REPORT FROM THE U.S.—Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s launch in October of SPG Pro, what it calls “the biggest expansion” in the 15-year-history of the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program, will aim to move market share of bookings from meeting planners and travel agents.
SPG Pro, a global Starwood program, will make elite SPG status, as well as upgrades and Starpoints, available to meeting planners, administrative assistants and travel agents, for business-to-business bookings at Starwood properties. This is the first time travel agents will have the opportunity to earn Starpoints and elite status with SPG by booking Starwood hotels for their clients.
Meeting planners, travel agents and administrative assistants will be able to combine the points and credits they earn for booking clients with their personal points toward SPG benefits. In the past, meeting planners, administrative assistants and agents had separate programs and could not combine benefits from those programs with their personal benefits.
“Our guests are our customers and our customers are our guests and should be rewarded cumulatively for all the Starwood business they do,” said Chris Holdren, senior VP-Starwood Preferred Guest & Digital, during a recent event in New York.
He said research showed a full third of elite SPG members are responsible for booking the travel of others. Business-to-business bookings account for about 70% of the company’s room revenue, according to Krystal Zell, VP of SPG.
Holdren said moving just 1% of market share through SPG Pro would mean $80 million in additional revenues for Starwood.
With SPG Pro, planners will earn one eligible night toward elite status for every 20 roomnights they book, up to a maximum of 20 nights per meeting. Plus, those nights can be combined with the nights earned for personal stays toward elite status. Planners earn one Starpoint for every $3 in eligible spend, up to a maximum of 20,000 Starpoints per event or meeting. And those who achieve Gold or Platinum status earn more points, with bonuses of 50% for Gold and Platinum and 100% for Platinum members who stay more than 75 nights a year. Only roomnights count toward elite status.
While other major brands offer incentives to planners and travel professionals to sell their hotels, Starwood might be unique in allowing meeting and travel planners to combine professional and personal credits to earn benefits.
The others
Other brands with major meeting business contend that while they incentivize meeting planners and travel professionals, they emphasize service, education and a better overall experience for their partners.
Omni Select Rewards, for instance, offers a choice of gift cards, professional development sessions, charitable donation and other options to planners who book their hotels. A meeting that brings $5,000 to $9,999 in room revenue earns a $125 Omni gift card or a $100 American Express gift card. The more planners book the more they can earn, although most of the rewards go toward the company or association rather than to the planners.
Tom Faust, Omni’s VP of sales, said the company wins meeting business by offering a variety of venues to meet the objectives of different meeting or event needs.
Omni aims for a comprehensive relationship with planners including: OmniLink, a meeting app; Be Collaborative, an annual road show for planners; and Omni Meetings University, an online educational portal that was recently introduced.
The portal enables planners to become certified Omni Meetings Specialists. They then receive a “personalized fam trip” that includes a free night stay at any Omni property. They also will be automatically upgraded to Platinum level status in Omni’s Select Guest Loyalty Program and receive a 5% discount on their group’s master account for the first meeting after they complete the course.
At Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Mark Weinstein, VP of commercial services strategy and loyalty programs, said Hilton HHonors has been rewarding planners though its Event Planner Bonus Program for more than 10 years. Planners can earn HHonors bonus points and airline miles by booking and hosting events at Hilton properties globally. Qualifying events earn planners 1 HHonors bonus point and 1 airline mile per eligible dollar spent; in select markets planners have the option of earning 1.5 HHonors bonus points per dollar instead of miles.
“Our goal is to be constantly relevant with planners, and we approach meetings and events with a philosophy of focusing on understanding what planners want, need and expect,” said Mark Komine, senior VP and head of sales in the Americas for Hilton.
“In January, we launched Getplanning, an interactive planning platform that allows planners to connect with hotel staff, vendors and partners in real-time, making event management easier and keeping everyone on the same page,” he said. “We have also further developed Meetings Simplified, a program that bundles services for small meetings into a simple, per-person price, and Connect+, a dynamic collection of more than 100 of our largest hotels—both launched in 2013.”
Ethics and transparency
“There are many planners who do book based on perks including loyalty points, and corporate and association ethics policies often don’t address these issues. Many planners believe they’re entitled to the points because they are underpaid and work too hard. Even some third-party planners take these points for themselves. It’s a mistake and unethical to select a hotel because of points,” said Joan Eisenstodt, who heads up Eisenstodt Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based meetings training and consulting firm.
She said while loyalty programs are “not ideal,” there should at least be transparency with policies spelled out one way or the other, rather than “just a wink and a nod.”
In response, Holdren said, “The goal of SPG Pro is to reward our customers and everyone who chooses to stay at Starwood hotels, provide more personalized service on-property and better understand all of the business they influence.
“We are optimizing our entire relationship with a member rather than just focusing on one aspect of their travel—the vacation stay or the booked meeting. SPG is known for ‘loyalty beyond reason,’ and that is the mindset and approach Starwood has taken with the launch of SPG Pro.”
Two associations that represent meeting planners did not respond to requests for interviews. However, Professional Convention Management Association does have relationships with hotel companies, and planners who earn points with Starwood and Hilton can redeem them for PCMA membership and products.