Wyndham’s Global Playbook: Core Markets Plus Bets on ‘The Next Big Thing’

Wyndham is looking beyond its usual growth targets in Europe and the Middle East (EMEA), steering development toward markets it views as undervalued and products it considers overlooked.

EMEA President Dimitris Manikis said the strategy of the world's largest hotel franchisor can be broken down into "three pillars": "strategic growth, opportunistic growth, and bets... on what the next big thing is going to be.”

Manikis pointed to Turkey as a proof point, during a Skift interview at the Annual Hospitality Conference in Manchester on Tuesday: “A few years back, we did a bet with Turkey… Today, we have 130 properties in Turkey and a very healthy pipeline, and we're the biggest international group.”

The company is aggressively introducing budget and mid-scale hotels to areas where global brands are underrepresented in those segments. It's also developing branded residences to target the €275,000-€500,000 buyer. That's a product largely ignored