Holiday Inn 2015 Annual Report Download - page 24

Meaningful Membership: Transforming
Membership in ‘The Age of I’
We have published the fourth in our
series of Trends Reports, which focus
on consumer insights impacting the
hospitality industry and business
more broadly.
Our 2016 report challenges brands to
engage with consumers in a way that
builds loyal membership communities.
It unveils a new set of principles for
doing this, as consumers increasingly
demand inclusivity and individuality
at the same time.
See www.ihgplc.com/trends_report for
further details on our series of Trends
Reports.
We also announced that, from May 2016,
we will expire all points for IHG Rewards Club
members if they have not earned or redeemed
any points at all in the previous 12 months,
so that we can reward the members who
stay with us most often.
More meaningful guest engagement
In 2015, we have enhanced our customer
relationship management system, allowing
us to offer a more personal experience. Across
our hotels, new tools have been introduced to
provide hotel staff with more information on
arriving guests, including details of previous
stay experiences and specific stay preferences.
With this information, our hotels are able to
provide a more tailored guest experience
during the stay.
Through a series of trials with new
programme members, we have also refined
our communication strategy, to ensure we
offer guests the most relevant and timely
information across multiple channels, such
as mobile, email and web. Also launched
in 2015, ‘Accelerate’, our multi-brand
promotion, is enabling us to engage with IHG
Rewards Club members in more appealing
ways, by offering a wide range of relevant
rewards that appeal across member levels.
This promotion has already seen strong
uptake among our members.
Relevant rewards
Strategic promotional partnerships play an
important role in enhancing, and improving
the visibility of, our loyalty proposition, as well
as allowing us to provide unique experiences
for our members. Our relationship with Uber
(US only), announced in 2015, enables IHG
Rewards Club members to request cab rides
and set ride reminders through the award-
winning IHG App. Likewise, new Uber users
in the US now receive 2,000 IHG Rewards Club
points and $20 off their first ride with Uber.
Through the launch of IHG Business Rewards
in April 2015, an extension of IHG Rewards
Club, we have improved our corporate loyalty
offer, enabling travel managers to earn IHG
Rewards Club points for their companies’
business in a single global programme. IHG
Business Rewards is providing opportunities
for us to improve relationships with our
corporate accounts.
Finally, we have relaunched our Rewarding
Experiences online catalogue, which
showcases a wide range of points-redemption
options, ranging from electronic products
through to air miles, available through IHG
Rewards Club for members of all levels.
Digital Rewards, for example, appeals to
guests who only wish to redeem a few points
by giving them the ability to instantly download
music, books and movies. Meanwhile, IHG
Rewards Club Auctions lets members use
their points to bid on exclusive once-in-a-
lifetime experiences and prize packages.
The enhancements to our loyalty proposition in
2015 are already exciting guests and leading to
stronger commercial outcomes. For example,
we have experienced a year-on-year increase
of 1.2 per cent in the proportion of revenue
contributed by loyalty members, alongside
a significant acceleration in enrolments to
IHG Rewards Club across all regions.
Enhancements to our
loyalty programme in
2015 have enabled us
to oer more personal,
relevant and rewarding
connections across our
sizeable membership.”
Making loyalty more customised,
tailored and rewarding
By building a strong, complementary brand
portfolio, we are able to offer solutions for
multiple guest needs, increasing our ability
to cross-sell across brands and to establish
lifetime relationships with our guests. Guests
with increased loyalty to IHG have a higher
spend per stay, driving higher RevPAR
premiums, lowering distribution costs and
consequently strengthening our owner offer.
In addition, a strong loyalty programme is
also critical to increasing awareness and
recognition of the IHG brand portfolio.
Supported by deep consumer insights,
including our latest 2016 Trends Report
(see box below right), we are enriching
our loyalty proposition by taking a more
relationship-focused approach. In 2015,
we have made important enhancements to
IHG Rewards Club, our loyalty programme,
enabling us to offer more personal, relevant
and rewarding connections across our
sizeable membership base.
Introducing a new membership level
Launched in July 2015, our new IHG Rewards
Club membership tier, Spire Elite, has been
designed to recognise and reward our most
loyal guests, building an even deeper
relationship with those members who stay
with us most frequently.
Through Spire Elite, we are better able to
reward members who reach this status,
by offering new benefits and choices. For
example, these members receive 100 per cent
more bonus points on every qualifying stay –
an industry first – and, upon reaching Spire
Elite status, the choice between receiving
25,000 points or gifting Platinum Elite level
status to a friend or family member for a year.
We have also restructured qualification
requirements for all membership levels in
2015 to make it easier for our members to
be rewarded for their loyalty and achieve
Gold Elite or Platinum Elite level status.
Meaningful Membership: Transforming Membership in ‘The Age of I’ The fourth in our series of Trend Reports.
2. Transforming our loyalty proposition
Our Winning Model in action: executing our strategy continued
22 IHG Annual Report and Form 20-F 2015