How Hilton looks after its loyalty royalty

Ben George, senior vice president and commercial director, Asia Pacific, Hilton, has watched the many ways in which the Covid pandemic has changed the nature of travel. What has not changed is customer loyalty to brands.

Travel Weekly Asia speaks to George for a look at how Hilton has used the pandemic-induced travel slowdown to deepen the relationship with Hilton Honors members—new and old.

Hilton signed up more members to Hilton Honors in Asia Pacific last year than ever before. What has driven the growth?

It was indeed one of the most prolific years for Hilton Honors in terms of membership growth. As travel gradually recovers, we expect Hilton Honors enrolment to continue gathering pace and reaching a new high in 2022.

We were the first major hospitality player globally to provide reassurance that our members’ status, points, and benefits under Hilton Honors would be preserved even when travel was not possible. We extended Point expiration dates and even lowered status qualification criteria and more.

I believe a second driver has been the accelerated adoption of technological features amidst the pandemic. Our Hilton Honors app has always been designed as a central enabler that removes pain points for our members through contactless features like Digital Check-in and Digital Key.

It goes without saying that these became even more relevant during the pandemic, and we have since added more innovations like Digital Key Share, which enables our guests to share their active mobile-based Digital Key with up to four additional people or devices during a stay in a safe, secure manner.

This continuous expansion is augmented by our partnerships with renowned lifestyle brands.

In Q1 2021, we also strengthened and expanded our partnership with Fliggy, the travel platform within Alibaba’s digital ecosystem. This allows us to build more direct relationships with our customers and enhance our competitiveness. In fact, Hilton Honors enrolled more than one million members in China via Fliggy alone in 2021.

Hilton has expanded the features of the Hilton Honors app to improve the guest experience, including Digital Check-In, Digital Key, Digital Check-Out and in-room technology.

What membership demographic is growing fastest?

We are seeing families drive the momentum as they begin to travel for leisure again to reconnect with their loved ones. This can be attributed to the pent-up wanderlust, but also likely some saved-up disposable income that they now want to spend on cherished experiences with their families.

Depending on where they are, some may not be able to travel over long distances yet, but they nonetheless find ways to engage with Hilton Honors by booking staycations or stays at destinations closer to home.

As pandemic recovery accelerates, and international borders reopen, business travel is likely to rebound with the same pent-up demand.

Given that domestic travel has been the only option for many during Covid, what benefits are Hilton Honors members most requesting, e.g. experiences, food, upgrades etc?

We have seen our Hilton Honors members’ expectations evolve through the pandemic.

Then, as many countries continued to be restricted to domestic travel, Hilton Honors members sought respite from the cycle of lockdowns by indulging in culinary experiences, some of which were delivered right to their doorsteps.

We launched the Like a Member dining offer, encouraging our members to dine at over 900 outlets across Hilton properties in Asia Pacific. With this exclusive offer, members get to enjoy a range of privileges, while also earning points that can eventually be redeemed for future stays and unique experiences.

At the end of 2020, Hilton Honors members accounted for approximately 60% of system-wide occupancy, so they form a critical guest segment that we will continue to engage and deepen that relationship further.

This is the real opportunity for loyalty programmes. For years before the pandemic, competition had been increasing to a point where many came to see loyalty as a game of points and one-upmanship.

The pandemic has created an opportunity to deepen trust beyond transactional benefits.

Hilton Honors also launched the Like a Member dining offer to encourage its members to dine at over 900 outlets across Hilton properties in Asia Pacific.

What's needed for travel brands to thrive in a post-pandemic future?

What has become clear is that the pandemic has not diminished people’s desire to travel, so the outlook for the industry remains positive. At the same time, it would be a mistake to move forward as if nothing at all has changed, or to think that we could simply revert to 2019.

As the world recalibrates and rebounds, consumers’ expectations of travel have evolved and will continue shifting. There is no doubt that more people will continue traveling, but how they travel will be driven by far more diverse local considerations and in the immediate future at least, spontaneous or short-term travel will be more prevalent.

This requires travel brands to be much more nimble, agile, and responsive. Listening to consumers closely and driving constant innovation to anticipate consumers’ needs will be key, as we have done in deepening our relationship with our 123 million Hilton Honors members globally.

In addition, while the trend towards conscious travel was already well in motion before the pandemic, our collective experience in the past two years has sharpened awareness of our social responsibility.

In a report that Hilton recently released on The 2022 Traveller, we noted that reducing one’s carbon footprint will continue to be a top consideration for individuals and businesses alike as they travel again.

According to Accenture, 86% of travellers want to travel more sustainably. To this end, we are continuing to further our commitment to halving our environmental footprint and doubling our investment in social impact initiatives, as part of our effort to meet our Travel with Purpose 2030 goals.