With amenities like Wi-Fi and complimentary snacks becoming more commonplace for all guests in hotels around the world, it may be hard for these businesses to make their VIPs feel like, well, VIPs.

While added perks are great for attracting new clientele, fostering customer loyalty is one of the best business moves to keep them coming back. Once a customer becomes loyal to a brand, their business is more likely guaranteed...as well as the business of close family and friends if the customer is prone to sharing their positive experiences.

Hotels are recognizing this need to foster devotion to a brand, and have responded by pumping up their elite loyalty programs devoted to both kinds of hotel guests: business and pleasure. Guests have the opportunity to choose between exclusive experiences during leisurely vacations, or pre-paid cards to enjoy after their business trips are over. 

No matter the type of trip, there are plenty of programs out there with various ranges of flexibility to make sure loyal guests remain partial to the brand. Below are three examples of loyalty programs that are doing it right.

Omni Hotels & Resorts:
Select Guest Black Level Loyalty Program

Omni Hotels are located in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with accommodations ranging from ski-in-ski-out lodges to beachside resorts. Travelers who frequent the hotel chain 30 or more nights a year are eligible for the Select Guest Black Level Loyalty Program. This program includes many additional perks for members, including the opportunity to partake in one-of-a-kind experiences at their destinations.

As members of the program, guests receive all the benefits of the company’s Select Guest members, including complimentary in-room Wi-Fi, pressing service, shoe shine, and morning beverage service. On top of this, guests with Black Level status can enjoy complimentary beverages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on their first night, more flexibility with checking in and out, unlimited complimentary pressing, and double room upgrade when available.

One of the most unique aspects of this benefit membership may be Omni’s GHA Discovery Black Local Experience Awards. While also rewarding guests with nice amenities, the program lets members partake in local experiences that can be redeemed with points. Some experiences include “A Day with the Flying Squirrels” in Richmond, where guests can hang with the AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and have the opportunity to throw out the first pitch.

In “Become a True Texan” in Dallas, guests can learn how to make boots and hats at cowboy purveyor, Wild Bill’s, and create their own custom hat in the process. In Chicago, members can travel with a chef to a local food market to select supplies for the night’s dinner, and receive expert tips during the cooking class in the evening.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group: 
Look To Book Travel Agent Rewards Program

Carlson Rezidor’s loyalty program, Look To Book, provides members with many flexible options to redeem their points. Along with using the points to book rooms, guests can also redeem points and receive pre-paid retail gift cards from popular online merchants, PayPal deposits, and airline miles with five airlines. In an unusual, but charitable twist, guests can also use their points to make a donation to the American Red Cross relief efforts.

Because of Carlson Rezidor’s wide range of hotel brands, guests will have little trouble booking a hotel to gather points. They can earn points at more than 1,000 hotels, including the Radisson Blu®, Radisson®, Park Plaza®, Park Inn® by Radisson and Country Inns and Suites By CarlsonSM hotels. Members earn 10 points for every U.S. dollar spent on eligible bookings, and have the opportunity to receive points in a variety of options outside of a hotel stay. Guests can also earn bonus points for acing a monthly quiz from Carlson Rezidor, and booking bonus offers through the company.

Next month, as a THOR member, you can look for a special “Tick, Tack, Toe” promotion that includes finishing three simple steps to be entered for a chance to win some great prizes!

Choice Hotels:
Daily Dividends

Choice Hotels Daily Dividends gives travel agents optimal freedom to use points earned by booking rooms at Choice Hotels. With the program, travel agents earn points with each rental they book (around one point for every 3-4 nights booked). After earning 25 points, agents receive a pre-paid Visa card, which accumulates points with every booking secured. There is virtually no limit to where the points can be used: Members can pay with the card at any place that accepts Visa.

Choice Hotels are widespread, and offer many affordable options to appeal to a wide range of travelers. Rewards are based on the length of stay in one of the 11 Choice Hotels brands, which include Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn®, Quality®, Clarion®, Cambria Suites®, MainStay Suites®, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel®, Econo Lodge®, Rodeway Inn® and Ascend Hotel Collection®.

With all of these different loyalty programs, vacationers, business travelers, and the folks that serve them have many options to redeem their hotel points. Whether they choose to indulge in a culinary tour, buy airline miles for their next trip, or splurge on a coveted piece of clothing, travelers can be assured that the fun doesn’t end at checkout.