Choice Hotels remains determined to make Wyndham acquisition happen

Choice Hotels International remains confident that its efforts to acquire Wyndham Hotels & Resorts will be successful despite the opposition of Wyndham’s board, Choice president and CEO Patrick Pacious said Tuesday during the company’s Q3 earnings call.

In October, Choice made public an unsolicited $7.8 billion bid to acquire Wyndham following stalled negotiations between the two hotel companies. Since then, Wyndham during its Q3 earnings call detailed its “well-substantiated reasons” to decline the offer, reasons that Choice executives said they can remedy at the negotiation table.  

“The top priority is to get reengagement, to come back to table,” Pacious said. “Every issue that’s been identified can be solved by coming back to the table and negotiating.”

Choice remains “very committed,” according to Pacious, calling a deal “too compelling not to see it all the way through.” 

One benefit to making the Wyndham bid public has been what Pacious called encouraging conversations with franchisees who support the acquisition. One group of franchisees, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association doesn’t support the deal because a Choice-Wyndham tie-up would dominate the economy and limited-service hotel segments. 

Following its 2022 acquisition of Radisson Hotel Group Americas, Choice said it has migrated 75% of Radisson Americas hotels over to Choice. It expects that process to be complete by the end of the year. 

The Radisson Americas acquisition shows Choice “knows how to acquire companies and get them integrated,” Choice CFO Scott Oaksmith said during his first earnings call with the hotel company since being promoted in August.

Source: Business Travel News

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