Originally Posted by
ainternational
In another interesting vector, I heard recently from a property manager that there are rumblings of creating "two kinds of Diamonds", basically another tier. The higher tier would be revenue based, where the lower tier would be more traditional nights/stays. This would be to separate out the, say, folks who commonly spend >50 nights a year at a HP and would become Diamonds, from the folks who stay >50 nights per year at Park Hyatt's, or some combination of higher revenue hotels / rooms. This would enable them to tailor the benefits to that higher tier and reward revenue versus mattress runs.
This sounds like the speculative ramblings of a single property manager who's annoyed at having to reward Diamonds who primarily stay elsewhere with benefits at his full-service property. But the entire point of a frequent traveller program is to provide exactly that: recognition and benefits to customers who have spent their time and money elsewhere, and may not have a relationship with this particular location.
To me it seems that the Diamond "lite" vs. Diamond "heavy spender" problem is self-correcting. If you spend a lot of time and money at full-service properties, you get a lot of benefits. If you spend a lot of time and less money at limited-service properties, you don't get a lot of benefits. No one is really getting more than they deserve here.