Peter Gorla, Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Managing Director, VOILÀ Hotel Rewards, participated in a fascinating Q&A with Loyalty360 to discuss the launch of Grand Beach Hotel Rewards, along with the additions of Grand Beach Hotels & Resorts and Swiss International Hotel & Resorts to its worldwide network.
VOILÀ Hotel Rewards is the world’s No. 1 independent hotel loyalty program.
Can you talk about the addition of Swiss International Hotels Resorts to your worldwide network and how you think this will impact your customer base and network?
By adding Swiss International Hotels and Resorts to the VOILÀ network, members in the program benefit from the addition of over 20 hotels in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia where they can earn VOILÀ points and redeem Award Nights. With significant coverage around the world, Swiss International Hotels and Resorts is a perfect addition to the VOILÀ network. Likewise, our recent announcement of Mamaison Hotels & Residences expands VOILÀ into Eastern Europe, a part of the world where we previously did not have enough presence yet. Ultimately, our goals for VOILÀ are to achieve thousands of hotels and millions of members, rivaling the size and scale of many of the global chain loyalty programs.
What factors prompted the launch of Grand Beach Hotel Rewards, how will the program work, and what are your goals for it?
Without the benefit of a loyalty program, many independent hotels miss out on maximizing corporate bookings, meetings business, and depend too heavily on OTAs. As a result, commissions paid to OTAs are cutting deep into their profit margins. As with all of VOILÀ’s partner hotels, Grand Beach recognized these challenges. Our goals for the VOILÀ loyalty programs we operate are simple:
Provide both members and the hotels with world-class loyalty program which makes the hotel’s brand the focus and builds a proprietary member database for participating hotels. To achieve this, VOILÀ provides hotel- or group-branded solutions for our partner hotels, with VOILÀ acting as the supporting brand (similar to Star Alliance or OneWorld for frequent flyer programs).
Deliver partner hotels a turn-key solution, including marketing, fulfillment and customer service, all managed by the global VOILÀ team.
Offer a low-cost, pay-for-performance model which generates a positive ROI. Offer ever-expanding global network of select independent hotels and redemption partners (airlines, retail merchants, charities, etc.).
Help our hotels to garner their fair share of bookings from corporate travelers and groups & meetings business.
Reduce commissions paid to OTAs by shifting our hotels’ repeat guests to substantially lower-cost direct channels.
What metrics will you use to gauge and measure success of the program?
We typically look at the success of VOILÀ at our partner hotels by considering the ROI from the hotel’s perspective. Key metrics that we consider while modeling the ROI include:
Increased direct bookings (savings on OTA commission costs)
Room nights from repeat member visits (incremental stays)
Longer stays (more nights per stay)
More Frequent Stays
Increase Intra-Network Stays (within a group)
Incremental bookings from VOILÀ members enrolled at other hotel groups
How have your metrics evolved in the loyalty space in recent years?
Today, we are putting a lot more attention and weight on incremental stays that are attributed to the VOILÀ loyalty program. Therefore, all of the promotions we develop are designed to increase frequency of member stay, increase duration of member stays, increase Award Night redemption (therefore, driving additional incremental room nights) and to accelerate how fast members’ earn elite tier status (which gives them bonus points and additional recognition benefits).
As a marketer, what things/challenges keep you up at night?
As with all hotel loyalty programs, the average member stays only a handful of times per year in participating VOILÀ network hotels. My goal, especially as it pertains to our mobile strategies and member engagement strategies, is to greatly increase the routine interaction with VOILÀ and our partner hotel brands. So, a lot of what is keeping us up at night is designing authentic and meaningful methods that VOILÀ members can engage digitally with VOILÀ on a daily or weekly basis, while still staying true to the core value propositions of the loyalty program.
What makes this loyalty program unique and impactful to the customer?
VOILÀ is the world’s No. 1 loyalty program that unites a network of more than 250 select independent hotels comprising over 25 select global hotel brands. VOILÀ’s points-based frequency guest program provides recognition benefits and Award Night room redemption opportunities at participating network hotels. But unlike big chain programs, VOILÀ enables independent hotel groups to maintain their branding and unique qualities. VOILÀ’s global presence also allows members to earn and redeem points across a wide variety of redemption partners - including airlines, retail merchants and charities.
From the consumer’s perspective, this means members can enjoy the rich experiences and extraordinary qualities independent hotels offer while earning points and receiving benefits typically tied to big chain loyalty programs.