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Loyalty For Independent Hotels
Hotel loyalty programs are typically run by big hotel chains, but what about independent hotels? How do they encourage loyalty in their businesses? A hotel loyalty program is a key strategy used by many independent hotels to attract and retain business at their properties. Frequent hotel guests can be encouraged to favour a particular brand or group of hotels over competitors when choosing their accommodation, simply by knowing they will be rewarded points when they do so.
A good hotel loyalty program will offer a range of options for you to choose from, making the program bespoke to your hotel, including retaining the hotel's own branding with a loyalty website, loyalty app and loyalty cards system.
Loyalty rewards companies such as Inspire Loyalty provide bespoke loyalty solutions for independent hotels, so they can have a loyalty programme that best suits their needs and size of business. Smaller hotel groups often want to offer different points values with different monetary values depending on their product. For example, guests may earn more points at the hotel’s restaurant compared to when they pay for accommodation or use the hotel's other facilities such as the leisure club or spa. It’s important that the program you choose has the mechanisms in place to adjust points value to suit, with the added option to integrate with your booking engine to offer member rate, incentivising direct business and creating awareness of your loyalty program. This kind of flexibility is what makes the difference when it comes to implementation of a loyalty strategy and the best loyalty companies will handle this all for you.
There is no end to the possibilities when it comes to loyalty but if you’re looking for a loyalty solution for your hotel, its best to find one that works for you and that offers a bespoke solution that meets your requirements.
Hotel Rewards
Independent hotels often want to offer welcome points for new members or sometimes special privileges can be introduced, such as free Wi-Fi Internet to encourage guests to join the program. With a good hotel rewards program, hotels will typically be able to offer a combination of rewards and benefits such as free room upgrades, double points, early check-in, late check out or free access to more of the hotel's facilities. Guests will earn points when they stay and be able to redeem them for rewards such as hotel experiences specified by the hotel, or hotel gift codes. For independent hotels targeting their corporate market the best loyalty programs will also offer retail vouchers as rewards.
When it comes to hotel rewards its all about creating an incentive for your guests to work towards, increasing engagement levels with your guests and rewarding them for their continued loyalty. Loyalty companies such as Inspire loyalty also provide monthly member point statements to create awareness of your program, which helps to increase engagement and can be used to inform about special promotions, exclusive member offers or upcoming events. They also have retail partnerships with top brands and provide rewards in the form of retail voucher codes which can be sent by email. This is by far the most efficient way to reward your most valued guests and gives them a broader range of choice, allowing them to choose a reward they can redeem outside of the hotel.
Loyalty and rewards companies tend to know what they are doing when it comes to gaining loyalty from your guests, so why not let them handle it for you? Its cost efficient and it works! Just make sure the loyalty program you choose is bespoke and meets the specific requirements of your independent business.