Hotel loyalty programs have three features that help travelers potentially get significantly more value for the money spent.
1. Hotel loyalty program membership allows the member to earn hotel loyalty points and receive credit for each paid stay. Points are earned on paid stays at a hotel brand member of the corporate loyalty program. Membership is free for most programs and can be immediately activated.
2. Hotel loyalty programs perpetually feature promotions for earning bonus points or free nights. These promotions are actually a type of rebate for free and discounted future hotel travel. In some cases, a hotel promotion may provide a rebate with a significantly higher value in future hotel room redemptions than the cost to earn the promotion hotel points bonus.
Hotel Example: Starwood Hotels ran a promotion in late 2007 offering 1 to 4 free nights at any of their Le Meridien brand hotels worldwide after a guest stayed 3 to 7 times at Le Meridien hotels. A traveler in Montreal, San Francisco, Miami, Toronto, Germany, Egypt, Singapore, and 50 other places with Le Meridien hotels could have stayed 7 times at a Le Meridien hotel for about $1,000 to $1,500, depending on location. The 4 free nights earned could have been redeemed for a luxury hotel stay in Paris, Bora Bora, or the Seychelles where the lowest nightly rate for the Le Meridien hotels are $500-750 per night. This promotion had a potential redemption value as high as $2,000 to $4,000 for an investment in 7 hotel nights with Le Meridien that could be made for as little as $1,000 in some locations. Pay for a vacation and get your next one free is a great travel strategy.
3. Hotel loyalty programs bestow elite membership to frequent guests that provides added privileges and benefits. Each hotel program has published elite membership qualification standards.
Reaching a high elite status requires between 15 and 75 nights a year at member hotels of the loyalty program. Recent promotions in late 2007 and early 2008 with Hyatt Gold Passport and Starwood Preferred Guest allowed a member to earn highest elite status with just 13 hotel nights.
In general, the major hotel loyalty programs, like airline frequent flyer programs, tend to recognize elite members by the frequency of stays rather than the amount of money spent. This allows a budget traveler to leverage elite status membership through frequent low-cost hotel nights and redeem hotel points and receive elite membership benefits and privileges at high-cost upscale hotels and resorts.
Elite membership allows additional opportunities to earn hotel points, complimentary upgrades, and additional hotel amenities. The benefits of high level elite status in a hotel loyalty program has the potential to add several thousand dollars of added value to the frequent traveler’s hotel stays.
Travel example: A high elite frequent guest books a $99 room rate at a resort during the slow period of travel. Chances are fairly good the high-level elite member receives a complimentary room upgrade to a suite that may have had a rate of $299 for the same night. This is a $200 added value for the frequent guest provided as a complimentary benefit in recognition of elite status. The guest benefits from a better room than booked and the hotel benefits from a loyal customer who did not stay at the competitor's resort hotel on their $99 rate.
The purpose of Loyalty Traveler is to assist the traveler through the hotel loyalty world described in the three points above and get jumpstarted on a better hotel travel lifestyle.