THE O8A MEMBERS SURVEY RESULTS ARE POSTED BELOW THE TRIPREWARDS GUEST SURVEY RESULTS.
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TRIPREWARDS SURVEY RESULTS FROM O8A SURVEY Number of Properties Responding to the TR Survey 67 Total # of Guests Polled for the Survey during the Poling week 1766 Total # of Polled Guests  Aware of the TR Program 314 Percentage of Polled Guests Aware of the TR Program 18% Only 18% of the guests surveyed had heard of the Triprewards program despite the  fact that Wyndham continues to point towards the program as a reason for growth Percentage of polled guests with Reservations from CRS 15.40% Actual Number of CRS Reservations 272 Percentage  of Guests with Reservations Aware of the TR Program 46.60% Number of Guests with Reservations Aware of the TR Program 91 Percentage of enrolled guests in TR Program   71.69% # of enrolled guests in TR Program   195 Percentage of TR reservations Charged on motel TR bill 92.70% # of reservations charged 5% 195 Super 8 Motels reservations contribution accounted for 15.4% of the total revenue 71.69% of the reservations had TR numbers associated with the guests however,  only 46.6% of these guests were aware of the TR program.   Note: These statistics represent average values as compiled from data from the participating locations. Actual results vary by location.     The data provided by the survey indicates the fact that awareness of the Triprewards Program is much lower than is touted by Super 8 and Wyndham.  More significantly, the fact that only 46% of the guests with Triprewards frequent stay memberships were aware of their membership in the program.  Wyndham charged the 5% extra royalty on over 92% of these reservations.  They are accurately charging the motels the 5% fees however less than half of these guests were aware of the program and the points they had accumulated.    On a related note: According to the 2006 UFOC for Super 8 Motels:     2005 2006   Jan-Dec Jan-Dec *Source Room Nights Revenue Room Nights Revenue Brand Web Site 972552  $       60,319,385.00 1195492  $     78,932,534.00 Electronic 948974  $       57,868,354.00 1162527  $     68,820,450.00 Other 863170  $       33,034,401.00 792512  $     33,756,670.00 Property Direct (Triprewards) 2764311  $     152,798,186.00 3562932  $   205,785,932.00 Call Centers 1358346  $       82,845,945.00 1190549  $     75,796,670.00 Total 6907353  $     386,684,271.00 7904012  $   386,684,271.00           Contribution   29.46%   33.27%         *Source:  2006 Super 8 Motels, Inc. UFOC  Item 19. Pages 64-65   **CONSIDER THESE FIGURES:   2005                       2006 Total Revenue for Super 8 Motels throughout the system  $  1,312,573,900.20  $1,162,261,109.11 Property Direct Reservations as listed above  $     152,798,186.00  $   205,785,932.00 Total Revenue from CRS and Res Centers as above  $     386,684,271.00  $   463,092,256.00 ACTUAL RESERVATION REV. THRU SUPER 8 CORP  $     233,886,085.00  $   257,306,324.00 TOTAL ACTUAL CONTRIBUTION THRU SUPER 8 CORP 18% 22% **Based on the UFOC information provided by Super 8 above   Reported Contribution in the Super 8 UFOC 29.46% in 2005 ACTUAL Contribution after removal of property direct TR reservations was 18%   Reported Contribution in the Super 8 UFOC 33.27% in 2006 ACTUAL Contribution after removal of property direct TR reservations was 16%   Property direct reservations that were made by the individual Super 8 Motel locations should not be included in the reservation contribution from Super 8 Motels, Inc.  These reservations made DIRECTLY AT THE MOTEL do not truly represent revenue created by Super 8 Reservations.  Triprewards membership numbers are auto assigned by an irregular reservation system created by Wyndham.  In many cases the guests are not aware of their membership and the Triprewards guests are not always legitimately created frequent guests due to the auto assignment of a member number.  Triprewards has nothing to do with many of our guests stays and due to the complete illegitimacy of the current Triprewards Membership base, Wyndham is knowingly skewing these values in order to present more positive reservation delivery values.  Further, due to the fact that Triprewards is not brand specific this further distorts the true contribution values.

BELOW IS A LETTER SENT REGARDING TRIPREWARDS (WYNDHAMREWARDS) TO MR. KEN GREENE FROM DAYS INN.  IT IS SPECIFIC TO A LOCATION IN NC.  HOWEVER, THE DATA IS LIKELY TO REPRESENT THE ENTIRE WYNDHAM LODGING PORTFOLIO.  IT IS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS TO SCRUTINIZE YOUR BILLS AS IT IS YOUR MONEY AND YOUR LIVELIHOOD.  MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE PAYING VALID BILLS THAT CONTAIN CREDIBLE AND TRUTHFUL INFORMATION.  YOU SHOULD NOT ASSUME THAT IF YOUR FRANCHISOR GIVES YOU A BILL TO PAY THEN IT IS BOUND TO BE CORRECT AND LEGITIMATE!

The Basis of the letter is the survey below:

 

 

 

How to survey guests from your Triprewards statement (does not apply to franchisees on IPTU):

1. Go to my portal and download your latest Triprewards bill.
2. Print each individual guest bill from your Property Management System.
3. Contact each of the guests on your bill and ask the following questions:
   1. Thank you for staying with us on (date of stay).
   2. Was everything satisfactory with your stay? Could we have done anything to make your stay more enjoyable?
   3. Are you aware of our frequent stay program called Wyndham Rewards (formerly Triprewards) ?
   4. Would you be interested in joining the program?

                    1. If they say that they are already a member and are aware of the program then let them know that they 
                        earned points for their stay at your location and would be happy to accommodate them in the future.

                    2. If they are not aware of the program then let them know how the program works and membership benefits

4. Typically, you will find the following results:
   1. You will have the wrong contact #’s for some guests.
   2. You will have to leave messages for some guests. If so, ask the guest that you need them to contact you regarding their stay at your property.
   3. You will find some guests are aware of the membership and the program.
   4. You will find guests uninterested in the program and membership.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING AND KEEP GOOD RECORDS OF YOUR FINDINGS. YOUR RESULTS WILL SURPRISE YOU! THE FOLLOWING SITE SPECIFIC INFORMATION WAS CREATED FROM UTILIZING THIS SURVEY METHOD. A LETTER WAS SENT TO THE PRESIDENT OF DAYS INN AS THE SITE IS A DAYS INN. THE SAME PRINCIPLES REGARDING TRIPREWARDS APPLAY TO ALL BRANDS.

Date: July 5, 2008
To: Mr. Ken Greene
From: Jay Patel Days Inn # 5380
RE: Triprewards ROI and issues with the program

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my ROI for Triprewards and my Days Inn Site 5380. While the report was useful to Wyndham in determining the value of the program, there are a number of significant flaws with the assessment. According to the disclaimer listed below the form, your report makes the following assumption:
“Underlying Assumption: Wyndham Rewards membership was proximate cause of incremental of incremental revenue. Members not surveyed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your company has NEVER surveyed the members of the program in order to determine the value they perceive of the program. Further due to the fact that members are auto enrolled and then points are proactively matched, we cannot determine the value actually perceived by the guests. Currently, Wyndham is just making assumptions that the guest is aware of membership and that those guests value the program enough to create repeat business. As I have mentioned on many occasions, Wyndham is the only major franchisor implementing the auto enrollment process and due to this has created an exponential flaw in their reporting of values. If the program did not auto enroll members then this data would be significant and would bear significant relevance. Further, this leads questions to the validity of the TR bill I receive on my portal. If the individual guests are unaware of their membership in the program then I should not be liable for the 5% extra royalties that you are charging me on my bill. These monies are for points that the individuals earned for being members however, they are unaware of their membership in the TR program.

 

Below, you will find how other franchisors register members for Rewards Programs:

CHOICE HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

Check this box to save name, address, phone, and e-mail address (not Credit Card info) on your computer for next time. (If you check this box, remember it may be viewed by others who use/share your computer.) Enroll in the Choice Privileges rewards program and earn points toward free nights. It's free to join. ( U.S., Canada, Europe & Mexico residents only.)

Reserve Room

 

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

Yes, I want to start earning points towards free travel today! Please sign me up for Priority Club using the information from this reservation. You could earn 1200 points, or more, for this stay towards a free night. Note: We will default your profile to certain personal and communication preferences (including email offers and e-statements). You can change these later by updating your profile. Please read our terms & conditions.

HILTON HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARRIOTT HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER THE MEMBERSHIP NUMBER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT.

 

 

 

 

(Marriott Rewards points or miles will not be credited for a stay where the hotel guest's name and the Marriott Rewards member's name do not match)

 

 

CARLSON HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER THE MEMBERSHIP NUMBER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT.

 

 

goldpoints plus SM Number :

Why we ask         Please include your goldpoints plusSM Number in order to provide us with an additional way to reward you while you're traveling. Thank you for helping us serve you better and faster.

Please include your goldpoints plus^SM Number in order to provide us with an additional way to reward you while you're traveling. Thank you for helping us serve you better and faster.

 

BEST WESTERN HOTELS:
REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER AN EMAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find a Hotel - Review and Reserve

 

 

 

My Profile Sign-in

If you have a Best Western profile, or are a Gold Crown Club® International member, login below to pre-populate the billing form with your name and address on file. If you do not have a profile, you can create one later.                           Email Address (or GCCI number):         Password:         SIGN-IN                       Forgot Password?

 

 

 

Guest Information (Required)

 

 

HYATT HOTELS:REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER A USERNAME AND PASSWORD

 

Are you a Hyatt.com or Gold Passport member? Sign In

 

 

 

 

Room Preferences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Specific bed-types and room amenities may not be available at all Hyatt hotels and are based on availability.

 

 

You are reserving King Bed.

 

 

Would You Prefer a Non-Smoking or Smoking Room? No preference Smoking room Non-smoking room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STARWOOD HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

Not a Starwood Preferred Guest®?           Earn and redeem Starpoints at over 860 hotels and resorts worldwide with no blackout dates or availability restrictions. Enter your e-mail address and fill out the form below for a free Starwood Preferred Guest® membership.     E-mail         To continue booking without joining, fill out the form below and click ‘Review Your Reservation.’

Already a Starwood Preferred Guest®?   Earn Starpoints® for this stay. Sign in now, then fill out the form below and click ‘Review Your Reservation.’         Username         Password         Forgot Password?         Remember me

WYNDHAM HOTELS – THE ONLY AUTO ENROLLMENT PROGRAM IN THE LODGING INDUSTRY

FINALLY, BELOW IS THE FORMAT THAT WYNDHAM IS CURRENTLY USING TO AUTO ENROLL MEMBERS WHICH IS LOCATED ON THE FAR LEFT OF THE SCREEN. MOST GUESTS ASSUME THAT THIS IS WHERE THEY CAN SIGN IN IF THEY ARE A CURRENT MEMBER AND DO NOT UNCHECK THE BOX.

Log in to earn points at participating Wyndham Rewards hotels*         Username         Password                   Password help         Not a member? Yes, I would like to be enrolled in Wyndham Rewards and enjoy all the benefits of membership. Details

 

 

Source: All the information presented above is from the franchisor specific online reservations pages and is their property. Data was collected from the franchisor's websites on July 5, 2008 and has been reproduced for the purpose of evaluation only and has not and will not be used for any other purposes.

As the above information indicates, your company is the only major franchisor utilizing this method of auto enrollment in order to expand membership at a rapid pace. More significantly, I would like for you to evaluate the following site specific information from my last Triprewards bill.

We attempted to contact all 93 of the guests whose TR number was missing from HSS. As I stated earlier in an email sent to your offices.

I reviewed by Triprewards bill for the past 2 months in order to evaluate by finance bill. According to my bills over 50% of the Triprewards points were awarded to customers that did not have a TR # on their folio. Also, a majority of the 50% that were missing TR #'s on the check in folio were reservations from the res center. If these guests already had a TR# when booking then why did the number not appear in our check in folio?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During our conference call, you stated that, of the 93 guests I was referring to, that 52 of them were registered at other Wyndham brands. I continue to make the argument that this indicates that these were not brand loyal guests or brand specific guests. Actually, these are potentially Wyndham loyal guests rather than brand specific loyal guests. As Wyndham brands are predominantly competing with each other in the economy segment this further negatively affects the effectiveness and significance of the program. Of further significance is the fact that we do not know how many of these members were auto enrolled or were aware of their membership in TR.

 

 

This leads me to my final point. My staff attempted to contact all 93 guests that were missing TR numbers in HSS at my location in Greensboro. Remember, I did not contact any of the other 90 plus guests that had a TR number already populated in HSS during checkin. The legitimacy of these points has not been addressed. In order to determine the true relevance of the program, the simple process would be to evaluate the bills of those franchisees currently utilizing IPTU. These franchisees are awarding points when the guest requests these points. Further these franchisees are not typically having issues with guests missing their membership points and creating customer service complaints.

 

 

The following results were obtained from attempting to contact the 93 guests missing TR #’s in HSS at my location:

37 We left messages for the guests to verify their membership number in order to receive TR points credit for their stay at our location in Greensboro. THEY DID NOT CALL BACK.
39.7% OF THE GUESTS WERE LEFT MESSAGES TO CALL AND VERIFY THEIR MEMBERSHIP INFO. HOWEVER, THEY HAVE NOT CALLED BACK.

 

 

28 of the guests had non working numbers. Therefore they could not be reached as the contact numbers were invalid. 30.1% OF THE GUESTS HAD INCORRECT CONTACT NUMBERS.

 

 

5 of the guests were aware of their membership.
5.3% OF THE GUESTS WERE AWARE OF MEMBERSHIP IN TR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 of the guests were happy with their stay but were not interested in any frequent stay program and did not want to join any such program.
24.7% OF THE GUESTS WHO WERE ALREADY ENROLLED DID NOT WANT TO BE MEMBERS OF THE PROGRAM AND WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE TR PROGRAM.

1 OUT OF 4 GUESTS FROM THE SMALL SAMPLE WERE NOT AWARE OF MEMBERSHIP IN TR AND WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE PROGRAM.
HOWEVER THEY WERE ALREADY ENROLLED IN THE PROGRAM AND COSTING MY PROPERTY EXTRA 5% FEES.

 

If you would like the customer specific names and information then I can also provide this to you. If these guests are not interested in the program then how can you bill my property the 5% extra royalty / points fees? This information has been generated from the information from the 93 folios that were faxed to your attention last month. These values represent a small sample of the guests that stayed at my property. From my perspective, I have reviewed your ROI report for my Days Inn and have combined this information with your disclaimer below the report. The combination of this information completely negates the effectiveness of the TR program. It further leads to credibility issues regarding your ROI report and the entire TR program. I have also asked Wyndham the redemption rates of the program and they have not sent me any information regarding the entire TR program. If you cannot provide me with that information then I would be interested in my site specific information regarding redemption. It would be interesting to find out how many of the guests that earned points from my site actually utilized any of those points. Also, of significance would be the amounts of points that were earned at my property and have expired from non usage. This would give further justification as to the significance of the program and the real value of the program to my site.

 

 

I would welcome your further evaluation of my information as I do not feel that a majority of the TR billing on my account can be deemed legitimate. In fact a majority of this bill does not appear to be valid and does not hold any type of credibility.

Jay Patel
Days Inn – 5380
Proud Member / Director O8A
Owners Working Together

 

 

Mr. Ken Greene's response:
  
Jay,
       
Thanks for your e-mail. As I have shared with before, I don't agree with your conclusions regarding TripRewards; however, I appreciate you sharing your opinion.
       
Regards,
Ken Greene
 

Jay's response:

From: Jay Patel
To: Greene, Ken
Sent: Sun Jul 06 10:54:18 2008
Subject: Re: 5380 GSO

Thank you for your response to my email. 
I do appreciate your ability to discuss this information in a rational and factual manner.

Bear in mind that I am working on concrete numbers with factual evidence regarding my opinions.  I have the data and individual guest information that is readily available to you if you are seriously interested in learning the truth about the program and these guests.  This is contrary to Wyndham which is basing their information on assumptions without any concrete factual evidence.  You cannot assume that because you have a program in place and that these individuals are utilizing Wyndham properties that they are using them solely on their basis of their membership in TR.  The fact that these guests predominantly are unaware of their membership in the program lends further credence to my statments.  This fact can be proven by my reported numbers from my small sampling of TR guests.

Before you can legitimately force me to pay a bill, I believe that you must prove to me that you are due these bills in a legitimate and legal manner.  Currently, there does not appear to be any validity to my TR bill which can be determined from my report.  I had listened to you during our calls and even evaluated the ROI that you sent me.  I kept an open mind in my discussion over my bills with you.  However, after attempting to call the individual TR customers that did stay at my property and receiving feedback that a majority of the contact numbers were incorrect and many of the TR members were unaware of membership, I continue to believe that this current program is being run in an unethical manner.  It boggles me to know that 1 out of 4 of the guests we called were not interested in the program and this was after the fact that they had already become members in the program.

We asked the guest the following questions:

1.  Did you enjoy your stay at our Days Inn in Greensboro?  Was everything satisfactory during your stay?  Is there something that we could have done to make your stay more enjoyable?

2.  Have you heard about our Frequent Stay Program called Wyndham Rewards previously known asTriprewards ?

3.  If they said yes, we told them that they had already been enrolled in the program and that they would earn points every time they stayed at any Wyndham Hotel and that they had already earned points from their stay at our location.

If they said no, we would tell them information about the program and its benefits.

As stated in the last email:
I would welcome your further evaluation of my site specific information as I do not feel that a majority of the TR billing on my account can be deemed legitimate.  In fact a majority of this bill does not appear to be valid and does not hold any type of credibility.

If it would be of any further value to you then I could have my staff contact the other guests from my last bill.  I know that a couple of these guests are aware of membership and do legitimately seek the points.  In fact I pointed this out to you regarding a couple of my repeat guests that joined the program after staying at my property.  We are giving them points although they are not entitled to some points that exceed the brands TR guidelines.  This issue does not appear to be resolved in my mind as I was very disappointed to find out that a majority of the phone numbers on TR registrations were invalid and many of these enrolled guests were not interested in the program. 

Jay Patel
Proud Member/ Director O8A
Owners Working Together

Mr. Ken Greene's response:

Jay,

I have already evlaluated your bill on site #5380 bill with you and determined that your bill is correct and valid.  The fact that you do not like the program does not alleviate your obligation to pay your bill. 

I also reviewed site #5380's ROI report with you and I believe the program is working very well for you ($19 ROI) despite your efforts to not embrace the program, as noted by zero on-property enrollments for time period reviewed.  As I highlighted on our conference call, you are missing a great opportunity at your property to convert low-margin (70%) SOR bookings to future high-margin (95%) Wyndham Rewards bookings.  There is no charge at the time of these enrollments, so I would encourage you to implement a front-desk program at your property to focus on this specific opportunity.

Please feel free to send/share any information that you believe I may find valuable.   

Regards,
Ken Greene 


Jay's response:

Again, I appreciate your response.

I have always said that if the program were run in a legitimate matter that I or any other franchisee would not have any problem giving our guests any points that they have earned.  The problem arises with these questionable bills.

Jay