The hotel guests of tomorrow will no longer be happy to collect and count their points, and wait for the distant future to redeem them for a few nights’ stay.
Hotels looking to create ties with millennial travelers need to give them a taste of what loyalty with that brand means early on, and highlight experiential rewards over points-for-rooms exchanges, suggests a new Deloitte report Winning the Race for Guest Loyalty.
The report argues that because travelers tend to join an average of two or three loyalty programs, hotels need to differentiate themselves by offering “softer rewards” in the form of customized and authentic experiences.
The suggestions are backed by two studies. Deloitte’s survey of 3,000 frequent U.S. travelers found that 66 percent of millennials considered “unique rewards” as a significant factor when choosing a hotel loyalty program.
