Hotels revamp perks programs,
Hope to woo travelers away from Airbnb, Travelocity, others
Major hotel chains are rethinking their loyalty programs in the face of a consolidating industry and pressure from outside forces such as Airbnb.
Hyatt Hotels Corp. will launch a new loyalty program March 1 that will create three new elite tiers and reward guests not just for booking a stay but for spending on food, drinks and spa treatments.
Wyndham Rewards earlier this week announced that it would add 17,000 condos and homes that it manages to its roster of hotels at which guests can earn and redeem points. Wyndham Worldwide has 8,000 hotels that accept redemptions.
Earlier this year, Choice Hotels overhauled its Privileges program to let travelers booking weekday stays earn immediate gifts such as fuel savings at participating Shell locations, credit at Amazon.com and Uber, or extra points and airline miles.
The moves are designed to attract new customers at a time when travelers are increasingly being lured away to alternate forms of housing such as vacation rentals. At the same time, the industry is continuing to consolidate, most notably with Marriott International’s purchase of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, making it the largest hotel company in the world.
Marriott’s first move was to allow members of both Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest Program to link their accounts to earn status and redeem points at all the merged compa- ny’s 30 brands. It was a clear recognition that loyalty programs matter.
“This is a pretty good time — given the consolidation in the industry and other activities that are afoot for us — to really change the frame for how we want to think about loyalty and how we want the guest to think about that,” says Hyatt Hotels President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian.
In addition to competition from the likes of Airbnb and HomeAway, major hotel brands are also trying to persuade travelers to book rooms directly with them vs. online travel agencies such as Travelocity and Expedia.
Choice, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton Worldwide, and other chains have all this year started offering discounts to guests who book directly through their channels vs. the online travel agencies, as long as they become loyalty program members. But there are plenty of other perks that they are offering. It’s a shift in thinking after years in which frequent guests were frustrated by the process of earning and redeeming points.
The Hyatt Gold Passport program will be rebranded into the World of Hyatt. The three new tiers will be called Discoverist, Explorist and Globalist. Guests will advance to the tiers based on qualifying nights or base points within a year.
Right now, there are just two tiers determined by nights and stays. It takes more nights to get to the first elite tier in the current program.
“It will provide very compelling benefits at every level of the program,” Hoplamazian says. “There are more ways to experience Hyatt and get benefits from that than there were in the existing program.”
Base points can be earned for spending on dining and spa treatments. Guests will also earn a free night once they’ve stayed at five different Hyatt brands. Hyatt has 12 brands and 667 properties as well as the Unbound Collection of independent properties.
Elite members will also get confirmed suite upgrades at the time of booking.
Wyndham Rewards is taking a different approach to attracting new customers. It has acknowledged that people don’t always want to stay at hotels. The company has for a long time had a vacation rental arm. Already, Wyndham made some major changes to its rewards program by letting guests redeem any hotel stay for 15,000 points across the board, low for the industry. Vacation rentals will be eligible for redemption at 15,000 points per bedroom, per night.