Launch

Ron Rivett and Dennis Brown created the new Super 8 Motel corporation with each of them owning 50% of the stock in the new company.^[5] The original room rate was US$8.88 (equivalent to $50.07 in 2021), hence the numeric brand name.^[6] The first Super 8, with 60 rooms, opened in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1974,^[5] built near a Holiday Inn with just some drawings made by Rivett as blueprints. The stucco exterior with an English Tudor style was inspired by Rivett's father-in-law, who was a stuccoer; the English Tudor style and placing of Super 8's near Holiday Inns was an established procedure for setting up new Super 8's for years to come.^[5]

Dennis Brown died in 1988. The 1,000 locations of the Super 8 chain were sold to Hospitality Franchise Systems, which became Cendant in 1993.^[7]

Super 8 had a frequent traveler program, the VIP club, which was introduced in 1976; it grew to over 7.6 million members. The VIP program was dissolved in December 2003 and replaced with the TripRewards program, which was renamed Wyndham Rewards in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Development

The first franchise was sold in 1976 and established in Gillette, Wyoming. By 1978, Super 8 expanded from the state of New York to the state of Washington and was no longer just a Midwestern company.^[5]

In 1981, groundbreaking for the 100th Super 8 Location began in Aberdeen, South Dakota; the birthplace of Super 8.^[8] In 1993, Super 8 opened its 1,000th property in Mount Vernon, Ohio.^[8] By 2001, Super 8 Motels had more than 2,000 motels worldwide.^[8]

Super 8 Worldwide entered the China market in 2004 by opening a Super 8 hotel (Chinese: 速8酒店 Su Ba Jiudian) in Beijing.^[9] By 2011, there were 680 Super 8 hotels mainly located in major cities of China.^[10]

In 2010, Super 8 replaced the beddings and redesigned the bathrooms.^[11]

In May 2013, Super 8 opened its first location in Turkey, in Istanbul.^[12] In May 2014, Super 8 opened its first location in the Middle East, in Riyadh. Super 8 came to the UK when it opened at Chester Motorway Services in 2023 after being rebranded from Days Inn, another one of Wyndham's hotel brands ^[13] In April 2016, Super 8 opened its first German location in Munich.^[14]

2016 brand overhaul

In May 2016, Super 8 remodelled its 1,800 rooms in the US and Canada and organized a big giveaway of old art and furniture.^{[citation needed]} The brand jokingly organized an exhibition in New York called When the Art Comes Down: Works from the Super 8 Collection and featuring 100 pieces of their "not-so-super art",^[15][16] an event organized to communicate on the brand's design overhaul.^[17] In December 2016, another edition of the exhibition was organized in Miami.^[18]

In November 2016, Super 8 launched a new promotion for US Army veterans which included a reserved parking area in all US and Canada locations.^[19]

In May 2017, Super 8 launched a new marketing campaign that focused its targeting on road trippers,^[20] followed by the introduction in October 2019 of Super 8's first shared room, the ROOM8, a concept developed for young road trippers.^[21] In March 2018, Super 8 launched a concept Jeep Wrangler, the ROADM8, with body works and interiors reminiscent of the brand's redesigned hotels, and some unexpected features such as a coffee machine and a mini-fridge built in the central console of the back seats.^[22][23]

In 2019, Wyndham unveiled the shared room type that seeks to make better use of larger, underutilized room types.^[24]