All those forms to fill in, passwords to remember and account numbers to save are just too much for most people. They don’t bother. If you told all those people that they were overpaying for every single hotel night they book, their attitude might just change. Unlike airlines, hotels have become very good at encouraging people to book direct and their newest effort is a pretty compelling reason to join their loyalty program, aside from the premise of free nights…
Hotels Have Launched Members Only Rates…
Hotels have been very aggressively trying to steer guests to book direct. In almost every case, you won’t earn hotel points and may not even be able to use your elite status benefits if you don’t book direct. That wasn’t enough for many people to hop on the “book direct” train, so now hotels have created “members only” rates, where you must be registered with their loyalty program to take part. Sometimes these rates mean very little, somewhere in the 5% range, but other times they can mean savings up to 40% and beyond.
So This Is What YOU Should Do…
It won’t take but 15 minutes or so out of your week to join all the hotel loyalty programs, and hey, they’re free, so why not?! Join Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, Marriott IHG, Accor and any other brands you frequent. In doing so you’ll become automatically eligible for any members rates. These member rates are at their very best during sales, such as recent 40% off sales by Marriott, Accor, Hilton and more (nice rhyme eh?) because you can take up to an additional 5% off the already discounted rate.
What About All Those Annoying Emails?
As we’ve mentioned before, it can be beneficial to have an inbox just for loyalty program emails. Occasionally just the thing you’re looking for will pop up. More and more airlines and hotels are sending targeted offers or personal offers to people in hopes of sealing some additional business. By subscribing to marketing emails I was able to see that I have specific benefits and bonus opportunities centered around February, my birth month.
