What’s New in Vacation Ownership?

NATIONAL REPORT—Wyndham Destinations, Caesars Entertainment and RCI are making moves to enhance the guest experience for vacation ownership customers with extended partner benefits, apps and initiatives. Here’s a look:

Wyndham Destinations and Caesars Entertainment Extend Marketing Partnership

Wyndham Destinations and Caesars Entertainment Corporation have extended their marketing partnership. The companies are building on their 20-year history by extending the relationship to 2030.

In the agreement, Wyndham Destinations can market vacation ownership to Caesars customers in its resorts and casinos and through its large customer database. Wyndham Destinations will also purchase room nights and other products from Caesars to provide its customers with more travel and entertainment options.

This year, Wyndham Destinations launched new initiatives across the company—new resort developments and renovations, brand and marketing projects, customer relationship management and digital experience enhancements—and it is in the first year of a five-year plan to spend more than $1 billion to continue these customer experience-driven projects.

Wyndham Destinations is investing in new on-site marketing locations at several Caesars resort properties in Las Vegas, with physical and digital enhancements making it easier and more enjoyable for customers to learn about vacation ownership.

Wyndham Destinations Eliminating Plastic Straws and Other Single-use Plastic

Wyndham Destinations will eliminate plastic straws and other single-use plastic from food and beverage operations at its timeshare resorts around the world.

To support the company’s environmental sustainability initiatives, Wyndham Destinations’ vacation club resorts started removing single-use plastic straws starting Oct. 1, 2019. The effort will eliminate more than 750,000 single-use plastic straws in North America alone and 1.1 million across the globe. Earlier this year, the company’s Asia Pacific resorts removed disposable straws from 33 managed resorts.

“The switch to biodegradable or paper straws is a small, but impactful change we can make for our environment, and aligns with our company’s efforts to support sustainable tourism,” said Geoff Richards, COO, Wyndham Vacation Clubs. “By engaging and empowering both our associates and customers to understand sustainability based best practices, we are cultivating a culture which prioritizes minimizing our environmental footprint and raising the health of our people and our communities.”

Single-use plastic straws, which are generally only used for about 15 minutes, never fully decompose and are one of the top 10 items found on beach clean-ups globally.

The company has also developed a plan to eliminate plastic cups and lids, Styrofoam to-go boxes, plastic cutlery and plastic to-go bags across the company’s managed resort locations. This initiative will eliminate more than 4.8 million single-use products by the end of 2020.

RCI Adds New Mobile App

RCI has debuted a new mobile app, designed to make booking vacations easier and faster than ever before for RCI’s 3.8 million members worldwide, the company reports.

Featuring desktop functionality built natively for mobile use, the new app blends modern technology and secure access to provide RCI members with the ability to easily exchange their timeshare at more than 4,300 affiliated resorts in 110 countries, with just a few taps on their phone or tablet screens.

RCI’s new app also offers upgraded functionality based on member feedback, such as secure access through biometrics (Touch ID), a persistent log-in throughout the booking journey and push notifications. Users are also able to contact RCI customer service directly from the app, as well as provide real-time feedback.