Skift Take

Despite numerous enhancements and considerable growth in hotel loyalty programs, opinions on the effectiveness and value of these programs vary widely among consumers and hotel owners. Our latest report evaluates these differing perspectives and offers hotel companies ways to navigate the challenging road to real customer loyalty.

The hospitality sector has been using loyalty programs as a major marketing tactic to drive customer loyalty and acquire and retain customers for decades. However, the road to real customer loyalty is not a straightforward path. Today, there are completely contradictory data points as well as ongoing debates regarding the overall success of loyalty programs, the value they create, and their ability to drive true loyalty.

To help you understand these complexities, we are introducing our latest Skift Research report, Perspectives on Hospitality Loyalty Programs 2018: A Challenging Road for Real Customer Loyalty.

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In this report, we take a look at what’s working and not working when it comes to hotel loyalty programs from the perspective of three different stakeholders: the hotel brands, the hotel owners, and the consumers. To understand the nuances of hospitality loyalty programs, Skift Research developed a Loyalty Brand Matrix, which ranks hotel brands based on seven quantitative metrics. We also analyze positive and negative consumer sentiment posted online on various platforms about eight major brands’ loyalty programs from 2013 to 2017 to show which programs consumers feel are the best or most effective. Plus, we present a normalized consumer ranking of hotel loyalty programs.

We then examine where hotel brands should focus their energy in order to reconcile the gaps and build loyalty programs that truly foster customer loyalty and drive customer retention and sales. Ultimately, hotel companies should focus on driving satisfaction and providing the best service so consumers choose their brand over others and recommend it to friends and family.

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What You’ll Learn From This Report:

  • The key benefits of hotel loyalty programs, including how they drive increased occupancy and sales.
  • The current status of and market sizing for hotel loyalty programs.
  • A summary of key enhancements the brands have been making to their loyalty programs and why.
  • Skift Research’s Loyalty Brand Matrix, a proprietary ranking of seven major brands based on seven key quantitative metrics.
  • Hotel owners’ perspective on the value of loyalty programs.
  • General consumer sentiment about hotel loyalty programs.
  • A spotlight on business travelers, millennial travelers, and affluent travelers and their usage of and sentiment toward hotel loyalty programs.
  • An analysis of positive and negative sentiment toward eight brands’ loyalty programs from 2013 to 2017 on major social platforms.
  • A normalized ranking of hotel loyalty programs using consumer-facing rankings by five companies.
  • Key takeaways on how to reconcile different perspectives to drive real customer loyalty.

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This is the latest in a series of monthly reports, data sheets, and analyst calls aimed at analyzing the fault lines of disruption in travel. These reports are intended for the busy travel industry decision-maker. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.

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Tags: affluent traveler, business traveler, hotel brands, hotel owners, hotels, loyalty, millennial

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