Unleash the Power of Mobile Apps To Boost Loyalty and Revenue in Hotel Industry
June 10, 2024
Travel hospitality is one of the most challenging sectors where business owners often struggle to retain customers and cultivate loyalty due to emerging competition. As per the record in 2023, the hospitality industry lost around 450 Mn bookings to Airbnb from hotel goers. This clearly shows how crucial it is to maintain guest loyalty.
Rather than just a tool for retaining customers, loyalty programs have become strategic investments that can significantly impact the hotel’s bottom line. Building a hotel mobile app by hiring a good iOS and Android app development company can be a great choice to boost engagement among guests and foster long-term relationships with higher revenue. In this blog, we will learn the importance of having a dedicated hotel app integrated with a loyalty program to meet the evolving expectations of modern travelers.
Why Hotel Loyalty Programs are Must-Have?
Research conducted by Solonis stated that guests enrolled in loyalty programs are more likely to provide higher lifetime value with an average spend of 22.4% more than the non-loyal travelers. Additionally, loyal customers are the ones that tend to have longer stays with around 28% more duration as compared to other guests. This signifies how crucial it is to have your hotel guests get attracted to loyalty programs for long-term engagement and satisfaction, thereby leading to stronger bonds and maximum revenue.
However, many hotels hardly update their loyalty programs regularly leading to disappointment and failure to meet evolving guests’ expectations. This even leads to millions of reward points left unused in these programs, especially in the airline and hotel sectors. The secret to unlocking revenue growth and higher member participation is to keep track of how well your loyalty program is working and regularly update them for a fresh look to keep members engaged.
Reasons Why Most Hotel Loyalty Programs Are Not Successful
After learning about the significance of hotel loyalty programs, we will see why hotels are falling behind in their loyalty programs.
- Unclear Information
One of the main reasons why many participants fail to sign up for the travel loyalty program is no clarity on the amount of information needed to register. Most loyalty program onboarding is done through a different process from check-in or booking though the information needed is just the same.
- No Immediate Rewards
Another reason for the failure of such programs is participants feel it takes too long to earn rewards with no immediate benefits. They also feel that they don’t understand the clear path to earning and redeeming rewards.
- Data Silos
Another issue associated with hotel loyalty programs is data siloes, as data comes from multiple platforms like CRMs, POS, booking systems, etc. Even though hotels have access to a large amount of information on customer behavior, purchase history and preferences, lack of integration between data streams can be a big problem without data synchronization.
How Mobile Apps Can Unlock Higher Loyalty Program Engagement in Hotels?
Building a customized mobile app for your hotel through the help of a skilled Android and iOS app development company can be a great way to drive loyalty program engagement and its adoption. Here are some of the common ways that show how having a dedicated hotel mobile app can offer immense benefits.
- Hassle-Free Onboarding
Having a mobile app will make the onboarding experience for your hotel guests quite easy and frictionless. Also, mobile apps provide a wide range of features that incentivize guests to download and take full advantage of offerings like Room keys, on-demand check-in, etc., This seamless onboarding process acts as a great way to increase the adoption of loyalty programs for your hotel guests.
- Track Earnings
Another important aspect of having a dedicated mobile app is that it shows you are guests an easy way to track progress towards their earning and using loyalty programmer rewards. This transparency helps in building a sense of achievement and anticipation which encourages further engagement. Additionally, guests are constantly reminded of the value they gain by being loyal customers through the reward-tracking functionality integrated into the app.
- Enhanced Guest Experiences
With the help of a well-planned mobile app, hotels can not only enhance the guest experiences but also enhance the relationship between the hotel and its guests, making the loyalty program an important aspect of the travel experience. A report by iSeatz 2023 says that travel loyalty providers must boost engagement by delivering exclusive, inspiring and diverse travel options that can be booked via a single platform.
- Tailored Loyalty Program
Using a mobile app enables hotel owners to gather data from guests for seamless processes by keeping every aspect of the property with core hotel operations like rewards, marketing, security, etc. Gather the data and analyze it to extract insights that will help hotels personalize loyalty programs and plan customized marketing strategies for better guest engagement.
- Higher Revenue
With the capability to tailor content based on guest-specific needs, loyalty programs aligned with travel rewards help increase conversions by delivering more valuable and relevant user experiences that encourage engagement and long-term growth. Through the travel rewards program integrated into an app, your business can unlock advanced personalization capabilities and dynamic content presentation, which help to achieve an increased conversion rate and meet engagement goals, thereby driving more revenue.
Key Takeaways
Making your hotel business grow and thrive in competitive hospitality. Landscape can be a challenge, which is why hotels must integrate loyalty programs in their mobile apps to meet ever-evolving customer expectations. By unlocking the power of mobile technology and integrating data sources, hotels can offer customized, clear and instant value to guests thereby increasing loyalty program engagement and adoption.
If you are struggling to maintain guest loyalty, connect with Clavax, your reliable Hotel Mobile App Development Company to improve digital experiences with a dedicated hotel app that exceeds the demands of travelers and helps boost long-term loyalty. Book a consultation today to learn how Clavax can enhance your hotel guest’s digital experiences.