What Makes the Most Popular Hotel Loyalty Programs?

Image: PHOTO: Diversity in rewards offerings keeps members satisfied. (photo via Pixabay)

by Janeen Christoff
Last updated: 4:02 PM ET, Fri December 1, 2017

A new J.D. Power survey on hotel loyalty programs offers some insight into what drives member satisfaction.

The 2017 Hotel Loyalty Program Satisfaction Study found that members want more than just free or upgraded hotel stays. Travelers are looking to use rewards in all kinds of ways, including for special events, car rentals and dining.

The survey also found that offering a rewards program does boost loyalty to a brand and that many consumers don't fully understand how to obtain the benefits of the programs that they join.

"As loyalty and rewards programs of every type continue to saturate virtually every consumer market, the key to success for hotel loyalty programs is variety of reward offerings," said Rick Garlick, travel and hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power.

"Flexibility in how to redeem points and the ease with which customers can redeem those points are the key drivers of customer satisfaction in this space, which makes forming strong partnerships with third-party service providers a priority for hotel loyalty programs," added Garlick.

So which programs are the most highly rated?

In the rankings, Marriott Rewards gets the gold with its overall member satisfaction score of 806. World of Hyatt received a Silver award with a score of 805, and Hilton Honors got Bronze with 793.

Higher levels of satisfaction were achieved by programs that offered reward redemption on products purchases at retailers. Wyndham Worldwide's Wyndham Rewards was lauded for its ability to provide travelers with the best "reward payback" in a recent Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey.

According to those results, Wyndham Rewards rewards members with an average of $13.60 back on every $100 spent on room nights, compared to $9 back on every $100 spent by Marriott Rewards members.

J.D. Power also recently ranked the top airline rewards programs, finding that JetBlue's TrueBlue ranks highest among customer satisfaction.

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