Wyndham Hotels The Wyndham International company owned or managed over 200 hotel properties around the world. Wyndham targeted upscale business and leisure travelers seeking full-service luxury accommodations and amenities. Travel-related websites that provide price comparison (for example, Hotels.com or Expedia.com) were driving potential customers increasingly to base their purchase decision more on price than on the quality or features of the room. Also, as rating sites like Trip Advisor become popular, the hotel brand was becoming less important than the quality of experience at a specific property. In response, the hotel industry was relying on guest recognition programs and customer relationship management (CRM) information systems to attract and retain customers. Research had shown that a guest’s prior experience with a particular property had the greatest influence on future choice of a property. To differentiate their frequent guest program from competitors, Wyndham was thinking about how they could replicate the things that contributed to each guest’s positive experience at one property (such as a customer’s preferences regarding type of bed, pillow, in-room snacks, dining options, entertainment, etc.) at any of its properties regardless of location. In this way they could customize their service to meet each guest’s unique preferences regardless of where they stayed. Typical for the industry, management of each individual Wyndham hotel property was decentralized. Each hotel manager was responsible for making decisions about the property and its services, including the acquisition of information technology. Information technology played an important role in day-to-day operations such as checking guests in and out, invoicing guests, managing room inventory and supplies, maintaining guest profiles, managing food and beverage sales, and managing in-hotel events such as conferences. Typically each property might run a different property management information…