Earnings Labs

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (WH)

Q2 2024 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 25, 2024

$85.35

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise, and later the floor will be open for your questions. [Operator Instructions] And now at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Matt Capuzzi, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Matt Capuzzi

Analyst

Thank you operator, good morning and thank you for joining us. With me today are Geoff Ballotti, our CEO, and Michele Allen, our CFO and Head of Strategy. Before we get started, I want to remind you that our remarks today will contain forward looking statements. These statements are subject to risk factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risk factors are discussed in detail in our most recent annual report on form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and any subsequent reports filed with the SEC. We will also be referring to a number of non-GAAP measures. Corresponding GAAP measures, and a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to GAAP metrics are provided in our earnings release, which is available on our investor relations website at investor.wyndhamhotels.com. We are providing certain measures discussing future impact on a non-GAAP basis only because without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to provide the comparable GAAP metric. In addition, last evening we posted an investor presentation containing supplemental information on our investor relations website. We may continue to provide supplemental information on our website and on our social media channels in the future. Accordingly, we encourage investors to monitor our website and our social media channels in addition to our press releases, filings submitted with the SEC, and any public conference calls or webcasts. With that, I will turn the call over to Geoff.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks Matt. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today. As you saw with our release last night, we reported strong earnings this quarter with comparable adjusted EBITDA and EPS growth of 6% and 12%, respectively. We grew our system 4%, saw strong increases in both our US and international royalty rates, and meaningful growth in our ancillary fee streams. Year-to-date, we've generated over $170 million of adjusted free cash flow, and we've returned over $250 million to our shareholders. On the development front, we opened over 18,000 rooms in the quarter, 16% more room openings domestically than last year and continued to improve our franchisee retention rate. Importantly, our franchise sales team here in the United States signed an impressive 33% more development deals in the quarter than they did last year, which helped grow our global development pipeline for the 16 consecutive quarter by 740 basis points year-over-year to a record 245,000 rooms. Domestically, net rooms grew sequentially in versus prior year, driven by a 3% net room growth in our mid-scale and above brands, with new additions like the award winning Oceanfront Semiahmoo Golf and Spa Resort in the Pacific Northwest, which joins our trademark by Wyndham Collection. And we opened our first ECHO Suites in Spartanburg, South Carolina, currently the 12 fastest growing county in America, that has recruited 80 economic development projects over the past three years, totaling more than $5 billion in capital investment and creating nearly 6000 new jobs. Our sales teams have been attracting and welcoming local infrastructure workers who've been checking into the hotel with up to seven-month lengths of stay. Internationally, we increased net rooms sequentially and by 8% versus prior year. Our EMEA team, which opened over 20% more rooms than they did in the second quarter…

Michele Allen

Analyst

Thanks Jeff and good morning everyone. I'll begin my remarks today with a detailed review of our second quarter results. I'll then review our cash flows and balance sheet, followed by our outlook. Before we get started, let me briefly remind everyone that the comparability of our financial results is impacted by the timing of our marketing fund spend. In the second quarter of this year, marketing fund expenses exceeded revenues by $5 million as expected, compared to expenses exceeding revenues by $15 million in the second quarter of last year. To enhance transparency and provide a better understanding of the results of our ongoing operations, I will be highlighting our results on a comparable basis which neutralizes the marketing fund impact. In the second quarter, we generated $366 million of fee related and other revenues, and $178 million of adjusted EBITDA. Fee related and other revenues increased $8 million year-over-year, reflecting increases in royalties and franchise fees, marketing revenues and ancillary fee streams. Royalties and franchise fees as well as marketing revenues reflect our global system growth along with increases in our domestic, international and global royalty rates. These gains were partially offset by the 1% decline in global RevPAR. The increase in ancillary revenues was driven by higher credit card and partnership fees, as well as increased license fees as we harness the power of our Wyndham rewards loyalty base. This growth continues the trend from the first quarter, where we saw these fee streams meaningfully outperform industry RevPAR levels. Adjusted EBITDA grew 6% on a comparable basis, primarily reflecting higher fee related and other revenues, disciplined cost management given the recent RevPAR environment, and an insurance recovery. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA margin improved 350 basis points to 85% this quarter. Second quarter adjusted diluted EPS…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Miss Allen. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time the floor is now open for your questions. [Operator Instructions] We'll go first today to Joe Greff with JPMorgan.

Joe Greff

Analyst

Good morning, guys. First question is on rooms growth. Second quarter in a row of about 4% year-over-year net rooms growth. And given the continued growth in the pipeline, is this the floor for rooms growth? I mean, and if the answer is no, why isn't it? And then with respect to the increase in development advancement notes and just increasing developer capital support, is that for new deals or is that for existing pipeline and trying to get them out of the pipeline into openings? Thank you.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks Joe. I'll let Michele talk about developer advance notes. And no, it's not the floor. We are seeing lots of deals out there on the horizon, which is what has us excited, which is why Michele has taken the guidance up by $20 million on the key money. We saw a phenomenal opening, execution and pipeline growth in the quarter. I think owners to your last two calls first questions are much more receptive in sitting down with us now that the uncertainty is behind us. Next week, our two Senior Vice Presidents, Jared Meabon and David Wilner, and our Chief Development Officer, Amit Sripathi and I have several development meetings with prospects across the country, deals that are not yet signed that I'm not sure they'd be sitting down with us a quarter or two ago. But let's start with openings. Our second quarter, 18,000 rooms was the best Q2 openings that we've had on record. And 75% of those openings, as we said in the script, were in the mid-scale and above segments, which we're really pleased by. It was really driven by strong domestic openings. We had 7000 rooms open up. It was up 16% to last year. Solid, solid conversion openings with good growth across the board, new conversions coming into the system. And international openings came in around 11,000 rooms and are running 8% year-over-year. I think why 4% is not the floor. We've always said longer term we're 3% to 5% is what's happening on the executions front. We are so incredibly proud of our franchise sales teams and our leadership teams around the world. We've talked a lot about year-to-date transaction volumes being down, and those are a big driver Joe, in terms of conversions for us, they're still 25% below where they were last year. They're still below where they were by about the same amount back in 2019. But despite all of that, we executed 96 deals domestically, which was 30% more than last year. And our new construction prototype brands are continuing to sell well. And we have 84 deals internationally that year-to-date are up about 11%. So, this was the 16th consecutive quarter of sequential pipeline growth. We're up to a record 245,000 rooms across 60 countries. And we are very optimistic about what net room growth looks like going forward. But Michele, maybe you'll touch upon the question.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Sure. Happy to. I think, Joe, you mentioned, is it for deals that came into the system or is it for an increase and in the pipeline? And the increase of $20 million really represents pipeline deals. There are a number of investment opportunities that have recently presented themselves in higher RevPAR markets that we're really excited about, and we look forward to sharing specifics as these hotels come into the system. We've always said our first priority for free cash flow is to invest in the business. And the fact that we're seeing incremental demand for our brands, especially in top markets, is something we view very positively.

Joe Greff

Analyst

Great. And then my follow up question relates, Michele, to your updated RevPAR outlook. Specifically in the second half, what's now assumed for the US, specifically the economy to mid-scale and then China, and then maybe again, more specifically, can you bridge the reduction in RevPAR growth versus the prior outlook? Yet you're keeping maintaining the EBITDA range. You know, how much of this is incremental ancillary fees, how much of it is a prior cushion, prior conservatism between RevPAR growth and EBITDA generation? A quarter ago. And that's all for me. Thanks.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Yep, sure. So a lot in that question to unpack, I'll take the RevPAR section first. In the US, we're expecting similar trends to what we're seeing now in July, with maybe another point coming from the infrastructure ramp up that that is inclusive of economy. Getting to flat and mid-scale would be up about one to two points. In, in China, we are also expecting some modest improvement, which is consistent with the last five weeks of performance. Second quarter was the toughest comp. So we see a couple hundred basis points improvement there in the second half. And then the rest of international, I would say is pretty similar to what we saw in Q2 with respect to maintaining our EBITDA guide on the RevPAR reduction. There are really three drivers here, Joe, all of which add up to a meaningful amount. First, our business is just getting more efficient, particularly on the technology side. We've integrated our commercial organization; we're leveraging third party partners and a new next gen type solution. So, this is showing up really in two places. It's boosting our non-RevPAR revenue. So that's contributing more to our EBITDA. And then we're also seeing some benefits in the G&A line items. So there's real margin expansion here. Next, we've been disciplined with our costs. Initially in our budget, we matched discretionary investment spend with expected RevPAR growth, and we were able to reprioritize those investments when we saw the RevPAR growth not materialize as we had expected. And so that helped a few million. And then on top of that, we're getting an extra boost from the insurance recovery. So when you put it all together

Joe Greff

Analyst

The insurance recovery in the second half?

Michele Allen

Analyst

Sure. Yep. Is about $4 million.

Joe Greff

Analyst

Great. Awesome. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Well next now to David Katz with Jefferies.

David Katz

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question, just looking through and frankly appreciating some of the pages in the deck this morning, with respect to the long term algorithm and thinking about it in the context of fees per room and the degree to which your business drivers, as you have them labeled, are growing your fees per room and then adding in the ancillary growth. Can you just help us understand or fully digest the degree to which fees per room in the core business are growing? And, you know, I think the ancillary growth is pretty clear that it's an 8% CAGR, but, you know, help us look at those two drivers of the business for a minute, if you would.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Sure. With respect to ancillary fees, we are, our long-term growth model is projecting fee growth in about 8%, and we are currently tracking at 6% in 2024 and expecting to get up to about 7% on a full year basis. And that includes a number of different initiatives. On the royalty rate we've seen a five basis point improvement in the US and international on average. And so, we are expecting to see continued improvement on that side of the business over the long term, it should accumulate to about 15 basis points. And in 2026, we think that would generate an incremental $15 million in EBITDA.

David Katz

Analyst

Right. So part of what I'm getting at is, you know, as we progress through this, you know, these next few years to 2026, it seems as though the ancillary fees, that growth rate is actually accelerating. And so when we get to that 2026, it'll be higher than 8%. It just averages because of the CAGR. It is the acceleration similar when you think about the core business? Obviously, it's going to depend on RevPAR but is your assumption that the core business fees are going to accelerate also at the same rate, or is one growing faster than the other?

Michele Allen

Analyst

Well, the ancillary fees are definitely growing faster and they do compound as we get, as we get through the, as we get through the plan, because different initiatives start to ramp and have a larger impact. We also see that kind of same dynamic with royalty fees. Right. They compound every year. So as we increase in one year, then we're just building increases on top of that. So that's compounding. And then we are also expecting some net room growth acceleration. So there will be increased growth over the plan in the core business as well as in the ancillary fees, and then.

David Katz

Analyst

Got it, helpful. Thank you very much.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We go next now to Patrick Scholes of Truist.

Patrick Scholes

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, Geoff and Michele, a little bit more questions on that slide 10. Talking about the increases in royalty rate, I think it's very interesting. Historically, royalty rates was not something you really ever discussed, and now it seems to be much more front and center. A little bit more color, please, on what's driving that, is that going to be driven primarily by new brands entering, such as ECHO that have an above average royalty rate, or do you see yourselves on contract or combination of contract renewals, raising royalty rates on legacy brands? A little bit more color that. Thank you.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Sure. The royalty rate improvement we're seeing today and that we're seeing in the pipeline, so expect to see over the plan period, really reflects the great work our franchise sales and development teams bringing in higher fee deals for our brands both here domestically and around the world as well. As we said for the last few quarters, our goal is to make sure that we're signing deals that are accretive to the region or to the brand average royalty rate and the growth we've seen this quarter and really, the growth we've seen since 2019 on that slide, is a testament to that effort. So you should expect to continue to see improvement in new deals being signed.

Patrick Scholes

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next now to Steve Pizzella with Deutsche Bank.

Steve Pizzella

Analyst

Hey, good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking our questions. You've noted the value you see in the stock and potential returns from the incremental key money. What do you need to see to go towards the high end of the target leverage?

Michele Allen

Analyst

That is really a board decision, I would say. And at this point, we are targeting 3.5 times leveraged for the end of the year, which does give us amount of capital to either repurchase shares or to, or to invest further in the business. If we were looking at a sizable M&A, then that is something we've always said we were comfortable going above the 3.5 times, so long as we had a plan to get back within range within 12 to 18 months. Certainly, we see the stock as a compelling investment opportunity given where it's been trading. But against this macro backdrop, 3.5 times is a good leverage target absent any really compelling investment opportunity.

Steve Pizzella

Analyst

Okay, thanks. And then you continue to note the improvement in the retention rates, which has been pretty nice as we look compared to historicals. What's driving that right now and how high do you think that can get?

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Yeah, Steve, we've always said that our longer-term goal is to get to 96, and we're moving that way. We were at 93 ish when we spun, we moved it to 95, 95.5. And I think as we grow our system and we manage our quality and portfolio, that number can certainly continue to go up on a last twelve-month basis, which is the way we look at it. Retention has improved 50 basis points globally. We had some good movement internationally. I think we could continue to make progress both domestically and internationally. And what's really exciting about the international growth is the ability to successfully swap out those lower valuation master license rooms in countries with lower royalties and replace them with direct franchise rooms that are coming in at 3 times the license fee. So we're happy with our progress. We're going to continue to focus on that and we think it could continue to go higher.

Steve Pizzella

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next now to Brandt Montour of Barclays.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. So I just want to circle back on the second half guidance and outlook. And Michele, or Geoff, maybe if you could just put a finer point on Michele, your comments on what you're implying for US RevPAR growth. I thought it was really helpful, the comments you gave. I think it's really tough for us with the looking at this year on a one-year basis because comps get much easier. We can kind of make our own assumptions there. But if you could just maybe put a qualitative point on there. Are you baking in any sort of rebound at all? Or is there some conservatism in terms of the US consumer behavior implied there?

Michele Allen

Analyst

We are expecting some occupancy improvement in the US, consistent with what we're now seeing in July. And then we are expecting another point on top of that to reflect the continued ramping of infrastructure spend. So, in the second half, the US, I think is expected to be in our guide is expected to be up 1%. And that improvement from the first half is really driven by occupancy expectations.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

That's really helpful. Thank you for that. And then just a follow up on, on the ECHO pipeline. It's been a few quarters now since some of your larger peers rolled out, extended stay brands and it's not necessarily maybe you'll tell me they're not direct, directly competing, which is an answer. But I'm just curious if you're seeing any incremental hesitation at the franchisee signing table with developers that might be looking at those brands, or are the owners just different and you're not seeing any competitive pressure there.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

We are not in that, this is an extended stay economy new construction product, which there's not much competition for out there today in terms of what these developers are looking for. We have executed this quarter significant signings in progress for our new ECHO suites in markets like Louisville, both at the airport in downtown Clarksville, Indiana Lexington, Kentucky Frankfurt, Kentucky. So, we are beginning to see that signing pick back up. And as we reported from the first page of our IP, we opened the first Spartanburg in South Carolina. And we had not only the entire ECHO development council with us, we had perspectives, new developers in attendance, and they were very, very happy with the finished product. Most of those in attendance were developers who have either broken ground or soon will be breaking ground. They're developers who built hundreds of competitive economy, mid-scale, upper mid-scale, extended state products, and they were absolutely thrilled with the finished product. The commentary that was coming back from this new build that not only looks like the prototype, but looks better than the prototype, is something that they feel rarely happens. So there was a renewed sense of confidence and optimism and commitment among the development community. And with over 33,000 rooms now in our pipeline, it remains our fastest growing brand. And growth is picking up.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

Perfect. Thanks so much.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks, Brandt.

Operator

Operator

Next now to Dany Asad with Bank of America.

Dany Asad

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, Geoff and Michele. I just want to start super high level, if you've seen, you've quantified a lot on the domestic side on RevPAR, how we're moderating, but is there any insight as to what's actually going on. On the ground, behaviorally, domestically? We still have some points of occupancy. Why are people not showing up? Is there pockets of the country that are behaving differently? There's outsized performance in one way, one direction or another. Just any qualitative insight that you can give us on that front.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks, Dany. Our teams are seeing demand improving. We are seeing positive trends. RevPAR growth, as we noted, improved 500 basis points from the first quarter, up 30 basis points in the second. Our teams on the ground continue to see gains in our domestic brands and market share with strong share gain midweek, pointing to that increased infrastructure pickup that we know can accelerate with continued strength in our booking pace. Look, we're confident in the continued recovery of our segments here in the United States. Pricing power is still strong. Second quarter was up 17% to 19%, as Michele just noted, domestic occupancy was up 1%, but it was up for the first time since the second quarter of 2022 versus prior year, which is important. Domestic occupancy also improved 3% versus '19 from where it was in the first quarter. So, if you think about it, it was down ten in the first quarter. It was down only seven in occupancy in the second quarter. And I think we all need to remember that 19 was the peak of the longest running industry cycle that the industry has ever seen and that our brands were the very first to recover from COVID. And that demand will continue to come back over the next few years with continued growth. As Michele noted, in the back half, we saw last week demand being up 30 basis points in the economy and 60% in the mid-scale. And we know that the industry is projecting growth next year. I think it's 100 to 200 basis points of economy or mid-scale RevPAR growth in '25. And we think back to the last four lodging cycles. Select service, domestic RevPAR has grown, as we noted in the script, 3% on a CAGR basis.…

Dany Asad

Analyst

That's great. Thank you for that and for my follow up. Just thinking about how nicely your rooms growth and the pipeline has accelerated. But can you help us think about how long it typically takes for a property to stabilize? We're just trying to think about how long does it take for that 3% to 4% rooms growth that we're seeing today to translate to a full freight, you know, 3% to 4% fee growth in kind of what you're putting up on the scoreboard.

Michele Allen

Analyst

Yeah. Once a property opens in our system, it's typically ramping during the first full year and really during the first full, the first nine months. So, when they come into the system, I think you can expect to see within, within a year, they would be at full. They would be at full royalty production for us.

Dany Asad

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

We'll go next now to Stephen Grambling of Morgan Stanley.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

Hey, thanks. Maybe as a follow up to Dany's question on RevPAR trends, you mentioned share gains. Are there any brands specifically that are leading these RevPAR index premium gains? And is there any way to quantify maybe the ones that are taking the most share? And are you seeing development actions typically meaning is there more development going on within those brands?

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

There is, Stephen. Our domestic large brands that are very important to us, like Days Inn, Super 8, La Quinta, they're all over indexing. And we publish every April, as our competitors do in the April franchise disclosure documents, La Quinta is now well over its, its fair share. Hawthorn Suites is Microtel is Days Inn is one of our stronger performing brands. To your point, that brand performed very well during the downturn and developers are looking for conversion opportunities, which is why it's important that transaction market continue to pick up. But what's driving it is the Wyndham Rewards program. In our developer’s mind, the share of occupancy in the quarter was up 250 basis points globally, and it's up a good nearly 800 basis points from where it was in 2019. And these are brands that perform very well in those infrastructure markets where those 1.8 million companies who are contracting for their workers are looking for recognizable brands that are clean and well maintained. And we believe that we could continue to drive that share gain, especially midweek.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

Great. And then maybe one clarification on operating expenses. Michele, I think you mentioned taking out some costs and some projects that maybe were put off as RevPAR slowed. Are those things that we should anticipate if RevPAR reaccelerates relative to the expectations, those will come back quickly, or is there a little bit of a longer lead time there?

Michele Allen

Analyst

I think, I think it really is at our discretion. And what we have with respect to the cost of discipline, we have really reprioritized the investment spend. So at this point in time, what we would do is just look at it again and determine whether or not it fits the strategic pillars of our long term growth and if that's something that we need to invest in. So it's hard to say. We would go line by line item. There's no silver bullet in there. There's just a bunch of small type of exploratory projects. You can call them that, that we are eliminating at this point in time.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

Got it. I guess the takeaway there is, there's flexibility. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next now to Michael Bellisario with Baird.

Michael Bellisario

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. First for Michele, I just wanted to clarify one thing on the key money. How much of the $110 million is for ECHO this year? And then when you're spending the key money, are those hotels opening up right away and you'd be seeing an immediate cash on cash return or are you funding some of those dollars pre or during development?

Michele Allen

Analyst

Yeah, about $10 million for ECHO this year. And key money is generally funded at opening. So we would see immediate royalty improvements to the P&L.

Michael Bellisario

Analyst

Got it. Thank you for clarifying that. And then Geoff, for you, kind of a bigger picture question. Just broadly on the economy segment. Over the long run, not a ton of rooms growth domestically. Your US, the economy room count has trended downward. Maybe your thoughts there, how much of that is due to new brand introductions, yours included, how much of that is economy product is becoming older, more obsolete? Just kind of appreciate your thoughts there and sort of just on the longer-term trajectory of the economy chain scale more broadly. Thanks.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Sure. Thanks, Mike. I think it's more of the latter of that statement that you have older legacy economy hotels being repurposed for other uses that really began coming out of COVID. And if you look at the economy supply over the last few years, I think it's down between 1% and 2%. As those older legacy hotels move out of the system and many of them are in urban downtown areas. But look, in 2023, to the point that Stephen was just asking about, we experienced the highest economy ad rate. A lot of those were Days Inns and Super 8s since before we went public. Again, because of how well those brands performed in the downturn of COVID, in terms of the cash on cash returns, our gross additions for the second quarter were up about 3%. And we are running right now in terms of, if you look at the industry retention rates that are really best in class of over 95%, pushing 96% in the economy space. So we're very pleased that our economy retention rate continues to improve. It's up 90 basis points on the last twelve-month basis. We're pleased that we're experiencing a higher economy ad rate. We know that as transaction volumes return, there are going to be economy opportunities for us to grow and that those will present themselves.

Michele Allen

Analyst

And I would just add to that, this isn't a surprise or a new trend. Geoff mentioned the segment has had limited supply, new supply for many years. But the portion that is growing is extended stay, projected to grow 6% per year over the next several years. And that's where our growth strategy has been focused for the economy segment with more than 33,000 rooms in our pipeline. And then of course, we're focused on the mid-scale and above segment with that portfolio has grown 3% year-over-year.

Michael Bellisario

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We go next now to Meredith Jensen at HSBC.

Meredith Jensen

Analyst

Good morning. I was hoping you might speak a little bit more about the Wyndham for business portal. I know a lot of the companies in the sector have added sort of managed travel programs and to attract SME. And I was wondering what might distinguish Wyndham for business and how Wyndham Connect might fit in with that. I know the presentation also flags some alternative payment solutions. So if you could just help me sort of put the pieces together and where we might see this go in the near and longer term. Thanks.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Sure. Thanks. Thanks for your interest in Wyndham business, Meredith. I know you asked about it last time, and we're very excited about it. I mean, our new window business, which was launched right before we reported it on our last call in April, has seen a weekly pace of applications, which has doubled since then. We said on last quarter's call it's now running 60% ahead of where it was with the previous program we had out there. And when combined with the Wyndham reward credit card, it's a big driver for what our global sales, our field sales sellers are selling. It's important to have those tools, especially as we increase our field sales teams to go after those SME's that you reference. Wyndham business was a big, big tool in their hands to help when they're talking to an account, manage their, that accounts company's travel needs. Allowing those planners to have that sort of one stop solution, allowing them to instantly book without needing to RFP or contact the hotel, and allowing them to really, as they go out, leverage those tools with third parties who are contracting really across America for that business. So our teams are excited about it. You mentioned Wyndham Connect. I'll tell you, all of us that checked into the ECHO suites opening in Spartanburg were served up, do we want that early check in? And given that just about all the developers that were coming into town were coming in before that 03:00 check in, they bought that extra $20 $30 $40. I think in that case it was $20 upsell fee. It was a no brainer to anybody checking in early to the hotel and it was money in that developer's pocket. So we're going to continue to be rolling out tools like that as our teams go after those. Now 4000 of the 40,000 projects across the country that are getting allocated the infrastructure spending that are around markets where we have multiple hotels in those markets.

Meredith Jensen

Analyst

Super. Thanks. One quick follow up on the all-inclusive sector. I was wondering if you could just provide a little bit more color in terms of sort of the brand strategy as you continue to roll out and the Wyndham Rewards members can burn of those points between trademark and registry and Alltra and sort of as you continue to grow there, what the focus might be.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Sure. I think one of the things that make Wyndham rewards now for six years in a row, USA TODAY's number one loyalty program, top loyalty program with us news and world reports. It is that what you refer to earn and burn opportunity. We are heralded as the best program and the fastest track to earn a free night at over not only are 9200 hotels, but 60,000 hotels and resorts and vacation rental opportunities through partnerships we have with really aspirational check in redemption opportunities like Picasa. Members are looking for that vacation opportunity right now. You reference Alltra by Wyndham, which is an organic brand that we launched a few years ago with Playa, and we continue to grow that brand. We recently opened a resort in the Dominican Republic with Playa, which will later this year be available for, urn, burn, along with another hotel, the Wyndham Alltra Punta Cana, which will be managed by Playa, which will join Alta Resorts in Cancun, Freeport, Bridgetown, Montego Bay. We've had new executions with over a dozen hotels on the all-inclusive space in various stages of discussion, and are working with Playa across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America and that ability to a great value to your question for our Wyndham Reward members, which is what keeps Wyndham rewards top of mind for those 110 million members, which are up 7% year on year and 42% since 2019.

Meredith Jensen

Analyst

That's great. Super helpful. Thank you.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Thanks Meredith

Operator

Operator

And Mr. Ballotti, it appears we have no further questions this morning. Sir. I'll turn things back to you for any closing comments.

Geoff Ballotti

Analyst

Okay, thanks, Bo, and thank you all for your questions and your interest in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. Michele, Matt and I look forward to talking to you and hopefully seeing many of you in the weeks and months ahead. And in the meantime, we'd like to remind all of you golf fans to tune into the Wyndham Championship, the final tournament of the PGA Tour's regular season, before the playoffs, where coverage begins on August 8 over on the Golf Channel and continues over the weekend on the CBS. Have a great summer, everyone, and thanks again for joining us today.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Ballotti. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's Wyndham Hotels and Resorts second quarter earnings conference. Please disconnect your line at this time and again. Have a wonderful day. Goodbye.