Hello, fellow FlyerTalkers. I'm working on an article for my magazine—a b2b publication for hotel owners, developers and on-property employees—about hotel loyalty programs. (A rare, but fun opportunity where personal and business get mixed together for me.)

I'd love your feedback on the dozen questions below. Of course you're free to respond to this thread with any answers, but if you'd like me to use your name (or just a description of you that you're comfortable with), please send your answers to any or all of the questions to me at [email protected] by Monday, July 12th. Plus, you'll have a better shot at being quoted in the article that way, and I may follow up with those individuals with additional questions.

I'll be happy to share our online links of the story (it's a four-part special section on loyalty programs) once it goes live in August, too.

Thanks in advance,

-Paul


1. How many paid nights do you stay in hotels each year? How many are business/personal?

2. What is your primary hotel loyalty program?

3. How many hotel loyalty programs do you belong to? How many do you really focus on? One, two, three, more?

4. How important is a loyalty program to the hotels you choose to stay in?

5. How far out of your way (or price range) will you go to stay with your preferred hotel, because of its loyalty program? Any specific examples you can share?

6. What features of a hotel loyalty program do you find most valuable? What perks are least valuable to you?

7. Do you consider hotel loyalty programs a game, a deserved perk, a competition, or something else? What most makes you stay active in accumulating points?

8. What hotel loyalty program do you most admire, and why?

9. Where has your primary hotel loyalty program most faltered? Please be specific. Where have others failed?

10. Do you think that, overall, hotel loyalty programs reflect well on the brand itself?

11. If you could say anything to the people running your preferred loyalty program(s), what would it be?

12. Any other thoughts you’d care to share about hotel loyalty programs in general?

Shameless bump to top. Here's your opportunity to let the hotel loyalty program execs know what you think. Appreciate your help!

More than half of the questions you posted call for subjective opinions. you can get many opposing answers all of which would be correct. So why don't you use your own opinions and experience to write your article? you could also research the many posts about hotel loyalty programs contained here.
Frankly your questions seem like a joke (no wonder nobody responded to your post). Bottom line is the best hotel loyalty program is the one you use, all others are worthless.

Sorry you feel that way, and sorry you felt the need to be so negative.

Of course many of the questions are subjective. I'm looking for people's opinions, and these are some general attempts to pull them out. I have other sources, too, but figured some FlyerTalk members (I have been a member and supporter for years) would like an opportunity to have their concerns heard by the people who make the decisions.

1. How many paid nights do you stay in hotels each year? How many are business/personal? 35-40; all are business. Don't want to stay in a hotel for vacations now!

2. What is your primary hotel loyalty program? Hilton

3. How many hotel loyalty programs do you belong to? 4 How many do you really focus on? One, two, three, more? 1

4. How important is a loyalty program to the hotels you choose to stay in?
Important when it comes to trying to get a little better room or bottle of water No value at all when trying to get honors rewards rooms because the number of points required for an honors reward room has substantially increased

5. How far out of your way (or price range) will you go to stay with your preferred hotel, because of its loyalty program? A little but not muchAny specific examples you can share?

6. What features of a hotel loyalty program do you find most valuable? What perks are least valuable to you?

7. Do you consider hotel loyalty programs a game, a deserved perk, a competition, or something else? What most makes you stay active in accumulating points? It's really more of a joke because the benefits aren't much

8. What hotel loyalty program do you most admire, and why? None

9. Where has your primary hotel loyalty program most faltered? Please be specific. Where have others failed?Requiring too many reward points for a reward stay

10. Do you think that, overall, hotel loyalty programs reflect well on the brand itself?

11. If you could say anything to the people running your preferred loyalty program(s), what would it be?Get real

12. Any other thoughts you’d care to share about hotel loyalty programs in general?
Paul19 is offline Alert a moderator to this post Reply With Quote

hi Paul,

hv sent u the details in mail as requested..hope it helps as an input in ur article..

Mostly OT, but here goes:
1. The plethora of promotions offered by hotel brands is too confusing for me to follow.
2. The plethora of point expiration rules, same thing.
3. The practice of charging for wi-fi at upper-end properties, but not at lower ones, steers me away from the nicer properties in brands for which I don't have status.
Good luck on your article!

+1

you asked for opinions, sorry if you can't take a negative one.
Your questions sound like market research and if your getting paid to do market research on loyalty programs then fine, but other than questions 7 or 12, the questions dont appear designed to produce good fodder for an article.
The first 3 questions are personal info meant to seperate the business and leisure travelers, the remaining questions (other than 7 and 12) would only be of interest to a hotel loyalty program marketer, and they get answers to these questions all the time from their own customer satisfaction and comment cards.
If you are looking for opinions of loyalty programs, there are literally thousands in the hotel program section. You can sift through the positive and negative ones and slant your article to either side. If everyone answered with negative opinions of current programs, would you chastise them all?

Like I said the bottom line is the only good program is the one you use, the rest are worthless. In general they are all lame, offering small perks and the occasional worthwhile promotion. It's just a little extra thank you for the frequent business traveler. None have programs with rewards valuable enough to cause a leisure traveler to ignore price and go with a brand, and none will make an average business traveler switch from a more comfortable or convienent chain.
Sorry if my negative opinions bum you out, but you asked for them.
Like SCFLYER said hotel loyalty programs are a joke and if you can tell the people running them something it would be "get real"

I concentrate on 2 programs.

Make sure I get status in both.

Ability to redeem points for rooms at last minute (did it at Niagra Falls on July 4th!! Saw fireworks from the room), with no black out is the key to choosing the chain.

1. How many paid nights do you stay in hotels each year? How many are business/personal? 20-business 25-personal

2. What is your primary hotel loyalty program? Now, Marriott

3. How many hotel loyalty programs do you belong to? How many do you really focus on? One, two, three, more? I belong to three. I only focus on Marriott.

4. How important is a loyalty program to the hotels you choose to stay in? Fairly important.

5. How far out of your way (or price range) will you go to stay with your preferred hotel, because of its loyalty program? Any specific examples you can share? My TA (who I use for business travel) is instructed to follow a hierarchy for booking -- Marriott, Starwood, then Hilton. She'll usually inform me if my preferred chain doesn't have a hotel close by my destination. However, if I'm renting a car and/or taxis are not particularly expensive, I'll usually stay at my preferred hotel.

6. What features of a hotel loyalty program do you find most valuable? What perks are least valuable to you? Most valuable: Free nights at international destinations. Least valuable: Free snacks or "loyalty" gift, free breakfast.

7. Do you consider hotel loyalty programs a game, a deserved perk, a competition, or something else? What most makes you stay active in accumulating points? The ability to use them for personal vacations which, for my wife and myself, are always international. One of the reasons I like Marriott is because they have lots of hotels all over the world. One of the reasons I don't like Starwood as much is because their reward program is something of a scam -- I've been burned a number of times by "Starwood hotels," that "don't participate in the program," i.e. no points, no rewards.

8. What hotel loyalty program do you most admire, and why? Admire? None of them.

9. Where has your primary hotel loyalty program most faltered? Please be specific. Where have others failed? As I mentioned above, "Starwood" is no guarantee that the property actually participates in the rewards program. I've never really had any problem with Marriott. I had dropped them when they dropped out of Amex' Membership Rewards, but I dropped Amex last year so there was no reason to continue with Starwood.

10. Do you think that, overall, hotel loyalty programs reflect well on the brand itself? Some do, some don't. Marriott's does. Starwood's does not.

11. If you could say anything to the people running your preferred loyalty program(s), what would it be? Please don't assume that "one perk fits all." I don't care about exercise rooms, room upgrades, snacks, gifts, or being greeted by name. I do care very much about devaluation of points, lack of availability of award stays and anything else that interferes with my ability to cash in and use my points.

12. Any other thoughts you’d care to share about hotel loyalty programs in general?[/QUOTE] Customer service is the key. I've always been treated well by Marriott, not at all well by Starwood (I'm referring specifically to these hotels' rewards programs). All other things being equal (and, with respect to these two programs, they're not), is it any surprise that I prefer the program that treats me courteously?

Now that's an understatement! Why do I have to pay substantially MORE to get substantially LESS? And the parking fees at most places? Outrageous!!! No wonder hotel vacancies are UP!

1. How many paid nights do you stay in hotels each year? How many are business/personal? About 50 to 60 paid nights per year; all for business.

2. What is your primary hotel loyalty program? Starwood.

3. How many hotel loyalty programs do you belong to? How many do you really focus on? One, two, three, more? I belong to six programs, but really focus on just two--Starwood and Hilton.

4. How important is a loyalty program to the hotels you choose to stay in? Huh? Do people stay in hotels for reasons other than loyalty programs? Or to put the point more seriously: extremely important.

5. How far out of your way (or price range) will you go to stay with your preferred hotel, because of its loyalty program? Any specific examples you can share? I'll shop around and research a fair amount to try to find a hotel that's within the explicit or implicit price range for the organization that's paying for my trip. But I never exceed that range.

6. What features of a hotel loyalty program do you find most valuable? What perks are least valuable to you? I use my points for overseas vacations so that my wife and I can stay in wonderful places we otherwise would not be able to afford. This has meant we've stayed for free in fantastic hotels, and sometimes even gotten suites, in South Africa, Argentina, the Caribbean, Thailand, French Polynesia, Australia and many places in Europe, with planned trips to Bali and Mexico soon to be added to the list. So what I most value is a program that has lots of great overseas properties, which is why my favorite program is Starwood--it has a great variety of wonderful properties across the globe. I also highly value being able to sometime use my points not just for regular rooms, but for upgrades to suites--the Starwood program sometimes offers that option, and it sometimes does not require too many points above and beyond a regular room. Finally, and I hope I'm not sounding like too much of a commercial for Starwood, but I also value its cash plus points option, by which a combination of the two makes staying at some properties on vacation a great deal, since neither the cash nor the points required are excessive. One feature I do like a lot about the Hilton program is that it includes free breakfasts for Gold and Diamond members, for both paid and reward stays. Another is that American Airlines frequent flyers such as myself can convert our AA miles into Hilton points at a good exchange rate (with one mile yielding two points). And a feature I like about all programs is the ability for elite members to sometimes upgrade for free to better rooms on paid or award stays--though I try not to get my hopes up too much about this, and instead view it as a nice perk if it happens. Hotel lounge access is also a nice feature of some programs, though usually isn't that important to me unless the hotel has a great lounge. The features I least value in hotel programs are the minor amenities, such as free bottles of water.

7. Do you consider hotel loyalty programs a game, a deserved perk, a competition, or something else? I mainly see hotel loyalty programs as useful marketing tools that mutually benefit the hotel chains, the individual hotels and the customers. What most makes you stay active in accumulating points? On a more emotional level, I also see such programs as a way to take fantastic vacations with my wife.

8. What hotel loyalty program do you most admire, and why? Starwood, mostly for the reasons I mention in #6. In addition, it is very easy to work with in a number of ways: a very good website that provides easily available information on such matters as what it would cost in points to stay at a given property or whether the cash plus points option is available at a hotel for a given date; friendly, well-informed phone representatives; and being very easy to instantly transfer points between my and my wife's Starwood accounts for free. Plus it has a nice option that I never use, but that I realize is valued by others: the ability to convert Starwood points to redeemable miles with a number of major airlines, and to even get a 25 percent bonus while doing so.

9. Where has your primary hotel loyalty program most faltered? Please be specific. The only major downside to Starwood in comparison with Hilton and I believe some other programs is that it does not include free breakfasts for some of its elite members. Though this sounds like a minor matter, the cost of breakfasts can add up if staying at expensive properties and is a nice perk in any event. One reason I sometimes stay at Hiltons rather than Starwoods is because of this perk. As a secondary matter, Hilton sometimes seems better than Starwood at granting lounge access to some elite members.Where have others failed?Though I understand the ongoing inflation in the amounts of points charged for a given award stay, some of the increases seem excessive. Hilton undertook a major increase across the board earlier this year, for example. Hilton more specifically fails in not having a system whereby members can cash in points for suites and not only regular rooms.

10. Do you think that, overall, hotel loyalty programs reflect well on the brand itself? Yes, when they are well run, which is the case with Starwood and to some extent Hilton. Hyatt also seems to have a very good program that reflects well on the company, though the relatively limited number of Hyatt properties makes it tougher for me to accumulate stays and points at its properties in my travels.

11. If you could say anything to the people running your preferred loyalty program(s), what would it be? For Starwood, I'd suggest including free breakfasts for all Gold and Platinum members, so as to avoid losing business to Hilton and other chains. I'd also suggest partnering with Visa or Mastercard to issue a Starwood credit card, since the Starwood American Express card can't be used everywhere. For Hilton, I'd suggest including the ability to cash in points for suites and not just regular rooms. For all chains, I'd of course caution against excessively raising the number of points needed for free rooms.

12. Any other thoughts you’d care to share about hotel loyalty programs in general? The Starwood and Hilton American Express cards, as well as other hotel- and airline-affiliated credit cards, have proven to be great ways to accumulate points. In fact, my wife and I have probably piled up more points through credit card spending than through hotel stays.

Well, I promised to post the story (stories). Here is the link to the whole special section in the magazine:

http://www.hotelworldnetwork.com/loyalty

As luck would have it, I was downsized (with several other editorial and salespeople), so I really didn't have a lot to do with how the final editing and presentation ended up. But enjoy!

-Paul