Digital loyalty cards for hotels and guesthouses

Why this works for hotels and guesthouses

An independent hotel pays fifteen to twenty per cent of each platform booking in commission. A loyalty reward worth ten per cent of a stay is cheaper than that commission and buys a direct relationship the platform actively works to prevent.

An independent hotel's most expensive problem is not empty rooms, it is the commission on full ones. A guest who found you through a booking platform costs you a share of every night they stay, and the platform's entire design is built to make sure they come back through the same door next time.

A loyalty card is the counter-move, and it should be pointed squarely at direct booking rather than at frequency. A leisure guest may return once a year at best, so 'stay more often' is not an achievable goal; 'book with us directly next time' very much is.

Points fit because a hotel's spend is both large and varied: room nights, dinner, the bar, the spa. Counting nights would ignore most of what a good guest spends, and the on-site spend is exactly the part you would like to encourage.

Should platform bookings earn points?

Let them earn, but reward the direct booking more. A guest who arrives through a platform is still a guest worth keeping, and refusing to enrol them wastes the only chance you get to meet them; what the programme should make obvious is that booking direct next time is worth more.

Check your platform agreements before advertising the difference on the premises. Several contracts restrict what a hotel may say about direct rates, and the enforceable parts vary by market, but nothing stops you from holding the guest's number and contacting them yourself afterwards.

How do you enrol a guest at check-in?

At the desk, by phone number, while the registration details are already being taken. Check-in is the one moment in a hotel stay when the guest is standing still and giving you their details anyway, which makes it the cheapest enrolment opportunity in this vertical.

It is also the moment with the least resistance, because the guest is expecting an administrative exchange. Asking the same person to scan a QR code from a table card in the room converts at a fraction of the rate.

What should an independent hotel send between stays?

One message a season at most, tied to something real: a quiet period with a real direct rate, a local event, the reopening of something on site. A hotel's guest list tolerates very little contact, and a guest who unsubscribes is gone for good.

The message that reliably works is the anniversary of the stay, because leisure travel is annual and the decision is being made around the same time each year. Reaching a guest in the month they booked last year is worth more than a dozen messages sent at random.

What hotels and guesthouses usually struggle with

• Booking platforms take fifteen to twenty per cent of every reservation
• The platform owns the guest relationship and works to keep it
• Leisure guests return at most annually, so frequency cannot be the goal
• On-site spend is a large part of guest value and usually goes unrecorded

What we would set up for you

A points card with 500 as the goal and €50 off a direct booking once 500 points are earned as the reward. Customers enrol by phone number at the counter (they never take out their phone), and the card lands in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet in about three seconds.

You can change the goal or the reward later without reissuing anyone's card, so there is no penalty for starting with this and adjusting once you have real data.