Chances are that your hotel or brand operates a frequent guest loyalty program. Chances are also good that you are not entirely convinced that those frequent guests are really loyal. Instead, you might suspect that those guests are just in it for the rewards. It’s hard to prove that the program is actually building customer loyalty if your guests are staying with you until they earn some reward level and then they move on to a competitor to earn rewards there.
Since your brand is probably not going to cancel its loyalty program, perhaps the best plan is to figure out ways to make it work for you. The goal here is simple—keep guests coming back (perhaps building true loyalty) at a reasonable cost. With those ideas in mind, three researchers put together 10 ideas for improving your guest loyalty program. You’ll find them in a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, which can be downloaded at no cost (http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/2010.html). The report is based on observations of existing frequent guest programs and the underlying psychological principles.
To start with, the authors note that many hotels’ programs follow the general pattern set by the airlines 30 years ago. That may not be the best way to proceed.