Checking in on hotel loyalty
Gary Stoller, USA TODAY, 5/8/2007 (excerpted)
Frequent business traveler Ken Denson vacations in Maui once or twice a year and never pays for a hotel room.
Denson, a Los Angeles-based tour manager for bands, collects points in more than five hotel chains' frequent-stay programs and cashes them in for free rooms. "I used 15 free nights at hotels in 2006 and did not come close to using all the points I had earned for the year," he says.
Frequent-stay programs are popular, but it's difficult for Denson and other business travelers to determine which one is best. The programs are frequently changing and have different standards for earning and redeeming points.
Points in some programs, such as those of Hilton, Starwood and Red Roof, expire if a member's account is inactive for many months. Policies also vary on the number of free rooms chains make available to frequent-stay members and the high-volume days on which free rooms aren't offered at all.
Nearly all programs allow members to exchange points for free room nights, but several also offer other awards, including merchandise, gift certificates for restaurants and concert tickets.
The programs of Wyndham and Omni are not geared to free stays or free merchandise but rather to free amenities during members' stays. Wyndham ByRequest members, for example, receive many complimentary services and items, including high-speed Internet service, local and long-distance phone calls, a snack and wine or another beverage.
"Each major program has unique strengths and weaknesses, and there is no runaway winner," says Theo Brandt-Sarif, who publishes online travel newsletter Luxury Escapes.
InsideFlyer magazine, however, this month named InterContinental Hotels Group's Priority Club Rewards the top program for the second-consecutive year. InterContinental brands include Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza. The magazine praised the program for its promotions, customer service and its affiliated credit card, which members can use to accumulate points.
Hotel chains consider the programs "critical to their success," says Cornell University marketing professor Judy Siguaw.
But Siguaw says the industry may be overestimating the power of a loyalty program to attract guests. Research shows that frequent travelers carry five to 10 hotel loyalty program cards in their wallets and use the card that matches the hotel they have selected based on location, she says.
Brandt-Sarif says business travelers should accumulate points in the programs that have hotels close to where they conduct business.
For business traveler Dennis Stafford, of Massillon, Ohio, who drives on business to five states and spends about 175 nights a year in a hotel, that means Marriott.
He now has 500,000 points in the Marriott loyalty program and is saving so that he and his wife can take two granddaughters to Disneyland. "It won't cost us a penny," he says.
Stafford says he regularly switches credit cards to take advantage of bonus offers for Marriott points.
He acknowledges that opening new credit card accounts in his quest for points hurts his credit score, but, he says, he can live with that.
"I pay all bills each month and have owned my house for years," he says.
FREQUENT-STAY PROGRAM CHANGES
Some recent changes in hotels' frequent-stay programs:
• Marriott. Beginning next month, Marriott will double the number of points needed to override blackout dates.
• InterContinental. In March, InterContinental Hotels began offering a rotating list of hotels that can be booked for 5,000 points, far less than is ordinarily required. Its Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites or InterContinental properties normally require 10,000 to 40,000 points.
• Starwood. Since March, Preferred Guest members have been able to use points for special events seats at a concert, a round of golf with a professional or a party with movie stars. Hilton and InterContinental have similar offerings.
• Best Western. The chain last year dropped the requirement for elite membership to 10 paid nights from 15, and super-elite membership to 15 paid nights from 30.
• Choice. Last year, it added gasoline and competing hotels to the kinds of gift cards that points can be redeemed for. It also created an elite "Diamond" level that gives members with 40 paid room nights in a year 40% more points for money spent each stay.
By Gary StollerHow hotel frequent-stay programs stack up