This summer has been a busy period for Inspire Loyalty, as we are delighted to welcome new client Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants who boast a stylish selection of hotels, restaurants, holiday cottages, inns and a spa, all in the splendour of the English countryside.

Unique Places In The Yorkshire Dales And The Peak District

Owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, their properties are located in tranquil and unspoilt locations either on the 30,000 acre Bolton Abbey Estate in the Yorkshire Dales, or on the Chatsworth Estate in the Derbyshire Peak District. Their luxury venues inspire guests to reconnect with the countryside, experience beautifully cooked, locally-sourced produce and make memories in stunning rural locations.

The group is made up of the following venues:

• The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow
• The Devonshire Arms At Beeley
• The Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa
• The Devonshire Arms At Pilsley
• The Devonshire Fell At Burnsall
• The Cavendish Pavillion
• Boltholes

Devonshire Rewards

Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants were looking for an easy to apply guest loyalty programme to reward their most loyal guests. Guests can sign up to start earning rewards and access exclusive member benefits.

Every time a member visits Devonshire Hotels and Restaurants and spends on food and beverage, accommodation or spa treatments, they can earn points to redeem against a future experience.  Plus they are awarded 200 points (£10) on registration to get started.

Points are redeemed using the Devonshire Rewards website or their app. Guests can redeem their points for monetary vouchers to spend at any of their venues or for specific experiences, like a Sunday roast for two or a Sunday Stayover.

Integration With Inspire Loyalty

We worked with The Devonshire Group to create Devonshire Rewards, their own bespoke customer loyalty programme. The aim was to nurture their relationship with guests, enhance guest experience and encourage direct and repeat business.

We created one single solution which provided the tools to reward guests. Their rewards website was built where customers from all of their venues can access and sign up. Their loyalty programme was integrated with their branded app by our partners at Criton and processes were set up so that guests receive monthly email statements, offering exclusive member offers, their points balance and how to spend them.

Vantage Hotels

Once registered, every time a guest visits a Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants venue, they can earn points to redeem against a future experience at any venue across the group, plus any venue in our Vantage collection.

Vantage is our consumer facing brand, made up of venues who operate an Inspire Loyalty programme. It’s our way to help attract more customers to our clients’ unique loyalty programmes, increasing exposure for them and offering extra benefits to their members. The more points earned, the more guests can redeem to spend on a memorable experience. Guests can login to their account to check or redeem their points via the website or app.

Guest Loyalty Programmes With Inspire Loyalty

Don’t have a guest loyalty programme? Or have a database of guests but aren’t doing anything with it? We can set you up with a loyalty programme, just like we do for Devonshire Hotels & Restaurants.

With a branded rewards platform and mini-CRM, we can entice your guests to join your unique club, with customised rewards and exclusive offers – a great way to switch more direct bookings and engage with your loyal guests.

All we need to get you started on a 3 month FREE trial is your logo, images and brand identity guidelines. We’ll set you up within 4 weeks and connect all the components together. And, our member services team will be ready to react to member enquiries, to ensure we offer as good a service as you’re renowned for.

One of our clients, The Esplanade Hotel, Newquay in Cornwall is a fantastic example of how an Inspire Loyalty Programme has generated guest loyalty for their business and they are reaping the benefits.

All About The Fresh Sea Air And Returning Guests

The Esplanade Hotel is a picturesque and contemporary hotel overlooking the world famous Fistral Beach in Newquay. It’s a place where guests come back again and again, to enjoy quality family holidays on the Cornwall coast, splashing about in the heated indoor pool and dining together in their family friendly restaurant.

Remembering Their Regular Guests

Looking after their regular guests has always been a key part of the ethos at The Esplanade. Generation after generation stay with them and they love welcoming guests back every year. We have been working with this hotel and it’s sister properties Fistral Beach (Newquay) and Boringdon Hall (Plymouth) for over two years and have developed a robust loyalty programme to communicate with their guest database, including management of member services.

Their loyalty programme includes

• Branded loyalty website
• Monthly emails to members informing of points balance, news and exclusive member offers
• Integration with their PMS provided by Hotel Perfect
• Integrated loyalty app and contactless guest experience by our preferred partner Criton

Registered members automatically receive points for every £1 spent during their stay which they can accumulate and redeem for a variety of reward voucher codes and access exclusive offers and best room availability ahead of the general public! 

“The way people book has changed to mainly online reservations  so we find the best way to express our gratitude to our loyal guests is through the loyalty scheme. This gives you best exclusive availability and the lowest prices in advance of their general release.” The Esplanade Hotel

It’s set up so that once a guest builds up their points, they can discover redeemable gift experiences to enjoy during their next stay. Points can be spent on experience gift vouchers which can be redeemed for Sunday lunch, a bottle of Prosecco, spa treatment, a meal in their restaurant or a surf lesson! 

Congrats On 4-Star Accreditation!

We cannot write this blog without mentioning that during lockdown the hotel has been working hard on refurbishing and upgrading facilities and are very much open for business. As a result of their hard work, they recently undertook an inspection and received their official accreditation of a 4-star hotel. Well done to the team who worked tirelessly to ensure their guests have the best possible experience which has pushed them up to the next level!

Guest Loyalty Programmes With Inspire Loyalty

Don’t have a guest loyalty programme? Or have a database of guests but aren’t doing anything with it? We can set you up with a loyalty programme, just like we do for The Esplanade.

With a branded rewards platform and mini CRM, we can entice your guests to join your unique club, with customised rewards and exclusive offers – a great way to switch more direct bookings and engage with your loyal guests.

All we need to get you started on a 3 month FREE trial is your logo, images and brand identity guidelines. We’ll set you up within 4 weeks and connect all the components together. And, our member services team will be ready to react to member enquiries, to ensure we offer as good a service as you’re renowned for.

A guest loyalty programme for your hospitality businesses is without a doubt a worthwhile activity for you to run. If you value your customers, it makes sense for you to thank them for choosing your venue over your competitors.

A way to show your thanks for their business, is by offering them rewards that enhance their current stay or give them a better experience for their next one. You are doing this to show your guest that they made the right decision and that they should come back to you and book direct in the future.

Guest loyalty programmes come in many different forms and will need to be tailored to your guests. Ultimately you decide what will suit your business, but there are many advantages to having a well-run guest loyalty programme.

6 Reasons Why You Need A Guest Loyalty Programme

1. Enhanced Guest Experience – Having a guest loyalty program will mean returning guests who come to stay at your hotel are never overlooked. They will be recognised and taken care of, making their trip more memorable and enjoyable.
2. Increased Bookings – Sometimes the promise of rewards or perks are enough to get the undecided guest to book with you. It’s not just for returning guests, but can also come in very handy for attracting new guests.
3. Cost Effectiveness – It’s more likely that loyal, repeat guests will book again at your hotel directly, especially if you are offering exclusive member offers through your loyalty programme. This is much cheaper than trying to find new guests, saving OTA commission.
4. Increased Revenue – returning guests mean they have been happy with their experience and are more likely to spend more on extras and additional services too. Proving you can offer a good service with recognition over and over again, means guests will be happy to keep spending money and refer their experience to others.
5. Valuable Insights – having a guest loyalty programme means you can collect more data on your guests than ever before. You’ll get to know their likes, dislikes and behaviour which can be very useful for future planning and also extremely valuable for attracting similar new guests to your business.
6. Improved Customer Engagement – The data provided by a loyalty programme means you know who your customers are and how to contact them. You can communicate with them on a regular basis for example by email, keeping them aware of your offers and activity, which in turn encourages loyalty and advocacy for your brand.

Guest Loyalty Programmes With Inspire Loyalty

Don’t miss out on these opportunities to grow your business. We offer loyalty programmes for hospitality that are really easy to set up.

With a branded rewards platform and mini CRM, we can entice your guests to join your unique club, with customised rewards and exclusive offers – a great way to switch more direct bookings and engage with your loyal guests.

All we need to get you started on a 3 month free trial is your logo, images and brand identity guidelines. We’ll set you up within 4 weeks and connect all the components together. And, our member services team will be ready to react to member enquiries, to ensure we offer as good a service as you’re renowned for.

Incentives can go a long way to cement relationships, initiating an engagement in your product or brand in the form of a reward for behaviour. This mechanism or exchange provides the beneficiary with the feel good value factor, often resulting in higher sales and repeat behaviour, or a cycle of continued loyalty to the brand.

What’s In It For Me?

Put simply, it’s commonly known as WIFM (What’s in It For Me) like a bargaining or negotiating tactic. If I do this for you, what’s in it for me? It’s written in our DNA going back to childhood when a parent might use a reward for demonstrating good behaviour or achieving a goal.

Grow Relationships With Data Collection

It would be short sighted to simply hand over an instant reward for purchase without further engaging with the buyer who made the purchase. So in order to start a dialogue and grow relationships, you need to ensure some data is collected from the start.

As with loyalty, when a mutually beneficial exchange happens, most people don’t mind providing their information so you can keep in touch to ensure the relationship prospers. You get more sales and they get more rewards. This is a key ingredient in any form of reward because without it you can’t provide full recognition and continue to communicate about your product developments, including special offers.

Influencing The Sale

Inspire Loyalty provide reward and recognition programmes for hospitality in the form of guest loyalty. Members experience the product and return for more, or they are enticed to visit a hotel or restaurant for the first time, to a venue they might not have considered before loyalty was introduced. This is quite different from an incentive programme, where the buyer is the influencer and not the person who experiences the product, which is certainly the case for bookers.

Bookers are intrinsically attracted to incentives, and it’s a competitive audience to capture due to various incentives offered in the marketplace.  Some companies solely rely on the strength of their brand and product to sell their proposition, but rightly or wrongly the incentive is the motivator, the WIFM, which often acts as the tipping point to influence the purchase.

Yes, the booker firstly has to have confidence in the product, service and experience which they are recommending, since after all that’s what their objective is when representing the buyer, but when a gift or reward is thrown in for good measure, it can often seal the deal.

Recognition

We would love to rest on the laurel that saying thank you goes a long way, but from our experience, to influence sales you need to go an extra step and provide some form of physical gratitude too. It’s a great reminder of your brand, that if the booker receives a gift they’ll have the opportunity to enjoy their own memorable experience from something you’ve given them, and that could be a bottle of wine, a retail gift code such as John Lewis, Waitrose, Amazon or Love2Shop (or any relevant partner in their geographical area) or a contribution towards experiencing your own product, dependent on the cost of sale. Whatever the choice of reward, it needs to be meaningful and worthwhile in recognition of the achievement by the booker – giving you business.

Lifetime Value

Don’t just look at the cost, consider the return on investment. A higher redemption rate means higher engagement, which is 93% for one of our clients!  If you allocate a budget of 5% or 10% of a sale towards the reward, it doesn’t take great maths to work out you’ll keep 95% or 90% of the booking value, with a high chance you’ll continue to get more business from the same booker over the long term, otherwise known as customer lifetime value. So it’s easy to measure success and remember you only pay out when the business comes in.

Build Your Loyalty Programme With Us

Inspire Loyalty equip bookers and influencers near and far with branded incentive programmes, translated to the native tongue including Oceania Cruises UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand; Swiss International Hotels and Resorts EMEA and Silversea.

Stand out from the crowd and incentivise your business today.

Adapting To Change

As we find ourselves once again under new guidelines and restrictions, hospitality venues across the UK and Ireland are closed until February. A situation that would have seemed unbelievable this time last year!

Enhanced cleaning protocols, changes to how guests are served for check in, check out and a whole new food and beverage experience for everyone, are all adaptions venues have had to implement to remain open within local restrictions.

Adding Value

Many venues are taking the time to refocus, innovate and plan for the future and we are supporting them all the way. The Inspire Loyalty Programmes are so much more than a rewards programme, where customers collect and redeem points. Our clients place value on how our bespoke loyalty programmes help them nurture their relationship with guests, enhance the guest experience and secure repeat and direct business.

A recent survey from one of our hotel clients, Manor House Loyalty in Staffordshire, highlighted that of respondents:

• 68% were influenced to book direct due to their rewards programme
• 95% find member’s statement useful
• 90% satisfied their enquiry was efficiently dealt with by member services

We have long established venues as our clients, who have been with us many years and value the benefits Inspire Loyalty Programmes give them:

Nurturing Relationships With Members

This has never been more evident in the monthly email statements that hotels send out to members through us. This essential communication channel helps maximise relationships and keeps venues front of mind during the pandemic. They are a useful tool for informing members that venues are COVID compliant and giving guests the confidence to come back to venues when the time is right for them.

We have many examples of how venues are leveraging their monthly statements:

• Fistral Beach Hotel in Cornwall are encouraging members to plan experiences to look forward to by offering a discount code to upgrade from an economy room to a standard room and also receive double points.
• Swinton Estate in Yorkshire are promoting their gift vouchers to give as Christmas presents to your loved ones.
• The Old Inn in Northern Ireland have used our statements to promote their click and collect food ordering service from their restaurant and to send members a discount code

Vantage Loyalty

In addition to getting an easy to install, branded loyalty programme, once signed up to Inspire Loyalty, clients are also included in our new consumer facing brand, Vantage Loyalty. It has been set up to help attract more customers to our clients’ unique loyalty programmes, increasing exposure for them and offering extra benefits to their members.

Through Vantage we are reinforcing the message that when venues are permitted to open, they all have COVID measures in place to make the guest experience as relaxing, safe and as inviting as possible.

Build Your Loyalty Programme With Us – Free 6 Month Trial!

We’re here to help our hospitality clients achieve greater guest retention, better experience and increased revenue in these uncertain times. Our aim is to equip as many hotel, restaurant and apartment operators with an easy to apply branded loyalty solution to collect powerful data, enhance guest engagement, increase visitor numbers and direct booking initiatives.

With Inspire Loyalty you can easily develop your own bespoke loyalty programme. We provide:

• Loyalty website in your brand identity
• Easy to use loyalty app and/or cards in your brand identity
• Exclusive member offer access area to promote member rate codes and added value
• Optional integration with your payment provider or property management system 
• Multi-site point redemption
• Personalised monthly email statements to members
• Member services with 24-hour response to member and staff enquiries
• Dashboard with reporting suite
• Loyalty survey tool
• Data storage in a secure GDPR compliant environment
• Representation with social marketing on www.vantagehotels.co.uk
• Option to run a staff incentive programme with your own product rewards and/or retail codes i.e Amazon, Waitrose, Love2Shop etc

If you don’t have a loyalty programme and want the tools to start building loyalty to reward and engage, especially in the current climate, join us on a free 6 month trial period. 

We are delighted to announce that the McGinty’s Group of restaurants and hotel have been added to Inspire Loyalty’s portfolio of clients.

Leading Hospitality Venues In Aberdeen

McGinty’s Group was launched in 2009 and has expanded over the last 10 years, to become one of the leading independent hospitality operators in Aberdeen. Proudly named after its first venue, these venues have been added to the Vantage collection with a further three venues to join soon:

• No.10 Bar & Restaurant
• Ferryhill House Hotel
• The Fourmile
• The Silver Darling
• The Esslemont Bar & Restaurant
• Mac’s Pizzeria

Mcginty’s Rewards

The McGinty Group has a passion for regenerating iconic venues and transforming them into unique establishments that are recognised for quality food and drinks, outstanding service and an unrivalled atmosphere.

“McGinty’s Rewards was created to give something back to our most loyal guests. By signing up customers can start earning rewards and access exclusive member benefits. It’s simply our way of saying thank you.” McGinty’s Group.

Integration With Inspire Loyalty

We worked with McGinty’s Group to create McGinty’s Rewards, their own bespoke customer loyalty programme. The aim was to nurture their relationship with guests, enhance guest experience and encourage direct and repeat business.

We created one single solution which provided the tools they needed to reward guests. A McGinty’s Group loyalty website was built where customers from all of their venues can access and sign up to the loyalty programme. Their loyalty programme was integrated with their branded app by our partners at  Criton and processes were set up so that guests receive monthly email statements, offering exclusive member offers, their points balance and how to spend them.

Vantage Hotels

Once registered, every time a customer wines and dines at one of The McGinty’s Group venues, or they enjoy a stay at Ferryhill House Hotel, they earn points to redeem against a future experience at any venue within the Group and the Vantage collection. The more points earned, the more guests can redeem to spend on a memorable experience. Guests can login to their account to check or redeem their points via the website or app.

Vantage is our consumer facing brand, made up venues who operate an Inspire Loyalty programme. It’s our consumer facing brand to help attract more customers to our clients’ unique loyalty programmes, increasing exposure for them and offering extra benefits to their members.

Secure Repeat And Direct Business With Inspire Loyalty

Inspire Loyalty is an innovative loyalty programme designed specifically for independent hotels and restaurants. We work with you to build your own bespoke loyalty programme. It has a track record of increasing direct and repeat bookings 10:1 ROI, you can save up to 25% on agent commission and enhance the overall guest experience.

Start building you guest loyalty programme with us.

We’re excited to launch Vantage, a new loyalty programme for guests of independent hotels and restaurants in the UK and Ireland. It’s our consumer facing brand to help attract more customers to our clients’ unique loyalty programmes, increasing exposure for them and offering extra benefits to their members.

How Vantage Works

Consumers can join any loyalty programme from a collection of hotels and restaurants in the Vantage portfolio. Any time they stay or dine at their chosen venue they earn points which are applied to their loyalty account. The biggest advantage is that these points can be redeemed across any venue in the Vantage collection. Customers can choose from a range of benefits such as:

• Discounts on future visits or stays
• Exclusive member offers, such as member rate, upgrades or welcome drinks
• Vouchers to spend on future experiences

Joining Vantage is easy. Customers register on our website and select the hotel or restaurant they visit the most. This takes them to the loyalty programme section of the venue’s website, where they sign up and are allocated a membership number.

They can then download the Vantage App, or the venue’s own branded app, or pick up a loyalty card where provided. Once they start earning points, balance and transactions can be checked on the App or when they login to the venue’s loyalty website, using the email address and password they chose during registration.

Points are redeemed via the website or app. We email them a monthly statement, including any exclusive member offers and special discounts.

The Vantage Collection Of Hotels And Restaurants

We have a range of superior hotels and restaurants across the UK and Ireland to choose from. Countryside escapes, coastal views or an experience in the city, we have something to suit all tastes. Our collection of superior hotels and restaurants have plenty of space, delicious dining options and offer luxurious overnight stays. Take a look at venues we represent in Vantage.

Vantage members are rest assured that they can book and dine with confidence at any of the hotels and restaurants in the Vantage collection. All our hotels and restaurants have COVID measures in place to ensure a safe and relaxing stay for visitors and guests. Many are offering more flexible cancellation options for when your plans change. Our hoteliers and restaurateurs are looking forward to welcoming Vantage members very soon.

Reward Your Guests And Feature On Vantage

As the leading bespoke loyalty programme provider in the UK, Inspire Loyalty creates branded loyalty programmes for hoteliers and restaurateurs to help secure repeat and direct business.

With Vantage, we’ll be generating awareness of your hotel or restaurant, introducing new guests and loyalty, while giving the member a choice of hotels and restaurants to enjoy their reward and experience. As a hotelier, you can access a dashboard of customer segments and buying behaviours. What’s more, all member and staff support is managed by a dedicated team.

Get in touch to find out how to reward your guests and feature on Vantage.

Inspire Loyalty is delighted to celebrate 10 years serving branded hotel loyalty programmes in the UK and Ireland.

“It’s a real milestone of achievement to date and we’re hugely grateful to our many clients who have stood by us from the early stages” says Steve Risk, company founder.

One touch point for guest loyalty

The company has evolved from designing it’s first loyalty platform to reaching it’s 8th generation. This is no surprise given the speed of technological advances, especially by more recent connectivity with preferred partners.

“The landscape has changed and in our new efficient world of technology, hospitality clients can experience an all rounded package bespoke to their multiple needs, rather than the disjointed approach of having 3 or 4 different supplier components to achieve one goal.” Steve continues, “Looking at the guest as the central point, any product which can assist staff with guest engagement and recognition using one touch point, is almost expected now.”

Partner integration for a simple customer journey

As a provider of branded loyalty programmes, Inspire Loyalty partner with Criton who design branded applications to assist guests with mobile interaction.  So amongst their many other app features, we work together to present the member’s loyalty account under one roof.

Inspire Loyalty also successfully integrate with Worldpay to automate points awards to its members when they purchase, which is quite technically advanced but so simple for the customer. This was recently applied and launched in a new programme, McGinty’s Rewards for The McGinty’s Group to enable them to engage, reward and recognise their customers in the most simple and effective method. Integration is also underway to integrate with MEWS systems and other PMS providers.

Track record of excellent member services

But back to basics, Inspire Loyalty has always strived to provide excellent member services. This was recently recognised using a product integration by new survey partner, GuestRevu. A survey of 800 loyalty members to a mutual client received a customer satisfaction rate of 95%. Interestingly, 90% conveyed they booked direct because of the reward programme.

GuestRevu is a great way to collect member feedback and a good forum for guests to suggest ideas for improvement. It also includes online reputation management tools for guest experience feedback, so they can respond and take any action required. 

Launch of Vantage Rewards

In July this year, Inspire Loyalty launched Vantage. A new product to entice the public to register for loyalty programmes from the collection of hotels, apartments and restaurants represented by Inspire Loyalty.

After registration the member can earn points at their regular venue and redeem their points at any of the venues in the Vantage collection. It’s still early days, but sign up numbers are strong, as we strive to add more value to our client portfolio by generating awareness of our branded loyalty programmes.

Embracing the future and uncertainty that comes with it

Inspire Loyalty is looking forward to the next chapter of adopting innovation to enhance our product and service even more. We’re here to help our hospitality clients achieve greater guest retention, better experience and increased revenue in these uncertain times.

Our aim is to equip as many hotel, restaurant and apartment operators with an easy to apply branded loyalty solution to collect powerful data, enhance guest engagement, increase visitor numbers and direct booking initiatives.

For more information about how Inspire Loyalty can help your business reward and engage, arrange a demo or get in touch.

Just how important are loyalty programs to hotels? According to Deloitte, roughly 18% of frequent travellers become loyal to a hotel brand primarily because of its rewards program. The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University found that customers who belong to a hotel’s program contribute 50% more revenue to a hotel chain than those who don’t.

Faced with the challenge of disruptive third-party peer-to-peer rental sites, such as Airbnb, the hotel industry is fighting back by upping its game with new technology, apps, mobile capabilities and convenience. Some are also finding value in uniting properties under a single brand umbrella to increase cross-selling opportunities and leverage brand recognition. For example, InterContinental Hotels Group—operator of brands including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites—found that IHG Rewards Club members who stay at two sister brands will average more than three times more room nights in the future.

Hotel loyalty programs have been around since the early 1980s and were developed by large hotel chains to ensure guest retention and to encourage active purchases. However, in recent years, some experts in the tourism and hospitality industry have started to question the value of loyalty programs for hotels. Critics of loyalty programs point to the fact that it costs hotels somewhere between 1% and 5% of room revenue to create, promote, and operate a loyalty program.

So do loyalty programs benefit hotels or are they a waste of time and money? The Centre for Hospitality Research carried a study of 50,000 hotels in North America over two years to determine if hotel loyalty programs were worth the time and money hotels spend on them.

The study found that once a guest signed up to a hotel’s loyalty program, the frequency of stays booked by a guest at that hotel rose on average by 49%. The study also found that loyalty programs accounted for a 57% rise in bedroom revenue.

The authors of the report wrote, “Hotels in the study are seeing a substantial revenue increase when their guests enroll in a properly conceived and executed program.” The authors went on to write, “Loyalty programs can and do deliver positive results in terms of revenue, stay frequency, and guests spending.”

Loyalty programs also provide hotels with a wealth of information on their guests. Hotels that operate a loyalty program have insight into who their guests are, what they like, and where they are from. All this valuable information can be used by hotels to create laser-focused marketing campaigns for various kinds of guests.

Get in touch for a demo and to find out more about how to reward and engage with your customers.