Leveraging hotel points programs to change traveler thinking can be a win-win for everyone
By Travel Buyers Think Tank
Mergers, technology and new business models are creating seismic shifts in the hotel business. And as we discover this month in Staying Loyal, (page 36) these changes are transforming hotel rewards and traveler affinities. For a travel buyer this may mean the time has come to look at ways to make the most of loyalty to benefit your company, your travelers and your program.
BTE Think Tank members Cheryl Benjamin, Travel Services Manager at Dart Container Corporation and Rosemary E Maloney, Senior Manager, Global Travel at Coach relate the possibilities – and the problems – that hotel loyalty presents for their programs.
POINT Cheryl: Let’s face it, we all know that we have our favorite hotel chain where we prefer to stay. We are part of their reward programs and likely double dip on points with another credit card or airline program; our travelers aren’t any different.
We like what we like but I also acknowledge it can also cause grief for managed travel. So how do we make the most of these rewards within our travel programs? We may not want to but changes in the hotel industry require us to look for ways to make it work.
Recently we’ve been approached by a number of chains offering chain-wide discounts joining the list of preferred suppliers for our program. If it’s the right fit – a chain which the majority of your travelers prefer – this could be a great way to move business and benefit the company and the traveler.
Rolling your meetings program into these same preferred chains could be an additional victory in your program – boosting room nights and meeting points, while travelers earn their points and you save more money. Taking this one step further, negotiate locally where you have larger volume with the same chain and work in added value items where applicable, such as Internet, free breakfast, local transportation, bottled water, etc.
Of course this doesn’t address the practice of hotels offering lower prices on their website to loyalty members, which can cause program leakage. How many times have you heard “I can find it cheaper online”? Communication with your travelers is key to help them understand programs, discounts and negotiated items you can offer, and why you care where they stay (aka, duty of care). Employees want to do the right thing but they need to know what the right thing is!
We all conduct a business review of our travel program on a regular basis. Why not add some forecasting with a couple of new business opportunities to the review and see if it is a win for you? Mergers and new business models in the travel business, and specifically the hotel industry, mean we have to stay in front to minimize the potential risks to our programs.
COUNTERPOINT Rosemary: Any time I hear about loyalty programs, I think of an employee at a previous company who would stay 45 minutes from our office, battling LA traffic just to earn points at his preferred chain. We had four 4-star independent properties within walking distance of our office. To me this was a waste of company time and money while also being harmful to the environment.
In my hotel programs, we’ve always looked for the best property in proximity to the office, regardless of what chain it was associated with. It was about the experience the employee would have while traveling for work, not what they would do on their “free” vacation.
I negotiated at the property level and felt that our hotel program was a curated experience. We have oversized rooms, added amenities and always the free WiFi, which they would get with their loyalty status. I expect employees to have an affinity for their chain and welcomed the usage in secondary cities.
This was not an issue until the chains started to market booking direct rates for business travelers to get WiFi or other amenities added in. When that began, many travel managers faced an uphill battle with their employees. It discredited our RFP and sourcing work, because employees shopping online always seemed to be able to find things cheaper.
These employees are trying to do the right thing by saving costs, but we lose the ability to satisfy our duty of care when they book outside the program. By making these rates available through the GDS, we can resolve this issue.