How far can you go to build loyalty among business travelers?

Some hotel groups are working hard to attract business travelers from their corporate clients.

For a hotel group, contracts with large businesses whose employees travel a lot are quite juicy. Technically speaking employees will benefit from a discount in the hotels belonging to the group’s brands (a discount that varies of course depending on the number of nights the business can “promise” to the hotelier), can be used under certain conditions (right to use the discount code for personal travel or only for business travel) and in return these hotels will be favored by the business for the travel of its employees.

Business travelers: a windfall for hotels

Businesses and consulting firms whose employees spend a significant number of nights in hotels often have agreements with several hotel groups to cover all geographies.

Imagine how many nights the employees of these businesses spend in hotels per year! A windfall that cannot be refused and customers to pamper.

I recently saw on a US website the offer made by IHG to the employees of one of its client businesses (we’re talking about a global business with over 350,000 employees…). These clients only need to stay 2 nights in 3 months (instead of 10) to keep their gold status and 5 (instead of 40) to keep their platinum status. It is noticeable that IHG’s highest status, namely Spire, is not affected.

We don’t know to the business travelers from which businesses this was sent, but I think we’re talking about businesses that bring hundreds of thousands of nights a year, if not millions, to hoteliers.

Beware of statuses that are renewed too quickly!

Now we can argue about the logic of the promotion, especially at this time of year.

On the face of it, it’s a good marketing move. In one operation IHG makes sure to please already loyal customers and ensures that a possible loss of status does not lead them to go elsewhere. And knowing that the business in question certainly has contracts with the competition will help the traveler to arbitrate “in the right way”.

But in my opinion this is a mistake …

The number of nights requested is excessively low, especially for the platinum and, above all, the promotion comes very early in the year. A gold or platinum has a travel pattern that guarantees they will have “folded the case” in a month or two. So what? With a renewal of status obtained so soon, won’t they take advantage of it to go and find or renew a status with the competition? With this “multi-program” clientele, you can’t promise anything. I know what I am talking about.

Unless this was only sent to customers whose travel patterns were no longer in line with their status and IHG is thus trying to catch up “by the sleeve” with customers who are leaving for the competition. But given the information available this does not seem to be the case.

Promos are all about timing.

Pour moi une telle promotion aurait eu du sens au dernier trimestre pour Re-engage customers who are in the process of not renewing their status, for whatever reason, so that a downgrade does not cause them to start 2020 with the competition since they no longer have anything to lose or have retained a status with others.

Good idea but in my opinion bad timing.

I would have held this promotion for the 4th quarter and took advantage, today, of the small worries that Marriott Bonvoy at the takeoff to make an operation of Status Mach on its members (in other words, to offer them the equivalent status to the one they have on Bonvoy either on presentation of the card or by asking them in addition to do 2 or 5 nights during the quarter).

Image : business travellerby Janon Stock via Shuttertock