Making a personal gain from a more expensive business hotel stay
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2014-04-02 11:00:04 - Graham Ellis
Here's a new one on me ... I've booked my (chain) hotel for tonight in Stevenage as I'm woring up there tomorrow and I was offered two room rates - £71 for justthe room, or £76 for the room plus a thousand loyalty poinst. Accumulate a certain number of loyalty points, and you get a free night.
I was - at first - astonished; loyaty points have always been something that have been give out, free of charge as a "Thank you" in the past. They allow regular guests to come back with their partners to business hotels, and that's likely to be at times that business guests are thin on the ground, so its good for the hotel and a useful way to latch people in.
Will charging for loyalty points put everyone off? I suspect not. Just imagine that my employer's policy was to allow me to stay in rooms at up to £80 per night. Then would I not be choosing the more expensive "with points" room? I get some extras from my employment, perhaps it misses the tax net too, and the hotel I'm staying at on a regular basis is wery acceptable to my wife / girlfriend as she gets the occasional trip there, and the comfort of knowing where I stay.
Alas, I'm not personally thrilled with spending on business trip expenses up to a limit, and it could be considered the scheme specifically encourages those 'types' of employees who are always looking to maximise their personal gain, at the expense of their employer. I would have to be very hard pressed to consider such a scheme at Well House Manor. Loyalty for longer stays, regular business guests, etc, is rewarded immediately via a slightly lower "delegate" rate for rooms for them. And, yes, when they bring their partners at the weekend they still get the delegate rate.
Other hotels have horror stories about guests which they shouldn't tell (and usuaully don't outside exchaning details of cons to avoid others being causght). Alas - we have lovely customers. And as we get to know our regulars, we learn just how lovely they are with a caring approach which starts with their employer's money and is symptomatic of something much wider - typically their whole life!