will be sent to you two times each month highlighting key news and information found on MyPortal that will assist you in the day to day operations of your property.
Quality Actions:
.. Delayed rolling out any new material brand standards which will cost you additional capital, to 2010.
.. Completed enhancements to Medallia, our electronic guest survey tool. Designed changes provide a consistent survey rating process that is in line with our competition.
.. Developed a Quality Assurance Self Inspection Video, a training tool to assist you and your team in understanding the best way to ensure the quality of your property, every day.
.. Creating an "Enhanced Quality Assurance Experience" focusing on Reporting, Training and Planning, to enable the process to be more consultative in nature.
Marketing/Loyalty Actions:
.. Implemented consumer Web site enhancements to make booking rooms easier for our customers.
.. Redirected a good portion of our marketing spend to online, particularly paid search. Online marketing can be specifically measured and has proven to be highly effective in driving business to your properties.
.. Rolled out the new Wyndham Rewards contribution report which provides detailed information on the amount of business generated by our valuable loyalty program for your property.
Customer Service Actions:
.. Updating our Best Rate Guarantee program. The new program will no longer offer a free night if a lower rate is found. Instead, guests who find a lower rate online than is available on the brand Web site will receive the lower rate plus an additional 10% discount.
.. Enhanced our Customer Care process to allow you to address your guests with greater efficiency and effectiveness. All Customer Care tools will now be accessible on MyPortal, enabling you with an electronic avenue to access and have input into our Customer Care process, 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
.. Changed the titles of our field teams. Our role in the field is to provide resources and support to help you operate your properties. The titles now reflect this function more accurately.
They are:
1. Senior Director, Operations and Support (formerly group director of business development)
2. Director, Operations and Support (formerly directors of business development)
3. Manager, Operations and Support (formerly franchise service managers)
Revenue Management Actions:
.. Created a revenue management team that is now servicing 1500 properties with a goal to get to 3000 properties by the end of 2009. The properties participating in revenue management services are seeing a definite improvement vs. properties that are not participating.
.. Restructured and combined our procurement team with Wyndham Vacation Ownership and RCI to obtain the best pricing possible.
In coordination with the brands, we will continue to evaluate every opportunity to reduce or eliminate non-essential expenses. As you may be aware, we have already postponed certain brand conferences, where possible, and substituted regional meetings to reduce travel costs. We all succeed if we work together during these challenging economic times. I welcome your feedback on the actions outlined above. Please can contact me via e-mail at ericsoffice@wyndhamworldwide.com. We look forward to working with you and thank you for choosing to do business with us.
Sincerely,
Eric Danziger
12/31/08
Happy New Year to all the members of O8A!!
Happy New Year to all the members of O8A!!
On my portal Mr. Danziger has posted a letter, he addresses many points and has stated that he wishes to develop a long term relationship with the franchisees. We had previously sent him a letter and will also send another letter as a follow up.
Also, one of our members sent us an email that WHG will begin charging us for Credit card transactions that involve payment of fees to them. Now on my portal there is a letter from Aly El-bassuni of Days Inn that there will be a $160 processing charge that they will pass on to us. Wouldn't it be great if we could pass on our credit card processing charges to guests??? Maybe we could also have them add a line item charge in our Property Management Systems for credit card processing fees along with additional royalty fees charged for Wyndham Rewards Program Costs. They continue to curb their costs at WHG with total disregard for the franchisees. On the one hand, they say we will work with the franchisees and on the other hand, we see no positive developments from WHG.
This letter was sent as a follow up to our new CEO
DATE: DECEMBER 31, 2008
To: Wyndham Hotel Group – CEO Mr. Eric Danziger
From: Jay Patel – Interim President Owners 8 Association
RE: Follow letter to our letter of 12/6/08
In our initial letter to you on December 6. 2008, we had pointed out the progress of our association and the goals of the Owners 8 Association (O8A). The initial letter was written in an effort to reach out to you and create a positive working relationship between the franchisee group and WHG. As you are aware, we currently represent an extensively large group of your franchisees. We have read your initial communication which was sent out to the entire WHG franchisee community and do feel that the letter has emphasized some positive aspects that we as franchisees have continued to hope for from WHG. More specifically, the following paragraph indicates to us that as the president of WHG, you are willing to listen to our concerns. In your letter of 12/23/08 , you wrote: “I regard our mutual relationship as successful when our common goals are realized. Success means having a relationship with you that is everlasting. And of course, success implies system-wide growth! Although somewhat aspirational in nature, I promise to work hard in leading WHG in a way which attempts to yield all of those goals, for they are the guiding principles of what makes a company great!”
These statements indicate some very significant directives that you are willing to undertake as the president of WHG. First, you have suggested that you are willing to work towards common goals of both the franchisees and the franchisor. Second, you have also implied that you are focused on an everlasting relationship with the franchisees. Thirdly, you have also hoped for system-wide growth. To that effect, this is our second letter that is written in an effort to create some meaningful discussion and dialogue in regards to the concerns and goals of the franchisees. It appears to O8A that your goals are similar to our goals however, without extensive and open communication none of these goals can ever be achieved.
In the last few weeks, many of our competitors have shelved many of their new objectives and upgrades for the upcoming year. As you are aware of the current economic climate and the bleak economic future for the upcoming year, we feel that WHG must also consider extensions on many of the new initiatives. AAHOA had also sent a letter to all the brand presidents to this regard and unfortunately, the WHG franchisees have not received any type of assurances addressing our concerns. The following paragraph was from the initial letter that we sent you from O8A: “In the current economic downturn, a majority of us are not in any financial condition to pay for new signage, new PMS systems, or even paying $880 to attend an annual convention. SoftHotels continues to have excessive issues and many of those who were unfortunate to be forced to buy and implement this overpriced software have shared their concerns with O8A. Most of the franchisees are more interested in paying their mortgages, paying their employees, paying their monthly bills, paying for operating supplies, etc. We are in a very difficult financial position and our failure will directly affect WHG. These additional expenses which result in extra revenue to our franchisor need to be re-evaluated immediately. It is the duty of the franchisor to address our concerns as we are business partners and our failure is your failure. We continue to expect some type of positive discussion from our franchisor as our issues are valid and our concerns are significant.”
Recently, we have also been notified that WHG will begin to pass of credit card processing charges to the franchisees for credit card payments of franchisee bills. This is a cost savings method being employed by WHG however, we as the franchisees do not have the ability to recoup our CCP fees from our customers. Therefore, we find it quite disturbing that WHG has implemented another process to reduce its costs at the expense of the franchisees. These CCP expenses for guest payments are always referred to as the “Cost of being in Business”, and these fees are always absorbed by the franchisees. Implementation of fees will also have a negative impact on franchisee payments as many of us who are working through difficult times will have to extend payment times in order to avoid excessive fees from WHG.
We continue to hope that you have the ability to take the necessary positive steps in order to remove this communication gap between the franchisees and WHG. We have always stated that open communication and creating common ground will lead to future success for both the franchisees and franchisor. Take the next great step and begin some positive discussion with your franchisee group.
Continuing to hope for Positive CHANGE
Jay Patel – Interim President O8A
“Owners Working Together”
LETTERS FROM MY PORTAL
Letter from Danziger below:
To: Owners and General Managers
From: Eric Danziger, President and CEO, Wyndham Hotel Group
Date: December 23, 2008
It is with great pride that I write you today to introduce myself to Wyndham Hotel Group’s family of brands. And, to our many wonderful owners and franchisees! I feel honored to join this great group of brands and people, and look forward to pushing forward toward great success!
Everyone, in one way or another, has been touched by the dramatic change in our nation’s economic situation. Now is the time to talk about how we navigate the choppy economic waters. It’s a time to work on solutions which can seize the opportunity to grow your business. To the extent that people are traveling on business, leisure or otherwise, they need to stay somewhere. Our efforts should be focused on having them stay with you! We have a strong family of brands and we know consumers are attracted to what they know and trust, especially in uncertain economic times.
What an opportunity and challenge it is to come in as the new president and CEO during these tough times. I define great success as the individual properties and owners performing well at the property level. I regard our mutual relationship as successful when our common goals are realized. Success means having a relationship with you that is everlasting. And of course, success implies system-wide growth! Although somewhat aspirational in nature, I promise to work hard in leading WHG in a way which attempts to yield all of those goals, for they are the guiding principles of what makes a company great!
In challenging times, strong companies become great companies. As a former competitor of WHG, I know how well this company has performed during tough times. We are committed to you and we need to remain focused. Different brands demand different solutions and a “one-size fits all” approach is not the solution for us. We are customizing our tactics and methodologies and your dedicated brand leaders will keep you informed on new initiatives we are implementing to ride out this economic storm. You have already heard directly from your brands on the conferences and the various initiatives each is taking to decrease operating expenses, drive revenue and deliver exceptional guest service at each and every property. You will continue to receive information from us as we develop new ideas together. I look forward to working with you and sincerely thank you for your business.
May the holiday season bring great happiness to you and your families - your families at home and your extended employee families.
The letter below was from Aly. El-Bassuni at DIW
Days Inns Worldwide Tel (973) 753-8505
1 Sylvan Way Fax (201) 491-4538
Parsippany , New Jersey 07054 E-mail: aly.el-bassuni@wyndhamworldwide.com
To: Owners, General Managers and Principal Contacts
From: Aly El-Bassuni, Vice President, Operations, Days Inns Worldwide Chris Demetriou, Vice President, Financial Services Wyndham Hotel Group
Date: December 5, 2008
Re: Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (E.I.P.P.)
As we continue our efforts to provide our franchisees with the best possible customer service, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new online billing capability accessible via MyPortal. Through this new online tool, Days Inn® licensees can access their billing statement, pay open invoices, drill down to invoice details, (such as Travel Agent, Guest Services, Wyndham Rewards®) as well as print and save information.
We will continue to mail your billing statement along with guest services and travel agent invoice details for the next three months. However, we urge you to begin using this new online functionality as soon as possible as there will no longer be a paper statement option beginning with your March statement. Your cooperation in this matter will help ensure a smooth transition to a paperless billing environment at that time.
Accessing Online Billing
The new online bill payment can be accessed via the Tools drop down menu on MyPortal. Once you click the Online Billing option on this menu, you will also have access to a helpful user guide and application demo. To go directly to the demo, click the following link:
https://myportal.wyndhamworldwide.com/Tutorial/OnlineBilling/EIPP/stage.html.
Please note: Online bill payment functionality is now available to the owner of record at each Days Inn property. However, only the owner may delegate usage to a third party, i.e. a general manager, accountant or bookkeeper. Please be sure that the appropriate personnel have access to MyPortal in order to use this tool. Consult the user guide, located on MyPortal at Department/Finance/EIPP online billing, for direction on how to delegate access.
The current process of reporting gross room revenue (located on MyPortal under Forms/Monthly Franchisee Report Form), will be available only until February 15, 2009 . However, we highly encourage that you start using the online billing application today to report monthly revenue .
Payments
In the online environment, payments can be made either by ACH/electronic check or credit card. There is no charge for making payments via ACH/electronic check. However, please note that each online credit card payment will incur a pass-through fee imposed by the third party clearing house that will process credit card transactions on behalf of Wyndham Hotel Group. This transaction fee of $160 per credit card payment is not collected by Wyndham Hotel Group.
To ease your transition to online payments, Wyndham Hotel Group will credit one card processing fee per month through March 31, 2009 . This credit will appear as a refund of $160 applied to your next statement for a single credit card payment made during the previous month. If you choose to pay by credit card after March 31, you must do so online and you will be solely responsible for the transaction fee(s). There will be no refunds applied after this time.
Summary
In addition to the convenience of transacting online, this tool will improve turnaround time as all transactions take place in a dynamic environment. The online billing module also provides a seamless flow of information which eliminates possible cash misapplications. Lastly, and notably, because it is a paperless solution, it helps us do our part in aiding the environment.
We are excited to offer this tool to you as we believe it will make invoice management and payment more efficient and effective. Once again, thank you for your continued business and your cooperation in our efforts to provide you with superior service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your director of business development or franchise services at (800) 443-3009.
