Wyndham's Hotel Group To Open Dual-Branded Hotel In Miami

Wyndham Hotel Group, one of the three business units of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:WYN) , recently announced its plans to open a dual-branded hotel in the Brickell district of Miami. This 445-room hotel will bring the company’s two brands — upper-upscale Wyndham Grand and select-service, lifestyle TRYP by Wyndham — under one banner.

Owned by Brazilian developer Galwan and designed by Aquitechtonica, this latest hotel is anticipated to open in late 2019.

The 41-story hotel will offer 200 rooms under Wyndham Grand and will mark the brand's fourth hotel in Florida, joining established resorts in Clearwater Beach, Orlando and Jupiter. Meanwhile, TRYP by Wyndham that will be featuring 245 rooms adds to the brands existing portfolio in Florida, which incorporates locations in Fort Lauderdale and St. Augustine.

Notably, dual-branded hotels seem to be the latest trend among major hotel chains. Apart from helping the parent company to reduce costs, multiple hotel brands in one location offer tourists the access to a wide range of amenities. In fact, nearly 400 dual-branded hotels are now open or under construction in the United States. Given the benefits associated with it, the number is likely to grow at a swift pace over the next several years as tourists seek personalized experiences.

Meanwhile, Miami continues to be one of the world's most desirable travel destinations with roughly 16 million visitors last year and anticipated increases for the years ahead. Consequently, making it an opportune time for Wyndham to open a dual-branded hotel in Miami.

Notably, Wyndham boasts a significant presence in most of the hospitality markets in the United States and abroad. The company’s global portfolio consists of more than 8,300 hotels in 78 countries.

On Aug 3, 2017, Wyndham announced its plan to spin off the company's hotel business — Wyndham Hotel Group — resulting in two separate publicly traded companies. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2018. The company believes that the spin-off of its Hotel Group business and the combination of Vacation Ownership segment with RCI is the best structure to unlock shareholder value and enable strong long-term growth across the businesses.

In fact, this transaction is anticipated to increase the fit, focus and strategic flexibility of both the post spin-off companies, facilitate prospective capital raising and position them to better respond to developments in their respective markets.

Over the past year, Wyndham’s shares have surged 47.4% compared with the industry’s growth of 27.4%.

Yet, lingering political uncertainties in key international markets along with currency headwinds remain concerns for Wyndham as well as most of the other hotel chains including Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) , Hilton Worldwide Holdings (NYSE:H) and Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) .

Nevertheless, we expect this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company’s strong developmental pipeline, consistent expansion plans and large international exposure to continue driving growth in the long haul.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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