NEW YORK, April 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Industry Connect -- Oracle today announced the findings of a global study titled "The Loyalty Divide, Operator and Consumer Perspectives, Hotels 2018" auditing consumer perceptions and hospitality brand realities of loyalty programs and influences. "The Loyalty Divide" reveals that hotel operators believe they offer personalized and relevant rewards while consumers disagree and look to social influencers for aspirational recommendations that drive their travel experience.
"Oracle Hospitality envisions a future where loyal guests are rewarded for their behaviors as we evolve beyond a transaction-based redemption model," said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Hospitality. "Hotel brands and operators need to deliver unique and personalized connections that improve revenue capture and help engage guests in the discovery of new properties and travel destinations."
Hotels believe that guests would openly sign up to every loyalty program (61 percent) compared to the reality that consumers are much more selective and look for programs with real relevance: 30 percent rarely join loyalty programs, 46 percent only sign up to select relevant programs and 24 percent sign up to every loyalty program. The divide between brand offerings and consumer perception is more apparent when evaluating relevance with 54 percent of hotels believing their offers are mostly relevant while only 22 percent of guests believe those offers are mostly relevant and 39 percent feel those offers are rarely relevant. Alarmingly hotel brands do not currently engage influencers (62 percent) or brand ambassadors (71 percent) despite consumers clearly indicating they are more likely to trust recommendations by YouTubers (43 percent) and influencers (37 percent).
The study was conducted in February 2018 among 13,000 consumers and 500 businesses across retail, hotels and restaurants in 9 countries across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, UK, and USA.
Navigating the New Loyalty Paradigm
The Future of Loyalty
Although there is a clear disconnect between hotel brands and guests on the relevancy and efficacy of loyalty programs, properties should remain optimistic with younger demographics noting the highest propensity to join loyalty programs and say their loyalty is growing.
The Rise of Social Advocacy
Social media and online review sites continue to have a growing influence on guest choice as their digital peers highlight unique and memorable experiences.
Personalization: Connected and Immediate
For hotel guests, personalization is fundamentally about being recognized by hotel staff with relevant connections to amenities and experiences combined with convenience.
The Role of Technology
Technology can enable connection and convenience for hotel guests by providing solutions that enable exceptional customer service through tools that are familiar and make experiences easier and quicker.
Four Loyalty Archetypes To Anticipate
The Hotels 2018: The Loyalty Divide uncovered four archetypes of guest behavior including: The Broadcaster who may flit between brands but shouts about their experiences good or bad; The Enthusiast, an engaged hotel brand follower who is loyal but not loud; The Lazy Loyal, typically unengaged but tends to be loyal to hotels because it's easy to be; and, The Seeker who likes to shop around for the best value and holds little affinity to brands.
The Broadcaster
The Enthusiast
The Lazy Loyal
The Seeker
About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com
About Oracle Hospitality
Oracle Hospitality brings 35 years of experience in providing technology solutions to food and beverage operators and hoteliers. We provide hardware, software, and services that allow our customers to deliver exceptional guest experiences while maximizing profitability. Our solutions include integrated point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and analytics, inventory and labor management, all delivered from the cloud to lower IT cost and maximize business agility.
For more information about Oracle Hospitality, please visit www.Oracle.com/Hospitality
Oracle Industry Connect
For more information about how Oracle is committed to empowering organizations through best-in-class, industry-specific business solutions, visit oracle.com/industries. To learn more about Oracle Industry Connect 2018, go to oracle.com/oracleindustryconnect.
Trademark
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Oracle