A new partnership between Choice Hotels and RewardsPay – a new online payment service company – allows Choice Privileges members to redeem their points for instant rewards for popular digital goods and services from online merchants.
Through RewardsPay, Choice Privileges points can now be redeemed for music, movies, e-books, and games from popular merchants such as iTunes, Aeria Games, Bigpoint, and Grooveshark. Choice Privileges is a fast-growing loyalty program with about 17 million members worldwide.
When Choice Privileges members selected the RewardsPay payment button on the checkout page of a participating merchant's website or through the Choice Privileges rewards portal, RewardsPay facilitates a real-time transaction that allows members to pay with Choice Privileges points and receive their preferred redemption reward via a real-time email to the member's account.
Ryan Draude, Senior Director, Loyalty Marketing, Choice Hotels International, told Loyalty 360 that this partnership came about because strong reward programs actively measure their member demographics and the associated redemption preferences.
Within the vast Choice Privileges membership, Draude said, “we see a growing base of members who are Internet-savvy, engaged in digital entertainment offerings like online games and music & movie downloads, and most importantly, seek real-time delivery of their shopping or redemption selections.”
RewardsPay, Draude said, is “an innovative first-mover in delivering goods and services to reward program members, and delivered an ideal match to our members seeking the right redemption, right now.”
Choice Privileges members will enjoy greater flexibility with their points, Draude explained, as well as the luxury of seeing their points as virtual currency to use with RewardsPay vendors. Traditionally, a member could redeem points for pre-set gift card options. With RewardsPay, members now are able to buy merchandise and services at varying price points, “which really expands the opportunities available for redemption.”
Draude said the RewardsPay relationship gives Choice Privileges members more purchasing power and a range of exciting new digital entertainment offerings not seen in this program before.
“Promoting this great service to our member base creates even more awareness for RewardsPay, and we are actively promoting this partnership through our regular newsletter and web-based updates to get the word out quickly,” Draude said. “As more vendors see the power of reaching large groups of loyal reward program members, I expect that RewardsPay’s merchant offerings will continue to grow, ultimately creating even more benefit for members via larger selection of goods and services that are accessible via their point balances.”
Anu Shukla, founder and CEO of RewardsPay, told Loyalty 360 that the partnership “helps make our payment service available to more consumers in more ways. For Choice Hotels, the partnership gives their users more options for redeeming points and therefore more reason to keep earning them.”
RewardsPay helps brands offer more flexibility with their rewards programs by allowing them access to the items they really want.
“We've been talking to a lot of rewards programs lately,” Shukla said. “On top of Choice Hotels, we’ve also signed up Discover’s Cashback Bonus and United Airline’s MileagePlus programs, and we'll soon be announcing other partnerships as well.”
Choice Privileges membership is free and offers points toward free nights, airline miles, gift certificates and more while staying at more than 5,500 Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brand hotels as well as Ascend Hotel Collection member hotels.