Amazon Web Services announced a tie-up with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchising company, to upgrade its technology infrastructure and develop and deliver new guest services across the latter’s 21 hotel brands.

The deal is part of Wyndham’s digital transformation and investment in technology for automating reservations and supporting its franchisees by helping simplify operations.

Moving to AWS enables Wyndham to shut down data centres, putting it on track to achieve its goal of running 90 per cent of its infrastructure in the cloud.

Wyndham began working with AWS in 2018 when it was spun off from Wyndham Worldwide and needed to quickly create its own IT infrastructure.

It migrated its core reservation system, property management system, and data processing platform to AWS to more easily launch new services for franchisees and guests while also improving operational efficiency.

Wyndham will use AWS machine learning to help optimise over 90,000 daily rate changes across its approximately 9,000 hotels to maximise occupancy rates that vary according to factors such as location, weather and time of year.

This will benefit its franchisees by helping them identify and offer the best rates, discounts and stay rules appropriate for the geographic market, brand and hotel.

Wyndham will also use AWS to develop new digital services for guests to automate check-in and leverage AWS partners to deliver customised offers during hotel stays, such as recommendations on local attractions, restaurants and entertainment.

“The agility we have gained in moving to the cloud, thanks to AWS’s vast portfolio of cloud technologies, helps us expand our digital guest services and introduce new solutions and functionality for our franchisees in a matter of days rather than months,” Scott Strickland, executive vice president and chief information officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said. — VNS