Developing and rewarding loyalty to hotels: the guest's perspective

With the changing focus of marketing in the hospitality industry having moved toward relationship marketing and establishing loyalty among customers, it is fundamental for hospitality and tourism organizations to establish what their consumers think in terms of strategies used by hotel properties to secure their loyal customer. This article outlines the results of research conducted with 2,000 5-star hotel guests to establish how frequent guests to two properties on the Gold Coast, Australia perceived the current effectiveness of the marketing strategies used to create guest loyalty. A market segmentation of the different levels of the so-called loyal guest is presented, and a gap analysis of existing versus preferred rewards for loyalty is discussed.