The Concept
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is turning Route 66's centennial into a food-and-hospitality crossover moment: its loyalty program is releasing a limited-edition candy collection on August 20 that pairs destination-inspired sweets with enough loyalty points for a real road-trip stay. Only 100 boxes will go on sale at WyndhamRewards.com/Route66 at 10 a.m. ET, priced at $19.26 — a deliberate nod to the year Route 66 was established — plus tax, with shipping included.
Each "Flavors of the Open Road" box contains six 2.5-ounce jars of candy, a keepsake Route 66 box, a printed guide to the restaurants and roadside attractions behind each flavor, and 30,000 Wyndham Rewards points. The chain says that point total is sufficient for up to two nights or more at properties along the corridor, including Days Inn, Super 8, Ramada, La Quinta, Baymont, and Microtel.
Six Flavors, Six Stops
The collection maps directly onto the highway's geography. The lineup moves west from Chicago's sweet-and-savory deep-dish pizza candy to Tulsa's pecan pie, Amarillo's smoked brisket, Albuquerque's roasted green chile, Flagstaff's prickly pear soft serve, and Kingman's root beer float. Each flavor is tied to a specific local restaurant — Lou Malnati's in Chicago, Tyler's Barbeque in Amarillo, Frontier in Albuquerque — giving the collection a degree of foodservice authenticity unusual for a hotel loyalty promotion. The accompanying destination guide reinforces the independent-restaurant stops rather than routing guests exclusively to hotel amenities, a detail that may resonate with food-focused travelers.
Michael Shiwdin, GVP of Integrated Marketing, Loyalty & Digital at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, framed the project around the experiential pull of regional food: "The best road trips are defined by the stops you never forget — the barbecue joint you still talk about years later, the diner with the best pie you've ever had." The sentiment reflects a broader hospitality industry trend of using culinary identity to differentiate loyalty programs and drive incremental bookings.
Why Operators Should Notice
For the foodservice and hospitality sectors, the campaign illustrates how large hotel chains are increasingly leveraging regional food culture — not just amenities or price — to activate loyalty members. Bundling tangible food products with points redemptions is a relatively novel mechanic in hotel loyalty, one that creates a physical, shareable artifact out of what is typically a digital transaction. The $19.26 price point keeps the entry barrier low while the 30,000-point inclusion ensures the box has real redemption value for enrolled members.
With more than 400 Wyndham-affiliated hotels situated near Route 66 and over 126 million enrolled Wyndham Rewards members worldwide, the campaign's geographic specificity also serves as a template for how chains with broad footprints can create localized, story-driven marketing. Operators along similar heritage travel corridors — and the independent restaurants name-checked in the guide — benefit from the brand halo without direct spend. This kind of food-and-beverage-driven loyalty strategy is gaining traction industry-wide as chains look for ways to deepen emotional connection beyond discount-driven redemptions.
The sale is limited to U.S. residents, one box per household, while supplies last.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
