Category Archives for Hotels.
Frequent Miler asks “Is Hilton considering new elite benefits?”
Head for Points reports on attending a Hilton event that bloggers were invited to. And in fact says “We were also given advanced notice of some new Hilton Honors member benefits which may come later this year.”
If there was ever any doubt about whether Hilton Honors had become a full revenue-based program, this should help disabuse that.
I’ve harped quite a bit about the lack of benefits for Hyatt elites at Hyatt Place properties, especially now that the program has eliminated check-in amenities. The program doesn’t allow top tier elites to confirm suites at Hyatt Place hotels. Breakfast is for everyone, or at least for program members booking direct going forward.
Since I rarely want a late check-out at a Hyatt Place the only benefit I experience is bottled water.
When Hyatt updated its terms and conditions with changes to expiration for new suite and club lounge awards they also added a reference to cash and points awards at MGM M Life destinations.
The Hyatt chain is too small, and the growth in properties they’ve achieved has been in the limited-service sector which means it’s of little help to the upscale guests that their loyalty program appears to have been built for.
Loews hotels is shutting down their loyalty program December 6. The Loews chain is comprised of 24 hotels in the U.S. and Canada. They say that “YouFirst isn’t enticing or relevant” and that set benefits don’t meet guest needs and they’ll continue to recognize their best guests without a formal program.
This is hardly the first hotel chain to shut down its loyalty program. Holiday Inn launched the first hotel loyalty program at the start of 1983 and called it Priority Club.
Three years ago Starwood announced a $100 million effort to revitalize the Sheraton brand. This was mostly about marketing investment, but they made some tweaks using the Sheraton ‘Grand’ moniker and a carrot and stick approach with fees and incentives, to try to get hotel owners to invest in their properties.
They promised to improve the offerings in club lounges, improve hotel design, and bring on new properties. This was back when the chain was still trying to grow on its own even though the board had largely decided to sell.
This tells me they’re thinking about their strategy against online booking sites, rather than thinking about their customers. If someone spends 55 nights or more a year (or spends over $20,000) with Hyatt they’re a valuable customer every time they walk through the door.
If a top tier elite books through Expedia because the rate was lower, or because the hotel was sold out on the Hyatt site but still available at GetARoom they’re demonstrating their loyalty. Treating them less well than a first time guest simply makes no sense.
Yesterday’s news about Hyatt Place simultaneously oversold and undersold the changes being made.
What they didn’t say in the release was that early check-in at Hyatt Place hotels would be confirmed in advance for Globalists and Explorists rather than offered if available when you show up at the hotel.
AccorHotels is considering buying a stake in Air France KLM because they can sell hotels and air in one shot, to both Accor and Air France customers. We’ve seen this play before.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
