Leading Hotels launches “Home Benefits” perks http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/leading-hotels-launches-a-home-benefitsa-perk Do not see how this will work with the conditions attached!
Well it seems like they're just trying to cash in on people that live near their hotels and are members. The way I see it, you could have 100 properties in your home town but you would likely never spend a dollar there, but you're a member of the program and stay at the properties when you travel. This way they give you a couple of discounts on hotel goodies in your home town and try to entice you to spend money locally. So maybe you'll do lunch/breakfast/spa at the hotel now even if it's in your home town.
At first I thought it would be a great idea, however, I would have liked it much better when we could stay in any hotel in any given location // city and could use as Leaders Club members the facilities of any given LHW hotel at a discount. But knowing that only people // members who live in any given city and are members of LHW's Leaders Club can use the given perks, makes no sense, it is extremely limited in our opinion and brings no benefit at all to us who live in one city and would to use the perks in another where a LHW hotel member is located!
Well I partially agree... but it'd make no financial sense to them. Think about it, if you're an LC member but you stay at an IHG or Starwood property when you travel, it's actually one less incentive for you to stay at an LHW property, since you know you can enjoy the ammenities at a discount even without staying there.
I am not a hotel CFO, but I do suspect the margin is significantly higher on F&B outlets than rooms division. If I can have a client come to my hotel for a drink and stay somewhere else- I have doubly won.
Again, agreed, but that's probably not how people see it. If you're staying elsewhere, you've already made your decision to give the other property/program your money, unless it's because of circumstances out of your control -- like your company puts you in a different hotel on purpose. Don't get me wrong, handing out incentives to loyal program members -- wherever they are -- is good business, especially if they're paying $100 a year for the membership, but unless you're across the street from an LHW property chances are you're just going to spend where you're staying or outside of the hotels altogether. I guess they don't see it as "any money is good money" from the way the program was set up.
Excellent points- probably difficult to get hotels to sign on different T&Cs as they are all independently managed/owned.
