Hotel Loyalty Professional Service Pack
Hotel loyalty is a nuanced, varying concept within the diverse hospitality industry. Hotels must create custom data-driven loyalty programs based on their individual goals and existing guest behavior. Each hotel, from an independent resort to a global chain, can develop unique loyalty strategies reflecting its distinct characteristics, target market, and brand identity. These programs can range from full reward and redeem points programs to simple private offer membership programs where guests feel like they are special.
Introducing GAIN Hotel Loyalty
Professional Service Pack What is it?
This GAIN Hotel Loyalty Professional Service Pack was developed after several years of working with many hotel brands and properties worldwide. We found that many of these hotels had the same things in common: they didn’t have a good baseline of guest data to make the correct decisions for designing a loyalty program. Without that baseline, many hotels would guess what to do, and almost all of them overestimated the number of returning guests they had. As a result, programs would have unrealistic tier levels and perks that would be unattainable to 97% of their guests.
We found with this process, hoteliers would be illuminated to things in their business they often didn’t consider, and it helped set the foundation for strong loyalty programs that created phenomenal guest satisfaction, which helped capture more of the total guest wallet by adding on other services and activities.
The GAIN Hotel Loyalty Professional Service Pack was created so that before hotels create programs that may or may not be right for their hotel, they ensure they completely understand the guests that make up most of their reservations. It entails evaluating existing customer data, the systems currently in place today to capture that data, and other insights into guest analytics to determine the type of program that makes the most sense for your unique business environment. For hotels that already have a program in place, the process we have put in place can also audit and recommend changes to existing programs.
Key Objectives
- Understand the hotel’s goals and their perceived comp set
- Evaluate current programs that are in place today, if any, and understand their effectiveness to date
- Evaluate existing hospitality systems in place today (loyalty, CRM, PMS, etc.)
- Understand the existing hotel guest behavior (repeat guest ratios, business vs. leisure, booking lead time, guest geography, etc.)
- Optimize the collection of guest data at every step of the guest journey
- Explain how loyalty and guest personalization go hand in hand
Evaluation Steps
- Interview hotel staff
- Audit how the hotel collects guest data today.
- Analyze existing data to understand current guest behavior (existing loyalty data, PMS, CRM, etc.)
- Present findings and recommendations
- If required, assist in a unique program design for the hotel/brand
When it comes down to it, guests are loyal to places where they have great experiences and feel valued. Loyalty isn’t just about points and redemptions; it’s about making your guests raving fans who want to return repeatedly. This is what the service pack was designed to do.
GAIN Advisor
Shayne Paddock is a CRM, personalization, and loyalty expert who’s currently serving as a strategic advisor for GAIN after having held such roles as VP Portfolio Strategy for Amadeus, VP GMS Product Development & Innovation with TravelClick, and CIO at ZDirect.
He’s considered an innovative and performance-driven leader who has helped design and analyze loyalty programs all over the globe, from mid-size luxury, limited service chains to independent resorts. He has a deep passion for technology and business and feels just as comfortable reviewing a marketing plan as running complex data analytics. Customers trust him to develop solutions that will boost their guest satisfaction and their bottom line.