Langham has a Brilliant scheme to garner loyalty
Hospitality group Langham has relaunched its loyalty programme, which it says sets it apart from the competition in the fast-growing part of the sector.
This week the Hong Kong-based operator launched Brilliant, a scheme that offers special room rates and restaurant discounts but goes beyond traditional perks. It promises “personalised experiential offerings” including private cooking lessons and dinners with celebrity chefs, behind-the-scenes dance and musical performances and offthe-beaten-path tours, hosted by local guides.
The Langham Hotel Group (LHG) takes its name from its 159-year-old property in London — recognised as Europe’s first grand hotel — but with 30 hotels worldwide it is small by comparison to other hoteliers such as Marriott, Hilton, Accor and IHG.
In New Zealand, it has the country’s biggest hotel, the Cordis, with 640 rooms. It is looking to expand its global footprint, including scoping opportunities for expansion in this country.
Langham has had a loyalty scheme before but it needed a refresh to meet changing guest expectations. Two years after development work started it launched Brilliant this week.
Members can earn two types of points: award points, which can be redeemed for member privileges and experiences, and status points, which accumulate over a year and are used to upgrade through five membership tiers (Onyx, Topaz, Diamond, Sapphire and Ruby).
Members can earn 150 award points for every US$5 ($8.20) spent on qualified stays, charges and partnerships, including hotel rooms, dining and spa services.
In Auckland, other privileges could include tours of the Cordis’ extensive art collection, which, with 47 works, is one of New Zealand’s biggest private curated collections.
The Cordis’ managing director, Franz Mascarenhas, said although it was expanding, LHG had no aspirations to become enormous and wasn’t taking the cookie-cutter approach to the new loyalty scheme either. It offered immediate discounts but experiential offers were part of a more personalised stay. As travel has surged following the depths of the pandemic, many travellers are wanting a more meaningful experience wherever they stay.
“Aside from just the normal recognition programme we wanted to add a layer that just works.”
Like all loyalty programmes, Brilliant allows Langham to find out more about its guests.
“We have many opportunities for us to be able to understand their needs and then get an analysis done to see what are some of the added benefits and experiences that we can add to our offer. As a package, it really binds loyalty to the hotels and to the group.”
Discounts were important as the cost of living squeeze was starting to bite, said Mascarenhas.
Other hotel groups are pushing their loyalty schemes hard, with Marriott’s Bonvoy programme ticking over 200 million members this month and now widening its appeal to younger customers by giving them the chance to win Taylor Swift concert packages. Hilton’s Honors programme is reported to be closing in on Marriott’s number of members and an IHG boss told the Herald that since the pandemic its One Rewards scheme had grown by 40 per cent to more than 115 million members.
Angie Forsyth, general manager of Flight Centre company Corporate Traveller NZ, said the relaunched Langham scheme reflected the growth of loyalty programmes in all parts of travel.
“Loyalty schemes are particularly popular for corporate travellers as loyalty points can build up relatively quickly.”
Most companies allowed staff to use points for personal travel or holidays. This was an important perk. “Loyalty schemes allow businesses to extend travel budgets to their full potential, and with a certain level of economic uncertainty, cost-cutting has become crucial for many New Zealand businesses.”
She said airline programmes attracted greater loyalty but hotels were catching up.