HILTON - Customer Loyalty Program research

PROBLEM STATEMENT

This research project aimed to resolve two key business problems:

Why (and why don’t) people sign up for the loyalty program?
What do business travelers look for, want, and need when evaluating properties and choosing a room to book, and why.

There are two very important business goals driving this study (based on executive leadership feedback):

Increase loyalty program enrollments
Increase business traveler reservations by providing what travelers need and want from our hotels. This includes gaining an understanding of:
1. What hotel property attributes are important to business travelers and why
2. What are the demographics of our 75 million yearly business travelers

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & METHODS

The objectives of this research study were to:

Define the target audience and determine their specific needs when it comes to loyalty programs and business travel bookings
Determine the target audience’s pain points regarding loyalty programs and business travel bookings
Report my findings
Provide recommendations based on those findings

RESEARCH METHOD - HOW

I conducted a total of six one-on-one remote interviews. The interviews were focused on determining why travelers are more inclined to sign up for loyalty programs, as well as understanding their needs and wants when booking for business travel. I also observed how users are able to perform key tasks related to loyalty programs and business travel through two small usability tests.

RESEARCH METHOD - WHO

A total of six participants were recruited for this study.

RESULTS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Theme 1 - Loyalty Programs

Four out of the six participants have taken part in a loyalty program. What the four participants like the most about being or having been a loyalty program member is using the points for booking rooms.

On the other hand, what loyalty program members disliked the most about the program are:

Having a harder time booking a room using points during heavy travel season
Not having a good tracking system in place to educate members on when points expire and how else to use the points
Not getting good enough deals and receiving spam emails
Hilton points are expensive

Participants that have never signed up for hotel loyalty programs attribute entry costs to joining as a reason for not participating, especially if he or she doesn’t travel that often.

Participants would like to see more of the following offerings when it comes to loyalty programs (by order of priority):

Free stays
Discounts for restaurants, retail stores and ground or airline transportation
Extra rewards for staying in a particular city or repeat visits to a particular hotel
Free or complimentary items at hotels
Better upgrades using points

How can we increase loyalty program enrollment?

Improve current Hilton Honors offerings based on the target audience’s preferences - Take into consideration the fact that the audience generally wants more tangible, valuable rewards such as free stays or discounts on typical travel expenditure (e.g. restaurants, airfare). This increases the perceived monetary benefits of having a Hilton Honors membership.
Provide a better system for signing up and tracking points - Change the label for signing up from “Join” to “Join Hilton Honors” on the website. This makes it more obvious to users that this is the appropriate path. Provide an improved dashboard experience for members so that they can better track their points (especially when they expire) as well as provide upfront information on other ways they can use their points.

Emphasize the benefits of signing up for the loyalty program as the user is searching for hotel rooms - As users peruse property details, inform the user that they could get additional perks or discounts to a room if they were a Hilton Honors member.

Theme 2 - Business Traveler Needs

Participants expressed the following wants and needs when it comes to booking business travel (according to priority):

Accessibility to food and drink whether it is on or off property
1. Free or continental breakfast
2. In-lobby or on-site pantry, convenience store
3. Nearby restaurants or coffee shops
Cleanliness of the room or property
Proximity of the hotel to work, event or meeting location
Free WiFi
Other bonus amenities:
1. Fitness gym
2. In-room iron and ironing board
3. Free parking

How can we increase business travel bookings?

Allow users to input a specific address, and recommend nearby hotels based on the input - Have an address field within the start of the booking process that allows users to type in the location of their designated workplace for the trip. In turn, the system can then make recommendations for hotels based upon proximity to the workplace.
Provide an option for users to activate pre-selected filters based on business travel preferences - For instance, have a prompt within the page (i.e. “Are you booking for business travel?”) that users can select which will then showcase preset or suggested filters based on what business travelers choose.