Wyndham Worldwide (WYN)

 

Wyndham Vacation Ownership, our vacation ownership business, includes marketing and sales of vacation ownership interests, consumer financing in connection with the purchase by individuals of vacation ownership interests, property management services to property owners’ associations, and development and acquisition of vacation ownership resorts. We operate our vacation ownership business through our two primary brands, Wyndham Vacation Resorts and WorldMark by Wyndham. We have the largest vacation ownership business in the world as measured by the numbers of vacation ownership resorts, vacation ownership units and owners of vacation ownership interests and by annual revenues associated with the sale of vacation ownership interests. As of December 31, 2008, we have developed or acquired approximately 150 vacation ownership resorts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the South Pacific that represent approximately 20,000 individual vacation ownership units and over 830,000 owners of vacation ownership interests. During 2008, Wyndham Vacation Ownership expanded its portfolio with the addition of ten resorts in Santee, South Carolina; New Orleans, Louisiana; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Taos, New Mexico; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Las Vegas, Nevada; Long Beach, Washington; New Braunfels, Texas; Anaheim, California; and Wanaka, New Zealand, and added additional inventory at locations in Florida, Tennessee and Hawaii. During 2008, we recorded almost $2.0 billion in gross vacation ownership interest sales. In response to worldwide economic conditions impacting the general availability of credit on which our vacation ownership business has historically been reliant, we announced in late 2008 a plan to reduce our 2009 revenues by approximately 40% as compared to 2008 in order to reduce our need to access the asset-backed securities markets in 2009 and beyond, and also significantly reduce costs and capital needs while enhancing cash flow.

 

Our primary vacation ownership brands, Wyndham Vacation Resorts and WorldMark by Wyndham, operate vacation ownership programs through which vacation ownership interests can be redeemed for vacations through points- or credits-based internal reservation systems that provide owners with flexibility (subject to availability) as to resort location, length of stay, unit type and time of year. The points- or credits-based reservation systems offer owners redemption opportunities for other travel and leisure products that may be offered from time to time, and the opportunity for owners to use our products for one or more vacations per year based on level of ownership. Our vacation ownership programs allow us to market and sell our vacation ownership products in variable quantities as opposed to the fixed quantity of the traditional, fixed-week vacation ownership, which is primarily sold on a weekly interval basis, and to offer to existing owners “upgrade” sales to supplement such owners’ existing vacation ownership interests. Although we operate Wyndham Vacation Resorts and WorldMark by Wyndham as separate brands, we have integrated substantially all of the business functions of Wyndham Vacation Resorts and WorldMark