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Wyndham Worldwide Will Cut 4,000 Jobs

The "I has a sad" kitty is now the unofficial image of the recession.

We knew the hospitality business would suffer greatly in this economy but news like this is always a bit shocking. Wyndham Hotels has announced that it will be undergoing a major restructuring in its timeshare division at the expense of 4,000 jobs. BusinessWeek reports:

Wyndham said in a statement that it is scaling back the scope of its timeshare business as a way to cut its reliance on asset-backed securities. The company did not return a phone call seeking comment. The job cuts represent about 12 percent of the company's overall work force. The pullback will result in charges of up to $75 million to be taken mainly in the fourth quarter.

Wyndham has about 32,000 employees globally. The layoffs will happen in the first quarter of 2009. This cannot be fun for the folks at Wyndham, just sitting and waiting.

Do you work at Wyndham? Let us know what the mood is like.

[Photo: icanhascheezburger]

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In These Dark Times, An Aloft Hotel Might Be Hard (But Not Too Hard) To Find

Did you hear? Everything sucks! Gas prices are high! The economy is not doing so well! And really, really scary stuff is happening on Greyhound buses.

Things ain't good, folks, and the New York Times assures us today that the hotel industry isn't going to get out of all this suckiness unscathed.

In "Terrible Timing for a Hotel Boom," the Times gently points out that it's kind of ironic (in the sad "rain on your wedding day" way that Alanis sings about -- so more like unfortunate) that the hotel industry saw high occupancy rates over the last few years but now, in the year so many hotel chains have chosen to expand at a crazy pace, occupancy rates are down -- and occupancy in some destinations, like Maui, have already "fallen off a cliff." 85% last year to 67% this year. Ouch.

So some hotel chains are going to put the brakes on. Yes, this includes Aloft.

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