The Marriott Rewards loyalty program returns an average of 9.4% from room night spending as reward stay value, and that figure catapulted it to the top of the list in the Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey.
For every $100 spent in the Marriott Rewards program, travelers earned the equivalent value of $9.40 toward a future stay at a Marriott property. Hilton rewards users could expect to earn about 8.9% back per stay, while IHG program members could expect 8.6% toward a future stay. Starwood loyalty rewards users saw a 6.1% return on average.
“Consumers want ‘apples-to-apples’ measurements from their loyalty programs to know who is being truly generous with their rewards,” said Switchfly CEO Daniel Farrar. “That’s why we launched the Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey: To determine the average reward payback for each program and see how they compare against each other. Determining the average reward payback for each loyalty program will become increasingly important as more hotel chains allow customers to pay with points. There are several ways in which hotel loyalty programs can meet and surpass consumer expectations: frequent promotions with concierge-quality services available to lower-tier members, automated check-ins without staff interaction; Wi-Fi (which is no longer an amenity, but a requirement). It’s a brave new world for hotels.”
Dividing the room price (including local taxes) by the number of points per query provides a simple valuation of the point currency used by individual programs, the study says. But point values don’t allow consumers to compare hotel reward benefits across different loyalty programs.
Most hotel loyalty members do not hold the program’s co-branded credit card and don’t have elite status, according to the study. For these members, the reward payback method provides a good measure of reward value. Members that have elite status and use a program’s co-branded credit card to pay room charges benefit from a dizzying array of bonus point possibilities. These members might consider doing their own calculations based upon the simple value of reward points presented in the table above. The value provided by reward nights is traditionally the most important attribute for many members; the results presented in the survey don’t attempt to assess all the benefits provided by hotel loyalty programs.
The best reward payback occurs when room rates are high and reward point levels are low. The 1,440 queries were ranked from low to high to determine extreme values among the cities, dates, and hotel properties queried. The reward payback statistics assume members limit their paid stays and reward redemptions to the same hotel.