Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American

timeshare A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owne ...

company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownership clubs, including Club Wyndham and

WorldMark by Wyndham WorldMark by Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) is the developer and marketer of WorldMark, The club, a vacation ownership program and part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. The original development partner of the club was Trendwest International ( ...

, and provides timeshare exchange services, primarily through RCI. The company operates three business lines: Wyndham Destinations, the world's largest vacation ownership business; Panorama, operating vacation exchange, membership travel, and travel technology businesses; and Travel + Leisure Group, offering consumer travel products, including online and subscription travel services and product licensing. Wyndham Worldwide was formed as a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

from

Cendant Corporation Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...

in 2006, with ownership of Cendant's hotel and timeshare businesses. In 2018, Wyndham Worldwide spun off its hotel division as

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is an American hotel company based in Parsippany, New Jersey, United States. It describes itself as the largest hotel franchisor in the world, with 9,280 locations. It has a portfolio of 20 hotel brands, including ...

and changed its own name to Wyndham Destinations and then to Travel + Leisure in 2021 following the acquisition of the brand from

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...

, later known as

Dotdash Meredith Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

. The ''

Travel + Leisure ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC, with trademark ...

'' magazine is published independently by Dotdash Meredith under a long-term license agreement.

History

The company's origins can be traced to the founding of

Hospitality Franchise Systems Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...

(HFS) in 1990, created as a vehicle to acquire hotel franchises. By 1995, it had acquired the

Days Inn Days Inn is a hotel chain headquartered in the United States. It was founded in 1970 by Cecil B. Day, who opened the first location in Tybee Island, Georgia. The brand is now a part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Parsipp ...

, Howard Johnson,

Ramada Ramada is a large American multinational hotel chain owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. As of December 31, 2018, it operates 811 hotels with 114,614 rooms across 63 countries under the Ramada brand. Name The ''Ramada'' name derives from ...

, and

Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction fi ...

brands. HFS then expanded into other businesses. In 1996, it acquired the timeshare exchange service

Resort Condominiums International RCI (formerly Group RCI and, before that, Resort Condominiums International) is a timeshare exchange company with over 4,300 affiliated resorts in 100 countries. Founded in Indiana in 1974 by Jon and Christel DeHaan, RCI is one of the two main ...

. In 1997, HFS merged with

CUC International CUC (Comp-U-Card) International Inc. was a membership-based consumer services conglomerate with travel, shopping, auto, dining, home improvement and financial services offered to more than 60 million customers worldwide based in Stamford, Connectic ...

to form

. Cendant increased its involvement in the timeshare business by buying

Fairfield Communities Fairfield may refer to: Places Australia * Fairfield, New South Wales, a western suburb of Sydney. **Electoral district of Fairfield, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Fairfield, Queensland * Fairfield, Victori ...

in 2001 and

Trendwest Resorts WorldMark by Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) is the developer and marketer of WorldMark, The club, a vacation ownership program and part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. The original development partner of the club was Trendwest International ( ...

in 2002. In 2005, Cendant bought the Wyndham hotel brand from the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate ...

. On July 31, 2006, Wyndham Worldwide was created as a spin-off from Cendant with ownership of its hotel and timeshare businesses, as part of a plan to break Cendant up into four separate companies. In 2013, Wyndham acquired Shell Vacations Club for $102 million plus $153 million of assumed debt. In August 2017, Wyndham announced plans to spin off its hotel division to shareholders as a separate publicly traded company, thereby becoming a pure timeshare company. The spin-off of

occurred on May 31, 2018, and what remained of Wyndham Worldwide was renamed as Wyndham Destinations the same day.

Wyndham Destinations

Wyndham Destinations, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is the largest vacation ownership program in the world. It includes a network of more than 245 properties, 25,000 individual units, and over 867,000 property owners. Locations are in North America, the Caribbean, and the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Wyndham Destinations includes marketing and sales of vacation ownership interests, consumer financing in conjunction with the purchase of vacation ownership interests, property management services to property owners' associations, and development and acquisition of vacation ownership resorts.

Wyndham Destinations brands

*Club Wyndham *Club Wyndham Asia *Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham *Presidential Reserve by Wyndham *Shell Vacations Club *

*Club Wyndham South Pacific (formerly

Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific Club Wyndham South Pacific (formerly Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and Trendwest South Pacific) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Travel + Leisure Co. Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel c ...

)

Panorama

Panorama was formed in 2020 to manage the company's timeshare exchange and membership travel and technology businesses, including RCI. This division operates the businesses formerly part of Wyndham Destination Network. Wyndham Exchange and Rentals officially changed its name to Wyndham Destination Network on January 1, 2016, and formerly operated over 110,000 vacation properties worldwide in more than 100 countries. To help diversify from its traditional exchange business, the company bought Love Home Swap in 2017. On May 9, 2018, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation completed an agreement to sell its European vacation rental business, which included cottages.com, Hoseasons, James Villa Holidays,

Landal GreenParks Landal GreenParks is a European network of holiday villages, with locations in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Background The company owns 106 holiday village ...

, Novasol, and several others to

Platinum Equity Platinum Equity, LLC is an American private equity investment firm founded by Tom Gores in 1995. The firm focuses on leveraged buyout investments of established companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia. History Platinum Equity was founded in 1 ...

for around $1.3 billion Wyndham Destinations sold its North American Vacation Rental business and associated brands to Vacasa in July 2019 and purchased Alliance Reservations Network in August 2019 for $92 million.

Panorama brands

* RCI *7Across (formerly DAE previously Dial An Exchange) *The Registry Collection *Love Home Swap *Extra Holidays *Panorama Travel Solutions *@Work International *Alliance Reservations Network

Sales practices

Wyndham Vacation Resorts was the focus of investigations regarding their sales practices in 2016 in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Real Estate Commission for Pennsylvania fined Wyndham and their broker at their

Shawnee-on-Delaware Shawnee on Delaware is an unincorporated community on the Delaware River, part of Smithfield Township in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated just south of the foothills of the Pocono Mountains, southwest of the Shawnee ...

location, Craig Roberts, a total of $15,000. Eight months earlier, Wyndham settled similar allegations in Wisconsin paying $655,000 in restitution to 29 consumers. Also in 2016, a San Francisco jury awarded $20 million to Trish Williams, a former Wyndham timeshare sales representative, who was wrongfully terminated in 2010 for reporting timeshare fraud on the elderly.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Hospitality companies of the United States Hospitality companies established in 2006 Companies based in Orlando, Florida Corporate spin-offs Timeshare