Marriott just reported its 2024 financial results among which was important data about this global chain’s loyalty program Bonvoy.
Bonvoy members grew 16% in 2024, reaching 228 million, generating 73% of US room nights and 66% of roomnights globally.
Hilton also reported that their guest loyalty program Hilton Honors has reached 211 million members in 2024, a 17% increase from the previous year.
Just imagine if you are the GM of an average Marriott property in the U.S.Before you even get out of bed, you know that 73% of tonight’s guests will be Bonvoy members and you know about them everything that you need to know in order to provide above-and-beyond customer service: loyalty membership level (Basic, Silver Elite, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite), guest stay history, preferences, likes and dislikes, F&B consumption, history of requests and complaints, customer reviews on brand..com, Google, TripAdvisor and social media, etc.
Now, just imagine if you are the GM of an independent hotel without loyalty, reward or guest appreciation program and CRM (90% of independents). Before you even get out of bed, you know that YOU KNOW NOTHING about your guests arriving today: preferences, likes and dislikes, F&B consumption, history of requests and complaints, customer reviews on Google, TripAdvisor and social media, etc.
Any independent hotel can create a simple Guest Appreciation Program based on number of roomnights stayed or any other metric. Ex. Using a similar simple guest appreciation program, Stay 10 roomnights and get 1 free night, Hotels..com accumulated 50 million members in its program.
At my former company NextGuest, now merged with Cendyn, we implemended similar Guest Appreciation Programs for our hotel clients. Combined with our CRM tech, this program typically tripled and even quadrupled number of repeat guests and provided the hotel with a powerful tool to learn everything it needed to know about its guests.
How can you provide above-and-beyond customer service to guests if you don’t know anything about them, their preferences, likes and dislikes.
