Wyndham Worldwide 3Q Profit Falls, Revenue Down

PARSIPPANY, N.J. (AP) — Wyndham Worldwide Corp. said Wednesday that its profit fell in the third quarter as it spent less money on its timeshare business and continued to deal with travelers' spending less.

Earnings dropped 27 percent to $104 million, or 57 cents per share, compared with $142 million, or 80 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding legacy items, earnings were 58 cents per share, topping analysts profit prediction of 56 cents per share.

Revenue declined 17 percent, to $1.02 billion from $1.23 billion as Wyndham cut the amount of capital the company was putting toward its timeshare business. The hotel operator also blamed the strengthening dollar and stubborn softness in the lodging sector for its weak results.

The company's gross timeshare sales dropped 35 percent to $366 million as Wyndham cut back on money spent on the operations, including closing some sales offices and trimming back on marketing efforts which led to fewer tours.

Revenue for Wyndham Exchange and Rentals, formerly Group RCI, fell 8 percent to $327 million, while revenue for the Wyndham Hotel Group slipped 14 percent to $183 million.