Playing the hotel loyalty points game can score stronger program compliance and boost traveler satisfaction
Research in the travel industry clearly establishes the impact of hotel loyalty and rewards programs on booking choices and traveler satisfaction. From the traveler’s perspective, the recognition as a VIP guest, along with the added-value perks – for example, complimentary upgrades, club level access, early check-in, late check-out – can all greatly increase satisfaction for road warriors who spend significant time away from home.
Of course, hotel loyalty programs have the potential to work at cross-purposes with a corporate travel program if they encourage travelers to be loyal to the hotel brand ahead of adhering to corporate policy. That’s why it’s important for travel managers to work with their hotel partners to encourage travelers to make hotel reservations through the company’s approved channels, advises Kim Kearns, senior director of global hotel relations at BCD Travel.
“Approved channels usually include loyalty points or recognition and the travel manager can measure compliance and ensure duty of care. That’s really a win-win,” she says. “One key to business traveler compliance is making sure your travelers have access to enough choices to satisfy their perceived needs. We accomplished this by expanding the choices in rooms and rates available beyond the GDS by adding rich hotel content within our TripSource platform.”
Margaret Bowler, global director of hotel relations for Hogg Robinson Group, says there was a fundamental change that happened a few years ago where loyalty “schemes” went from being targeted at the individuals to benefiting businesses. Now corporate managers see incentives such as free breakfasts or free WiFi coming back to their organizations, which helps keep costs down.
Many business travelers, especially North American-based travelers, have been trained through the years to accumulate loyalty points, explains Suzanne Neufang, VP of the Americas for HRS Global Hotel Solutions. She says travelers use these points for three primary reasons: to enhance the accommodation/service level of their business trips: To apply points towards their own personal leisure travel; and to apply points for other creative uses with services/products that are tied into a hotel’s loyalty program.
“Many years of travel habits combined with increased direct marketing from hoteliers causes many travelers to simply have that expectation. Travel buyers need to take that into account as they engage with preferred suppliers,” Neufang says. “The workplace culture of a travel manager can open creative doors. Travel buyers can best learn about options by driving an ongoing dialogue with their travelers. Surveys, informal focus groups, online commentary forums, offer fertile ground for enhancement strategies.”
She adds that the annual hotel sourcing engagement is the ideal time to secure company travelers the perks that have more to do with the corporate preferred hotel designation than the individual traveler account.
Rising Up The challenge is many business travelers book outside their company channels to accrue personal hotel points, whether it be to apply toward leisure travel, better pricing or convenience. BCD Travel’s TripSource platform was designed with the traveler in mind, says Kearns. TripSource identifies rates that include loyalty points or recognition and the TMC works closely with the hotel chains to ensure rate integrity and overall relationships.
Meanwhile at RoomIt, Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s dedicated hotel division, chief growth officer Scott Brennan says the company’s loyalty booster program allows travelers to enjoy access to additional hotel points that are carefully targeted to their needs when booking through RoomIt. Instead of penalizing travelers for being non-compliant, RoomIt allows corporate travel programs to incentivize the right behaviors and enhance traveler choice.
“The program supports corporate travel programs by increasing traveler compliance and supporting company preferred hotels,” Brennan says. “Increased compliance means travel managers can better support travelers in emergency situations while also having better insight into travel spend. As these added incentives are offered with corporate preferred hotels, it becomes a powerful tool for influencing travelers and bolstering future negotiations.”
By factoring in traveler and company preferences, Neufang says HRS’ hotel recommendation engine provides fast hotel options to travelers when shopping and booking. In addition by cataloging and tracking past traveler behavior, it can help identify and narrow the travel options in a progressive manner for companies as they put more lodging data in the “bank.”
“Clearly, the traveler’s loyalty program number can be baked into this equation, as appropriate, given the specific company’s travel policy,” she says. “HRS provides comprehensive hotel sourcing solutions related to the annual sourcing engagement. And we can provide end-to-end data within our ‘procure to pay’ hotel life cycle to show which extra amenities were most likely to be bought on-site at the hotel and should be negotiated the next year.”
Hotels with a ViewpointLoyalty is what turns a one-time guest into a repeat customer. Dorothy Dowling, SVP and CMO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts, says the only way to earn a customer’s loyalty is by really earning it.
“We believe the best way to earn loyalty is by listening to the voice of the customer and using it to drive change and enhancements,” she says. “For example, last year we partnered with U.S. News & World Report to explore how today’s travelers make loyalty program decisions and which rewards matter the most to the majority of travelers.”
The results of the study, gathered from more than 1,000 respondents, found that the ease of point redemption, expiration of points, guaranteed room availability and brand trust are key factors shaping the current hotel loyalty landscape. According to Dowling, the way to leverage business travel loyalty is to ensure strong partnerships between the business traveler, corporate partner and hotel brand, and demonstrate the value of the rewards program across all levels.
For instance, at Best Western, the brand seeks to add value to business travelers in a multitude of ways including its Best Western Business Advantage program. “The program is designed to offer small to medium-sized businesses superior value, recognition and rewards, where all business travelers automatically receive Elite member status, enhanced with additional perks and promotions that they can enjoy immediately,” Dowling explains.
“In addition, businesses or account owners earn 10 percent more bonus points from their travelers’ stays, which can then be used on future business stays, company incentives and more,” she says.
Lauren Skrincosky, manager, portfolio communications for Hilton Honors, notes the hotel chain is constantly gathering member feedback and evolving its loyalty program based on what guests say matter most. Hilton recently announced an exclusive partnership with American Express and launched four new cards which the company says will better suit traveler’s needs by offering more choice, more benefits and greater value.
“The American Express Business Card is Hilton’s first-ever card geared toward small business owners,” Skrincosky says. “It provides business travelers with everything they need to work efficiently, while enjoying the comfort and perks of Hilton Honors, ultimately making business travel into an experience instead of just a trip. The partnership allows cardholders the ability to earn more Hilton Honors rewards to enjoy or invest back into their business.”
Because three out of four Hilton guests are traveling for business, the brand specifically designed several aspects of its loyalty program to make business travelers’ experiences more enjoyable. For example, improved technology allows Hilton Honors guests to book a room, check-in without waiting in line, choose their desired room from a digital floor plan, order items like pillows or snacks ahead of time, and even use a Digital Key which transforms their smartphone into their room key.
At InterContinental Hotels Group, the majority of the chain’s Rewards Club members indicate that loyalty programs heavily influence where they stay all or most of the time, according to Derek DeCross, SVP of global sales.
“Savvy travel managers know that loyalty programs help promote compliance with travel policies, improve traveler satisfaction and offer more overall value,” DeCross says. “IHG Rewards Club continuously evolves based on member and consumer feedback to create more personalized relationships with members and to ensure we’re delivering relevant and rewarding experiences for global travelers.”
The company’s IHG Business Rewards is an extension of its Rewards Club program. Business Rewards members get points when they book a hotel room, meeting or event on behalf of others at participating hotels worldwide. Whether it’s for a corporate meeting or destination event, points can be redeemed for meeting site visits for credits and applied to upcoming meetings booked at participating IHG properties.
This, DeCross says, gives business travelers an extra reason to comply with their corporate travel policy, rewarding them when they stay at IHG hotels with points and benefits.
For frequent business travelers the IHG program lets them earn points and gain status for their stays, including in-stay benefits such as free WiFi, room upgrades and early check-in or late check-out, depending on status. “When the travel manager needs to know where their travelers stayed, or how they booked, we can offer bespoke post-stay reports,” he adds. “The more compliant the business traveler is with the company’s corporate travel policy, the more the company can help them while they are on the road.”
The Art of LeveragingFolding loyalty programs in with corporate programs enables hotel brands to customize offerings instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach. This creates a win-win-win situation for the business traveler, corporate partner and the hotel brand. The business traveler and corporate partner receive added value and benefits, while the hotel brand is likely to experience increased repeat business.
In her experience, Neufang notes that hoteliers are increasingly open to altering what they will and won’t do for corporate programs. However the caveat is they still want travel buyers to present irrefutable evidence regarding both the volume of their spend and their ability to shift share to other preferred hotels via their traveler engagement and policy “levers” within their managed travel ecosystem.
“Thus, comprehensive hotel booking/spend data becomes one of the most important levers in having that discussion with hotels about loyalty,” she says. “As long as there are corporate programs with either no mandate or no restrictions on what is reimbursed, hotels’ marketing directly to corporate travelers will continue to rise.”
HRS has successfully sourced project rates with chains who, based on the company preferences, provide loyalty bonus points to corporate travelers in those group or long-term stay scenarios. In other cases, HRS has made certain that corporations aren’t restricting their travelers’ ability to collect loyalty points on preferred/negotiated rates provided through the annual RFP process.
“In the future, we believe that travelers will transition to overall experience, and loyalty point addiction will be just one component of that,” Neufang says. “This is yet another area where transparency is vital, and having the best data can open the door to creative solutions for both hoteliers and travel buyers.”
The travel landscape is changing and customized loyalty promotions and perks for travelers have become customary and expected. Utilizing this knowledge to allow business travelers to book through their corporate channels and receive their hotel points, hoteliers have the opportunity to foster stronger working relationships with travel managers.
“To do this, travel managers can proactively communicate and educate their travelers about the company’s preferred hotel program and let their travelers know that the hotels’ loyalty program will recognize their membership when booked using the GDS,” Kearns says. However, she cautions, “all of this should be done with the understanding that loyalty program benefits should not be put ahead of the company’s bottom line or travel policy.”