Hotel Management - Does Anyone Care About Loyalty Rewards?
Jon Sholter
Today in less than 3 minutes we are going to cover: Why you should share your mistakes with your team.
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Admittedly, this article is geared to the franchised hotel world.
If you've been in a franchised/flagged hotel long enough, you know reward points are constantly being pushed by the big players. From day to day enrollments, offering of points as service recovery and using points as sales tools, reward points are promoted everywhere.
Points = Loyalty they say!
To be clear, they're not wrong. Reward programs are an industry norm and you're not going to compete without them. However, you sometimes need to ask yourself, does this guest value points as much as I think they do?
Let's get some checkmarks out of the way.
Should you do everything you can to enroll new members? Yes! Should you do everything you can to get high/potential revenue clients to sign up? Mostly Yes! Should you ensure your Guest Service and Sales Teams fully know the value of points? Absolutely Yes!
But for the non obsessive point collectors, do points make that large of impact?
Many hotels train Team Members to offer points instead of a discount for guest recovery. This is logical in many instances, but only if you are offering it to a guest who actually values points, like a higher tier member. Otherwise, is the guest really going to find value in 2000 rewards points of which they may never be able to spend?
How about from a sales perspective?
How many times have we offered reward points for a referral or rewards points as a gift to a current client? The same thought applies here, does the client actually care? Is this the best you can do? 10,000 points might sound nice, but would they rather receive something else?
So What to do instead?
Realize points can be a great tool for the right guest. Points are not evil.
Realize in many cases you are being cheap. 2000 points might sound good until the guest realizes you've given them $10.00 of value for a horrible sleep or for a $3000.00 referral.
Think in a THIS or THAT format. Would a client rather have 20,000 points worth $100.00 or a personalized gift worth $100.00? Which would make a greater impact?
Ask your guests what they would prefer. Would your unsatisfied guest like 5000 points, a $25.00 credit to your restaurant or a $25.00 discount? Ask and they will tell.
So at the end of the day, points are not evil, they’re just not always the right tool. They say if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So expand your toolbox :)
**Points value vary by brand, examples provided are just for illustration purposes.**