Wyndham Hotel Group’s presence in the region has grown from 12 franchised properties to 39 hotels currently open and operating under a combination of franchise and management agreements across the Middle East.
2014 ranking: 9
2013 ranking: 8
“In order to meet the needs of local owners and investors we felt the time was right to diversify our offering in the Middle East. Now, more than half of the hotels in our Middle Eastern pipeline are under management agreements,” Bani Haddad told Hotelier.
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In addition, the past 18 months have seen the company bring three more brands and one brand tier to the region. Now there are hotels under Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, Ramada, Days Inn, Howard Johnson and Super 8 — double the number of brands that were present in 2007, the year in which Haddad first joined Wyndham Hotel Group to head up the company’s Middle East and Africa development.
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The first Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham in the Middle East opened in Dubai in November 2013 in the sought-after JBR area, and the first upscale Wyndham Garden, a brand tier of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts was signed in Doha in April 2014. WHG has also recently signed agreements that will see the introduction of the cosmopolitan TRYP by Wyndham brand to the Middle East in 2017.
Additionally, the first Super 8 in the region opened in Riyadh in April 2014, marking the first hotel in a master development agreement with Saudi Automotive Services Company (SASCO), which will see 20 Super 8 hotels open in Saudi Arabia over a period of five years.
Haddad takes great pride in the fact that many of Wyndham’s development partners are existing owners who are looking to do more business with the company and he believes this is testament to the strength of the relationships that have been built up across the region over time.
“I consider myself to be entrepreneurial and solution-oriented, always looking for ways to improve what we do,” he says.
“I encourage my team to be open-minded and to retain a flexible approach, always striving to be a company that is easy to do business with.
“With the diverse portfolio of brands that make up Wyndham Hotel Group, there are always opportunities to cater to changing market demands.”
By The Numbers
Number of years in role: 2.5 Number of years with company: 7 Number of Middle East operating Properties: 39 Number of Middle East pipeline properties: 9 (plus a further 28 through multi-unit developments)
Fun Fact: Bani Haddad used to work as a project manager at Disneyland Resort, Paris.
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