Wyndham has always based its timeshare subsidiary, and that company’s CEO, in Orlando. With the new spinoff, the timeshare company will be listed separately on the stock exchange as Wyndham Vacation Ownership.
It will be the world’s largest publicly traded timeshare company and will be joined with Wyndham Destination Network, home to RCI, the world’s largest timeshare exchange company.
All of that has already been based in Orlando, but it will now be a separate company.
The Wyndham spinoff had been contemplated for years.
The timeshare subsidiary is the world’s largest timeshare business based on the number of resorts, units, owners and revenues, with 219 resorts and over 887,000 owners.
The remaining hotel business will be called Wyndham Hotel Group, to be based in Parsippany, NJ. Although Wyndham’s timeshare business has always been based in Orlando, the spinoff will mean a new headquarters of an independent company here.
At this point, only Darden Restaurants is the only publicly traded, Fortune 500 company based in Orlando.
The move to spin off the timeshare business follows similar moves by other hotel companies, including Marriott and Hilton.
The Marriott timeshare business is traded separately as Marriott Vacations Worldwide.
According to an announcement from Wyndham Worldwide, the two public companies intend to enter into long-term exclusive license agreements to retain their affiliation with one of the industry’s top rated loyalty programs, Wyndham Rewards, as well as continued collaboration on key inventory sharing and customer cross-sell initiatives.
The corporate names of the post-spin public companies have not yet been decided.In May, rolling out a new website for Wyndham’s timeshare company sparked anger and confusion among owners, which has roiled the company and online forums for days.
Wyndham warned users it was rolling out the new website. But even with that warning and instructions, thousands of messages have been posted online complaining.
(This is a developing story.)
Contact me with a business news tip at pbrinkmann@orlandosentinel.com; Twitter is @PaulBrinkmann
