Two currencies are now fighting for the same hotel booking

Chains push their points to pull guests direct; banks push their points to pull the same booking into their own portal. Same guest, two currencies, opposite destinations — and whose points win decides who controls the channel

Ask a hotel chain what its loyalty program is for and the answer has changed. It used to be retention — earn points, come back, stay again. Now the loyalty chiefs at Wyndham, Marriott, and Hilton describe it as a demand driver and, more pointedly, a way to shift bookings onto lower-cost direct channels. Wyndham says nearly half its check-ins come from Rewards members, by its own count. The program is a distribution tool now, pointed at the OTA.

The chain is not the only one issuing a currency for that guest. The same traveler is likely carrying a bank's points too — and the bank has engineered its points to be worth more inside its own travel portal than booking the hotel direct. Chase makes a Sapphire holder's points stretch further through Chase Travel than the cardholder gets booking the same room on the hotel's own site. One currency pulls the guest toward the front door. The other pulls the same guest into the bank's store.

So the Hilton Honors member who also holds a Sapphire card is the prize in a quiet tug-of-war between two loyalty currencies, each engineered to send the booking somewhere different. The chain wants the direct booking and the guest data. The bank wants the booking inside its portal and the spend on its card.

This is what loyalty became once points turned into a lever on the channel. Not a reward for coming back — a claim on where the booking lands. The chain and the issuer are competing for the same stay, and they are fighting it with currencies, not rates. Whichever points the guest decides to spend has already decided who controls the booking.

by Markus Busch, Editor and Publisher of Hospitality.today

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