brand loyalty

Hotel Real Estate: How Brands Are Re-Imagining Hotel Lobbies

M. Rein | September 17, 2019

Several reports show the astonishing growth in self workers, contract freelancers and consultants, according to Statista, 10.3% of the working age population is involved in entrepreneurial activities. Alongside this, project task forces are becoming more and more common, and companies are starting to become more agile in their operations, ING’s agile transformation started with the 3,500 staff members at group headquarters, Bart Schlatmann: former chief operating officer of ING Netherlands said, “we invested in tearing down walls in buildings to create more open spaces and to allow more informal interaction between employees. We have a ve...

The Difference Between Loyalty Programs and Loyalty to a Brand

Alan Young | September 5, 2019

By Alan E. Young Loyalty is earned, and certainly not given, and there is a definite difference between loyalty programs and a guest’s loyalty to a brand. Hotel loyalty programs might seem ubiquitous today, but nearly 60% of guests still don’t belong to one. During the 2019 Skift Tech Forum, industry experts agreed that today’s travelers seek more than just opportunities to earn points – they want experiences. Mind you, that doesn't mean it's beyond reach. Hoteliers must work a little harder to understand precisely what factors drive guest loyalty in the modern age. Which brings us to the ultimate question — what makes guests l...

Customer Loyalty in a Hyper-Segmented Hotel Landscape

Agnes Pierre-Louis | May 9, 2019

By Agnes Pierre-Louis Travelers today have access to considerably more information than they did during the early days of loyalty programs and are more reliant on reviews and user-generated content (UGC) than on brand names alone when making hotel choices. Also, when it comes to rewards programs, travelers have increasing options, with a variety of point-earning opportunities such as credit cards with compensation schemes and online travel agencies (OTA) reward programs. In fact, consumers are usually members of multiple rewards systems and use them selectively. How then can hotel companies today expect to drive consumer loyalty and doe...

Marriott’s New Bonvoy Brand: 5 Lessons for Travel Marketers

Michael Del Gigante | April 30, 2019

By Michael Del Gigante How big of a deal is it when Marriott, the world's largest hotel operator, rebrands its loyalty program? Such a big deal that ABC created a special television advertising block during the Oscars to help the company unveil its new offering: Bonvoy. By nearly any measure—media coverage, consumer buzz, or advertising spend—the program's launch has so far been the biggest travel and hospitality story of 2019. The move is important not only because it directly impacts Marriott's 120 million loyalty members, but also because it's the perfect case study for the wider travel and hospitality industry. What can ...

2019 Hotel Trends: The Power of Personalization and Building Personal Connections

Benoit Jolin | January 23, 2019

By Benoit Jolin January 2019 What happened to brand loyalty? Today's consumers have been trained to research products and prices, read reviews and make educated and discerning purchase decisions. To reach and engage customers in 2019, and to appeal to their personal needs, companies need to deeply understand what today's consumers value most. This is especially true in travel – because experiences have taken priority over possessions as a path to happiness and fulfillment. Personalization has become the "new thing" to drive traveler satisfaction, and machine learning (ML) is the powerful and positive disruptor in the hospitality i...

Do Loyalty Programs Really Create Loyalty?

Shep Hyken | April 20, 2018

By Shep Hyken Lately, I've been asked about loyalty programs. Any company can create a loyalty program. But, there is some confusion around what exactly a loyalty program is. A Wikipedia definition of a loyalty program summed it up well: Loyalty programs are structured marketing strategies designed by merchants to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of businesses associated with each program. "Structured marketing strategies." Now, that's an interesting way of putting it. Anything you do to get a customer to start to do business with you – and gets them to return – could fall under the concept of a...

Make the Hotel the Most Beautiful Place on Earth…Opportunities to Seize!

Georges Panayotis | March 27, 2018

By Georges Panayotis Tell me what you love, I'll tell you who you are. This old adage is even truer today since many customers are developing statutory consumption including for travel. In order to attract and develop the loyalty of these clients, today it is all the more necessary to tell a story, make them dream, make them want to stay at your hotel... what could be more logical for a major group than to rely on its brands and reputation. Seems obvious, doesn't it? And yet, we question ourselves; we even sometimes worry when we see the direction some are headed in as they leave behind their brands' values to die after decades of reno...

PolyU Study Finds How Hotel Loyalty Programmes Can Boost Brand Relationship Quality

February 28, 2018

Well-designed hotel loyalty programmes can increase members' satisfaction and improve the quality of their relationships with the associated brands, according to Dr Ada Lo of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and her co-authors. In a recently published article the researchers highlight the loyalty programme features that are most effective for building brand relationship quality (BRQ), and how BRQ contributes to outcomes such as members' word of mouth recommendations and purchase intention. The researchers explain that many hotel chains offer loyalty programmes as a means to "rewar...