Originally Posted by
tennster
Boy, Ft'ers are a self-congratulatory bunch. They are gods. Just ask 'em.
The fact is, hotels would be thrilled if FT programs went away tomorrow. The brands make lots of money off the programs, at the expense of the individual hotels. But, I assure you, the programs are such a huge pain in the a$s, they would not be missed. The whining about upgrades and bonuses and DYKWIAs and free this and free that...it is all too much.
Hotels disdain the whole FT empire the brands have built, and the nuts these programs have enabled. I just laugh out loud at the people who say, "I am taking my business to xxx brand; they will treat me better." Guess what, not one person loses sleep over it. Not one.
But the brands keep piling on. IHG now "fines" its hotels if the hotel does not enroll a certain amount of new members into Priority Club. So, the hotel pays via the usury fees for each PC paying guest; gets to give away their rooms for less than their expenses to redeemers; or pays when there's not enough of them. No, it's an albatross and a drain, and while they may have to pretend to be just thrilled to have another freebie staying there, it's just another cost to bear.
A I stated in my previous post ask most hotels without a brand and a program how sales were before or during this current economy.
For those that do go chain free and make it better be strong on other fronts and have a solid niche
I am sure most wouldn't want to try running their property brand free without a guest program to drive sales. Pretty sure there is some love hate relationship involved because of the operating expenses.
As for the nuts you refer to on FT or anywhere else on some social media site some might take that the wrong way.
I think as a group FT program members on average are a bright more educated group then ever before seeking value from their preferred programs of choice. Ego and greed drive some members perhaps but I think it is unfair to lump the majority as a bunch of whiners as they seek the promise of an upgrade based on availability.
While some folks within the industry may not lose any sleep some are in fact doing just that. Some of those folks no longer have their jobs within this industry
Many hotels are going into foreclosure. Employees/team members are relying on good decisions that are made internally on the corporate level so that jobs can be saved at every level.
I don't think it matters if it’s GM or Hilton. This is a bad time to alienate customer’s period. There are winners and losers out there in every business and someone to take their market share in the morning
In all my years with seeing increases with regard to HH redemptions I have never thought about reducing my business substantially within the program
Hilton HHonors has always been a favorite of mine
I think this one was a deal breaker for many this time around.
If I had to make a quick comparison think about it like this if we were describing coach mileage redemption awards and we said from now on after Jan 10 2010
in Continentals One Pass program a coach ticket for redemption would be permanently 32,500 to redeem. No longer would there be a 25k award available. And mind you no other program followed suit. I think you would have quite a few members reconsidering their relationships and quite a number taking action even those that normally don't look twice