Wyndham and Playa partner on new all-inclusive brand

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has partnered with Playa Hotels & Resorts to launch Alltra, Wyndham’s first all-inclusive brand.  

The deal brings together the large franchise and customer base of Wyndham, which includes 9,000 hotels and 89 million loyalty group members, with the all-inclusive expertise of Playa, which owns, operates and develops resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. 

Alltra is the 22nd brand under the Wyndham umbrella. 

Wyndham Alltra’s first two resorts will open in Cancun and Playa del Carmen on Dec. 1, and bookings are now open. Both resorts are conversions of Panama Jack all-inclusives.

The Alltra slogan is “All-Inclusive Travel for All,” and the upper-midscale brand will expressly target travelers who have little to no experience with all-inclusives. Alltra plans to have both adults-only and all-ages resorts.

“Wyndham’s mission is to make hotel travel possible for all,” Wyndham chief marketing officer Lisa Checchio said. “… There was an opportunity for us in all-inclusive, and coming out of Covid, what we’re seeing is not only the growth of the all-inclusive market in and of its own right, but really an opportunity for us to introduce an all-inclusive product to members like we never have before.”

Checchio said she sees opportunity to draw cruisers to all-inclusives, as well as Americans who have spent the past year visiting domestic destinations and will soon be taking their first international vacations in quite some time.

“When we talk of all-inclusive resorts, many have really sat in that upscale and luxury segment,” she said. “With Alltra, we’re looking to introduce a whole new segment of the population to all-inclusives with this upper-midscale segment targeted just for them.”

Kevin Froemming, Playa’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said the partnership was a natural blending of Wyndham’s and Playa’s areas of expertise, and the two companies have made sure to keep travel advisors in mind as they launch the brand. 

“A tremendous amount of travel agents get shut out from these large international branded programs,” he said. “What we make available to the customers through the website is also accessible to the travel agent network. With a Wyndham Alltra vacation, [guests] get their full points when they book through the travel agency portal.”

The two debut properties in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are currently undergoing renovations and rebranding as they prepare for the Dec. 1 opening. 

The 458-room Wyndham Alltra Cancun has 10 restaurants, multiple pools, a fitness center and a spa. The adults-only Wyndham Alltra Playa del Carmen offers 287 rooms in a central location close to bars, restaurants and shopping. The property has an Olympic-sized pool and daily activities such as yoga and aqua aerobics. 

Playa and Wyndham did not share specific expansion plans for the brand at this time, but said they will be looking for properties in the near term across Mexico and the Caribbean that fit the Alltra model. 

“We’re not just interested in growth for growth,” Froemming said. “We want to make sure that every resort that we bring into the portfolio is going to have an excellent beach location. And airlift to those destinations is also important.” 

Down the line, they have their sights set on expanding Alltra to Europe and the Pacific Rim.  

“While you’ll see this brand launch in the Caribbean and Mexico, we see a global need [for upper-midscale all-inclusives],” Checchio said. 

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