Two-thirds of Corporate Travel Managers say that hotel loyalty programs play at least a “slightly important” role in their negotiations with hotels and one in five say they play a “very important” or “extremely important” role, according to new research from the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
The study, Making Hotel Loyalty Programs Work for You and Your Travel Program, sponsored by Hilton Worldwide, surveyed more than 200 U.S. Corporate Travel Managers and revealed that hotel loyalty programs are an important consideration for many Travel Managers when choosing preferred hotels.
According to the study, 78% of Travel Managers are allowed to use individual hotel loyalty accounts when traveling for business. Travel Managers almost universally say travelers can keep the points or rewards earned through business travel for their own personal use.
“Most loyalty programs reward individual travelers for staying at hotel chains, but these programs can also align with the goals of corporate travel programs to promote compliance, improve traveler satisfaction, and extract value from hotel stays,” said Joseph Bates, GBTA Foundation vice president of research. “While the primary goal of loyalty programs is to incentivize travelers to be brand loyal, continued partnerships with Travel Managers should prevail.”
What’s more, the study found high interest in both corporate hotel loyalty programs and adding incentive to individual programs to encourage booking through authorized channels. More than three quarters (77%) of Travel Managers are “somewhat interested” or “very interested” in a corporate loyalty program that rewards companies through various discounts and perks, while 72% are also “somewhat interested” or “very interested” in allowing travelers to belong to individual loyalty programs to accrue points more quickly if they booked through a channel agreed upon by both the Travel Manager and the hotel.
This study was based on an online survey of 221 Travel Managers based in the United States fielded from April 7-16, 2015. Respondents included GBTA members and non-members.