This text was initially developed and printed for Hospitality Web’s Knowledge and Enterprise Intelligence Thematics. Learn extra right here.
Does your loyalty program want a bit zhuzhing up? In case you missed the memo, points-based loyalty applications simply aren’t as thrilling as they as soon as had been. Vacationers predict extra from lodge manufacturers, with 79% of Gen Z and Millennial vacationers saying they care extra in regards to the expertise than the price of the journey.
Loyalty applications are one technique for constructing a gradual stream of repeat enterprise. Returning visitors are inclined to have a decrease price of acquisition, usually tend to e book direct, and should grow to be vocal promoters of your model. This all impacts your backside line within the type of elevated income seize and NOI. And most significantly, loyalty applications are a chance to deepen your relationships along with your visitors and supply one other touchpoint that surprises and delights.
Factors, although as soon as the business customary, now not seize visitors’ consideration. Hoteliers have to adapt their loyalty applications to adjustments in visitor preferences in the event that they need to proceed reaping the enterprise rewards that include a devoted base of repeat visitors. With digital transformation nipping on the heels of hoteliers and AI-influenced journey planning making its manner into the visitor reserving journey, there’s rather a lot to maintain up with, particularly on the subject of visitor preferences.
To match the business’s tempo, making visitors really feel seen and identified is the perfect technique for attracting and retaining them to your loyalty program. That’s why your loyalty program must make use of visitor information reminiscent of spending patterns, keep historical past, folio information, information on ancillary spending (e.g., golf, spa, and eating places), and extra to get a whole image of who your visitors are and what they want to get out of their journey expertise.
Proper now, a Buyer Knowledge Platform (CDP) is the one expertise with the ability to gather and activate all of this precious information from throughout the visitor journey. Knowledge you need to use to create personalised rewards that resonate.
So, the place do you begin? We’ve received 4 suggestions for constructing a loyalty program that your visitors will love.
1. Know the who
You realize the saying, the “who, what, when, the place, and the way?” There’s a cause it begins with “the who.” When you don’t know who your visitors are — their preferences, habits, and behaviors — then how will you personalize their loyalty rewards?
Begin by researching your repeat visitors. Are they primarily enterprise vacationers? Are they principally reserving household holidays? Seek the advice of your visitor profiles to see what channels visitors e book on and the way usually they e book so to goal your most worthwhile members. For instance, use information out of your folio and restaurant programs to establish those that are more likely to reap the benefits of F&B gives.
That is your start line as you establish your loyal visitors by way of micro segments, permitting you to supply program rewards that every visitor phase will get pleasure from.
Your segments are the “who” of your loyalty program. As a substitute of manually working to uncover their identification throughout a number of channels and piecing collectively visitor information, identification decision is a characteristic of best-in-class CDPs that mechanically merge your visitor information from totally different sources right into a unified profile.
Identification decision makes use of AI and machine-learning fashions to unmask OTA emails, de-duplicate profiles, and cleanse your information for an correct view of every visitor. With unscrambled information and correct visitor profiles, you may see who your loyal visitors actually are, and goal them primarily based on their reserving conduct and keep preferences. This makes the method of personalizing loyalty rewards simple so to ship related gives. Let’s be actual, as interesting as this can be to some, not each visitor phase desires a {couples} therapeutic massage and seaside tour as a loyalty reward.
Simply take this marketing campaign from Royal Backyard Lodge. They segmented by visitors who had upcoming stays the subsequent week and supplied a 25% low cost to one among their eating places. What do campaigns like this need to do along with your loyalty program? Effectively, the visitors who took benefit of those gives are revealing their preferences, so now once you assign them rewards, you’ll know that meals and beverage gives resonate!
2. Ditch the factors – go for experiences
When you’re considering of structuring your loyalty program round factors, perhaps take a step again. Positive, factors had been as soon as thought-about a straightforward approach to gamify loyalty, with visitors competing to degree up their factors rating. However along with being old school, factors lack room for the personalization of loyalty rewards.
However experience-based rewards? That opens your lodge to a complete new alternative to use your visitor information for personalization. Rewarding visitors with experiences primarily based on their preferences gives further worth to your visitors. Slowly accumulate 500 factors to achieve the next tier to entry perks? Or take a rooftop yoga session with a post-flow sea-salt spa facial, out there instantly? We’ll allow you to resolve which reward will resonate extra along with your loyal visitors who constantly use your spa facilities.
Whether or not it’s visitor information out of your spa, restaurant, golf course, or total room spend, each interplay gives information you may apply to your loyalty program to create an experience-based reward on your visitors.
3. Observe the traits. Severely.
When you’re listening to your database, you already know that visitor preferences could be fairly dynamic. You realize what can be fairly dynamic? Journey traits.
2024 has been crammed with distinctive visitor expectations on the subject of their journey plans. From looking for quiet areas and locations to leaning into ultra-luxury with hedonic and extremely refined experiences like “sky bars.”
What’s scorching in meals, music, and tradition will affect your visitors’ preferences. So it’s essential to plot a loyalty program that’s versatile and permits you to change issues up as your visitors gravitate to the subsequent smartest thing.
Doing a bit little bit of market analysis and consulting the information out of your advertising and marketing campaigns may give you a greater concept of what visitors are occupied with. What was the open price like on your electronic mail saying new pickleball courts and teacher lessons? What number of occasions did visitors click on the hyperlink in an electronic mail selling restaurant dinners with sustainably grown produce?
For Posthotel Achenkirch, they tapped into wellness specials and appealed to nature lovers as a result of locals valued these experiences. And their lodge was proper to observe the traits, as this marketing campaign drove 414 booked room nights.
Have a look.
4. Measure and adapt
One thing that needs to be baked into your loyalty program is the way you measure progress in order that once you attain the tip of the month, the tip of the quarter, or the tip of the yr, you have got a transparent indication of how profitable this system has been.
Think about setting KPIs on your loyalty program to make sure it performs effectively and aligns with what you are promoting targets. Metrics like acquisition and retention charges are begin, however don’t neglect to audit what rewards your visitors took benefit of probably the most. These information factors can inform the changes you’ll make to suit your visitors’ wants.
48% of enterprise vacationers and 30% of leisure vacationers worth loyalty advantages probably the most on the subject of their most well-liked lodge manufacturers, so be certain that yours resides as much as their hype. As a result of loyalty applications ought to reside and breathe. They should evolve, or they’ll find yourself like your dad’s dusty loyalty card.
Visitors are distinctive, so make your loyalty program match
Let’s say that you just’ve conquered one of many laborious elements — you’ve generated a database stuffed with loyal visitors. Every a type of visitors is exclusive, with their very own set of keep preferences and journey targets. Making a loyalty program that’s simply as dynamic and distinctive as your visitors is the opposite laborious half. However the activity isn’t as daunting in case your technique features a Buyer Knowledge Platform as a result of you have got the information it’s good to establish and goal your loyal visitors. You may supply them rewards that transcend factors and communicate to the foundation of the visitor expertise. And that’s a win for everybody.
