Wyndham Partners with German HR Group for Ramada Expansion

Date: March 2018

Location: The partners (HR Group) already opened two hotels, at Amsterdam Airport Schipol, Netherlands, Flensburg, Germany with four new hotels to open in 2018 in Berlin, Munich, Hannover and Bottrop, Germany.

Name: Ramada Amsterdam Airport Schipol, Ramada Flensburg and four Ramadas

No. of Keys 222 & 95 for the first two.

Ramada Amsterdam Schipol

Buyer: HR group…these new properties will expand Wyndham’s portfolio of approximately 470 hotels in Europe. They will also join Wyndham’s list of 11 hotels in Berlin, three in Hannover, eight hotels in Munich and one additional hotel in Amsterdam. The new property in the pipeline for Bottrop will be Wyndham’s first in the city.

HR group have 20+ other hotels (4,800 rooms) in Germany, under management by different brands such as Dorint, Novotel, Mercure, ibis Styles, Pullman, Arcadia, Best Western, Lindner & InterCity. The company’s Co-Chief Operations Director is Gilbert de Hamer and MD Ruslan Husry.

These new hotels will join the several hotels added to the portfolio last year, including its Athens city-centre hotel—Wyndham’s first in Greece. Hotel operator Zeus International converted the building owned by Viohalco into the 273-room Wyndham Grand Athens, which opened in early 2017.

The new partnership follows the addition of Dimitris Manikis as president and MD for the EMEA region. Wyndham hired Manikis to lead the expansion of all Wyndham Hotel Group brands in the EMEA region, and enhance the performance of all new and existing franchise and managed hotels.

The partnership will also help Wyndham continue expanding its presence in the region following the sale of its European vacation rental business, which transferred more than 110,000 units to Platinum Equity for close to US$1.3 billion.

As part of the deal, the vacation rentals company entered a 20-year agreement to pay a 1-percent royalty fee of net revenue to Wyndham Hotels for the right to use the Wyndham Vacation Rentals brand, and will participate in the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program.

THPT Comment: Delighted to see that Wyndham are using their cash from the disposal of its vacation rental business wisely! HR Group, yet another substantial hotel group, that the man in the street would never have heard of.

First Seen: Hotel Management