The Basis of the letter is the survey below:

How to survey guests from your Triprewards statement (does not apply to franchisees on IPTU):

1. Go to my portal and download your latest Triprewards bill.
2. Print each individual guest bill from your Property Management System.
3. Contact each of the guests on your bill and ask the following questions:
   1. Thank you for staying with us on (date of stay).
   2. Was everything satisfactory with your stay? Could we have done anything to make your stay more enjoyable?
   3. Are you aware of our frequent stay program called Wyndham Rewards (formerly Triprewards) ?
   4. Would you be interested in joining the program?

                    1. If they say that they are already a member and are aware of the program then let them know that they 
                        earned points for their stay at your location and would be happy to accommodate them in the future.

                    2. If they are not aware of the program then let them know how the program works and membership benefits

4. Typically, you will find the following results:
   1. You will have the wrong contact #’s for some guests.
   2. You will have to leave messages for some guests. If so, ask the guest that you need them to contact you regarding their stay at your property.
   3. You will find some guests are aware of the membership and the program.
   4. You will find guests uninterested in the program and membership.

Date: July 5, 2008
RE: Triprewards ROI and issues with the program

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my ROI for Triprewards and my Days Inn. While the report was useful to Wyndham in determining the value of the program, there are a number of significant flaws with the assessment. According to the disclaimer listed below the form, your report makes the following assumption:
“Underlying Assumption: Wyndham Rewards membership was proximate cause of incremental of incremental revenue. Members not surveyed.”

Your company has NEVER surveyed the members of the program in order to determine the value they perceive of the program. Further due to the fact that members are auto enrolled and then points are proactively matched, we cannot determine the value actually perceived by the guests. Currently, Wyndham is just making assumptions that the guest is aware of membership and that those guests value the program enough to create repeat business. As I have mentioned on many occasions, Wyndham is the only major franchisor implementing the auto enrollment process and due to this has created an exponential flaw in their reporting of values. If the program did not auto enroll members then this data would be significant and would bear significant relevance. Further, this leads questions to the validity of the TR bill I receive on my portal. If the individual guests are unaware of their membership in the program then I should not be liable for the 5% extra royalties that you are charging me on my bill. These monies are for points that the individuals earned for being members however, they are unaware of their membership in the TR program.

Belw, you will find how other franchisors register members for Rewards Programs:

CHOICE HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO CHECK BOX TO BECOME MEMBERS DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS.

MARRIOTT HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER THE MEMBERSHIP NUMBER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT.

(Marriott Rewards points or miles will not be credited for a stay where the hotel guest's name and the Marriott Rewards member's name do not match)

CARLSON HOTELS: REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER THE MEMBERSHIP NUMBER IN ORDER TO RECEIVE CREDIT.

Please include your goldpoints plus^SM Number in order to provide us with an additional way to reward you while you're traveling. Thank you for helping us serve you better and faster.

HYATT HOTELS:REQUIRES GUESTS TO BECOME MEMBERS AND ENTER A USERNAME AND PASSWORD

Are you a Hyatt.com or Gold Passport member? Sign In

WYNDHAM HOTELS – THE ONLY AUTO ENROLLMENT PROGRAM IN THE LODGING INDUSTRY

FINALLY, BELOW IS THE FORMAT THAT WYNDHAM IS CURRENTLY USING TO AUTO ENROLL MEMBERS WHICH IS LOCATED ON THE FAR LEFT OF THE SCREEN. MOST GUESTS ASSUME THAT THIS IS WHERE THEY CAN SIGN IN IF THEY ARE A CURRENT MEMBER AND DO NOT UNCHECK THE BOX.

Source: All the information presented above is from the franchisor specific online reservations pages and is their property. Data was collected from the franchisor's websites on July 5, 2008 and has been reproduced for the purpose of evaluation only and has not and will not be used for any other purposes.

As the above information indicates, your company is the only major franchisor utilizing this method of auto enrollment in order to expand membership at a rapid pace. More significantly, I would like for you to evaluate the following site specific information from my last Triprewards bill.

We attempted to contact all 93 of the guests whose TR number was missing from HSS. As I stated earlier in an email sent to your offices.

I reviewed by Triprewards bill for the past 2 months in order to evaluate by finance bill. According to my bills over 50% of the Triprewards points were awarded to customers that did not have a TR # on their folio. Also, a majority of the 50% that were missing TR #'s on the check in folio were reservations from the res center. If these guests already had a TR# when booking then why did the number not appear in our check in folio?

During our conference call, you stated that, of the 93 guests I was referring to, that 52 of them were registered at other Wyndham brands. I continue to make the argument that this indicates that these were not brand loyal guests or brand specific guests. Actually, these are potentially Wyndham loyal guests rather than brand specific loyal guests. As Wyndham brands are predominantly competing with each other in the economy segment this further negatively affects the effectiveness and significance of the program. Of further significance is the fact that we do not know how many of these members were auto enrolled or were aware of their membership in TR.

This leads me to my final point. My staff attempted to contact all 93 guests that were missing TR numbers in HSS at my location in Greensboro. Remember, I did not contact any of the other 90 plus guests that had a TR number already populated in HSS during checkin. The legitimacy of these points has not been addressed. In order to determine the true relevance of the program, the simple process would be to evaluate the bills of those franchisees currently utilizing IPTU. These franchisees are awarding points when the guest requests these points. Further these franchisees are not typically having issues with guests missing their membership points and creating customer service complaints.

The following results were obtained from attempting to contact the 93 guests missing TR #’s in HSS at my location:

37 We left messages for the guests to verify their membership number in order to receive TR points credit for their stay at our location in Greensboro. THEY DID NOT CALL BACK.
39.7% OF THE GUESTS WERE LEFT MESSAGES TO CALL AND VERIFY THEIR MEMBERSHIP INFO. HOWEVER, THEY HAVE NOT CALLED BACK.

28 of the guests had non working numbers. Therefore they could not be reached as the contact numbers were invalid. 30.1% OF THE GUESTS HAD INCORRECT CONTACT NUMBERS.

5 of the guests were aware of their membership.
5.3% OF THE GUESTS WERE AWARE OF MEMBERSHIP IN TR.

23 of the guests were happy with their stay but were not interested in any frequent stay program and did not want to join any such program.
24.7% OF THE GUESTS WHO WERE ALREADY ENROLLED DID NOT WANT TO BE MEMBERS OF THE PROGRAM AND WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE TR PROGRAM.

1 OUT OF 4 GUESTS FROM THE SMALL SAMPLE WERE NOT AWARE OF MEMBERSHIP IN TR AND WERE NOT INTERESTED IN THE PROGRAM.
HOWEVER THEY WERE ALREADY ENROLLED IN THE PROGRAM AND COSTING MY PROPERTY EXTRA 5% FEES.

If you would like the customer specific names and information then I can also provide this to you. If these guests are not interested in the program then how can you bill my property the 5% extra royalty / points fees? This information has been generated from the information from the 93 folios that were faxed to your attention last month. These values represent a small sample of the guests that stayed at my property. From my perspective, I have reviewed your ROI report for my Days Inn and have combined this information with your disclaimer below the report. The combination of this information completely negates the effectiveness of the TR program. It further leads to credibility issues regarding your ROI report and the entire TR program. I have also asked Wyndham the redemption rates of the program and they have not sent me any information regarding the entire TR program. If you cannot provide me with that information then I would be interested in my site specific information regarding redemption. It would be interesting to find out how many of the guests that earned points from my site actually utilized any of those points. Also, of significance would be the amounts of points that were earned at my property and have expired from non usage. This would give further justification as to the significance of the program and the real value of the program to my site.

I would welcome your further evaluation of my information as I do not feel that a majority of the TR billing on my account can be deemed legitimate. In fact a majority of this bill does not appear to be valid and does not hold any type of credibility.

Jay Patel
Days Inn – 5380
Proud Member / Director O8A
Owners Working Together