Sonesta Bets on Smaller Biz Group Meetings With New Loyalty Scheme
Photo Credit: The Shelburne Sonesta New York. Sonesta
Skift Take
The fast-growing hotelier has launched a loyalty program called "Business Pass" with a focus on micro-events. The sticking point is only about a fifth of Sonesta's portfolio is onboard.
Sonesta International Hotels is hoping to give its corporate bookings a boost with the launch of a community-focused membership scheme.
The Boston-based hotel group grappled with how best to use a loyalty program to maintain momentum in March last year after rapidly expanding through the pandemic, going from fewer than 100 hotels to 1,300 today.
On the corporate side, that’s culminated in a new program called Business Pass, which it launched at the end of September, designed to capture more group bookings from smaller companies.
Its group sales are back to 2019 levels, and represent between 25 and 28 percent of its overall business, with corporate travel at less than 10 percent. But Sonesta aims to reach up to 45 percent for the two segments combined, and corporate travel is only 80-85 percent recovered, according to chief commercial officer Garine Ferejian-Mayo.
“That’s where we have a huge opportunity as business
