When frequent travelers choose a favorite program, they aren't the only ones who reap rewards;

There is a distinct difference between a hotel customer who has enrolled in a loyalty program and a customer who makes regular, truly loyal use of the brand because of it.

For most customers, only one brand "wins"—and the prize is a dedicated relationship that enhances revenue in the long term. The journey past that behavioral tipping point is part science, part emotion. To turn your customers into enthusiastic, even passionate brand devotees, you need to understand the patterns in how different travelers view and use rewards. And you have to use that insight to craft a program that stands above the ordinary and the expected.

If you were to take a look on the average business traveler's phone, chances are you'd find apps and account numbers for a number of hotel loyalty programs. Every major brand maintains its own program, and most frequent travelers belong to several—for most programs, this membership is passive, dispassionate, and lacking a clear sense of what makes them different from one another. Most— but not all.

Many high-frequency travelers have carried their relationship with a particular brand loyalty program past a tipping point. In fact, two-thirds of high-frequency travelers stay at the same hotel brand for more than half their travel days, regardless of location. It may be convenience, habit, or features that help a given program "win" a given customer. But once the traveler crosses that barrier, emotion comes into play too. Casual decisions become intentional, and enthusiasm can verge on fanaticism.

The tipping point that converts episodic guests into dedicated loyalists is the place where a hotel's loyalty program transforms from a cost center to a revenue engine. The challenge is finding it—and knowing how to drive your most important customers across the line.

The loyalty game is a race. Many brands vie for the loyalty of the early-stage, dispassionate customer, but the ultimate prize is typically reserved for one brand alone. Once the customer reaches the tipping point and becomes actively loyal, there is no second place.

Consumers who have a conscious favorite among hotel brands will spend extra money and drive extra miles to patronize that brand—even if they don't have rewards to use at the moment.

To win that race, you need to stand apart. You must understand your customers, know what they really value, and deliver rewards that matter to them on their own terms.

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