Wyndham Email Marketing is Disappointing
I recently signed up for the Wyndham Rewards program and their email marketing list in order to better understand their product. How could I be a self respecting travel blogger if I am not letting you know about awesome deals to the Days Inn? Ok, I’m half joking. Wyndham hotel properties definitely run the gamut between luxurious (like the Graves 601 hotel in downtown Minneapolis) and not all that luxurious or prestigious (Days Inn and Super 8 Motels). Since most of my travel is neither ultra high end or low end, I don’t find Wyndham on my radar in most situations.
With that said, knowledge is power, and learning about the program and taking advantage of their promotions may help me in the long run. Yesterday I received an email promotion announcing rooms available for as low as $40 a night.
Not a bad deal at all if you are desperate for a night. I even saw my home city of Minneapolis on the list, so I could use my knowledge of the hotels in the city to tell if it was a good deal or not.
I click through on the email and land here:
There is no indicator at all that I clicked on a promotion promising rooms as low as $63 per night. In fact, they list what is surely their most expensive hotel first on the list. There’s no way Graves 601 is going for that unbelievable nightly rate.
In order to view prices for hotels or even understand what hotels are part of the promotion, I must enter the dates of my stay to see rates. That is awfully inconvenient, since travel dates + hotel choice are very personal and deliberately thought out aspects of ones travel life.
No thank you, Wyndham. I will not be staying at your hotels as part of this promotion. All you have really done is wasted my time and given me good blog fodder.
If you want to improve your email marketing program, Wyndham, follow these simple steps:
- Make sure you are actually promoting a deal instead of simply bragging about your everyday prices
- Provide dates where the promotion is available
- Provide a list of properties where the promotion is available either in the email or the landing page
- Send your visitors to a landing pages dedicated to your promotion; not to a booking page
Hotel decisions are both more simple and more complex than your email marketing might lead us to believe, and your constituents would benefit if you lead them into making an informed decision, not confusion.
