Statistics Hotel Loyalty Program

Regular customers spend 22% more than one-time visitors, which is why 77% of hoteliers consider loyalty programs to be their top priority.

Hotel loyalty programs remain a major driver for customer retention and revenue growth in the hospitality industry. As travelers increasingly expect personalized experiences, hotel chains leverage data analytics and AI to cater to guests’ needs. This article highlights key statistics hotel loyalty program, trends, and insights for the six most popular loyalty programs in 2024.

General Statistics for Loyalty Programs

To begin with, let’s focus on general statistics on loyalty programs to understand how much users are interested in loyalty programs.

• 64% of consumers prefer brands that offer a personalized experience
• 45% of consumers have abandoned brands that do not provide a personalized experience,
• 90% value preferred communication methods, 
• 31% believe that brands are doing a good job with this.

Source linkedin.com

• 83% of consumers are members of 1 to 6 loyalty programs
• 31% of consumers only utilize 25% of their memberships in loyalty programs.

Source Site Minder

Trends in Hotel Loyalty Programs

• Loyal clients stay 28% longer and spend 22.4% more than infrequent travelers. (Business Dasher)
• 30% to 60% of hotel revenue comes from loyalty members. (Site Minder)
• An 11% increase in loyalty members led to a 5% increase in hotel occupancy. (CBRE)
• Points are increasingly tied to co-branded cards and affiliate programs, reducing reliance on frequent travelers.
• Revenues from loyalty program redemptions in 2023 increased by 11% year-on-year, reaching a record $1.1 billion. (CBRE)

• According to 44% of customers, reward programs have an impact on the hotels they choose. (Business Dasher)
• Business travelers make up 64% of loyalty members.(Business Dasher)
• More than 59.2% of room nights at large hotel chains were reserved by loyalty members, 62% in Marriott and Hilton (Kalibri Labs)
• Due to the accessibility of the location, 40% of patrons sign up for hotel loyalty programs. (Business Dasher)
• Around 74% of travelers prefer hotels that personalize their stay based on their preferences (Digital Guest)
• Loyalty programs are less and less dominated by frequent travelers:
  • The share of active users (those who stay more than 30 nights a year) is declining as loyalty points are increasingly tied to credit cards and affiliate programs rather than to travel frequency. (CBRE)

According to a study by the Global Hotel Alliance, this is how loyalty program users rated what influences their evaluation and choice of stay:

• 97% Hotel quality
• 92% Convenient location 
• 90% Benefits of the loyalty program
• 88% Customer service
• 60% Benefits/perks included in the program  
• 57% Number of hotels and locations 
• 50% Ease of earning/redeeming rewards 
• 36% Makes me feel valued/important 
• 31% Ease of achieving a high status/tier 
• 22% Customer service 
• 21% Generous program

Statistics of Hotel Loyalty Programs

According to the collected statistics, U.S. News Travel has announced the list of the best hotel reward programs for 2024.

The criteria for evaluation were ease of obtaining a free night, additional benefits, geographic coverage, number of hotels in the chain, and variety of properties.

As of 2024, the most popular hotel loyalty programs are:

1. Wyndham Rewards
2. Marriott Bonvoy
3. World of Hyatt
4. Choice Privileges
5. IHG One Rewards

Let’s look at the general data for each largest program

Hotel Rewards Rates

Calculated as the number of points earned per dollar spent multiplied by the value of each point divided by 100.

Statistics for Each of the 6 Largest Loyalty Programs

Marriott Bonvoy

• Membership Base: Over 210 million members.
• Hotels: Nearly 8,900 properties across 30 brands in 140 countries.
• 30 brands in approximately 140 countries and territories.
• Marriott Bonvoy members can transfer points to more than 40 airline partners, providing flexibility in redeeming rewards.
• Credit cards: 4 co-branded personal card (Bonvoy Boundless, Bonvoy Bold, Bonvoy Brilliant, Bonvoy Bevy) and 2 business credit card (Bonvoy Business Amex, Bonvoy Business Chase).

Source Marriott

• Point Value: 0.9 cents per point (Nerd Wallet)
• The best offer for purchasing points in 2024 was in the period from May 23 to July 24, 50% bonus on purchased points (One Mile at a Time)
• Research from Future Market Insights reveals that the Bleisure tourism industry accounts for almost 33% of the global business travel marke (The Future Laboratory)

Hilton Honors

• Membership Base: Over 203 million members
• Hotels: More than 7,000 properties in 122 countries.
• 18 brands across 122 countries and territories.
• Hilton Honors has over 30 travel partners
• 3 co-branded personal credit card (Hilton Honors Amex, Surpass, Aspire) and 1 business credit card (Hilton Honors Amex Business).

Source Hilton

• Hilton’s 2024 Trends Report indicates that 60% of travelers consistently book with one brand or credit card to maximize benefits, with 67% of Millennials prioritizing their loyalty programs when planning travel. (Hilton Stories)
• In 2024, we saw 6 identical point sales with 100% bonus point (One Mile at a Time)
• Point Value: 0.6 cents per point. (Nerd Wallet)

Wyndham Rewards

• Membership Base: 110 million members.
• Hotels: 9,200+ properties across 95+ countries.
• 885,000 rooms
• Wyndham is a leader in the economy and midscale segments of the hotel industry. 
• 25 hotel brands
• Point Value: 1.2 cents per point. (Nerd Wallet)
• Credit cards: 2 Co-Branded personal credit cards (Wyndham Rewards Earner, Earner Plus) and 1 business credit card (Wyndham Rewards Earner Business).

Source Wyndham

World of Hyatt

• Membership Base: 51 million members (+22% YoY).
• Hotels: 1,363 Hotels and All-Inclusive Properties across 79 countries.
• Room capacity reached a new record of approximately 326,845 Rooms, up 10% YoY
• 29 Global Brands

Source Hyatt Investors

• 1 personal (World of Hyatt Credit Card) and 1 business co-branded credit card (World of Hyatt Business Credit Card)
• Point Value: 2.2 cents per point (Nerd Wallet)

IHG One Rewards

• Membership Base: 130 million members (+10% YoY).
• Hotels: 6,500+ properties in 100+ countries.
• Adding up to 119 hotels or +1.9% system growth
• 2,200+ in the process of preparation for opening (+34% growth in room capacity)
• 19 preferred brands
• Overnight stays in rooms booked by members accounted for 60% of the total volume (10% more than in the previous year). 
• Co-branded cardholders stay 85% longer than non-cardholders
• Co-branded cardholders generate 55% more nights than non-cardholders

Source IHG PLC

• Point Value: 0.5 cents per point. (Nerd Wallet)
• 2 co-branded personal credit cards (IHG Rewards Premier, Traveler) and 1 business credit card (IHG Rewards Premier Business)

Choice Privileges

• Membership Base: 68 million members (up +8% YoY).
• Hotels: 7,400+ properties in 45 countries.
• 22 brands
• The number of hotels opened worldwide in the third quarter of 2024 increased by 75% compared to the same period in 2023. And the portfolio of high-end, extended-stay and midscale rooms grew by 1.8% globally. The international portfolio increased by 3.8% in terms of rooms.

Source Investor Choice Hotels

• 2 rewards co-branded credit card (Choice Privileges Credit Card, Choice Privileges Select Mastercard)
• Point Value: 0.8 cents per point (Nerd Wallet)

Wrapping It Up

Hotel loyalty programs continue to evolve, prioritizing personalization, flexible rewards and co-branded credit cards to increase customer satisfaction and retention. We see a trend where travelers are less and less loyal to a particular brand, easily switching from one program to another, participating in several programs at the same time, and this naturally increases competition among programs. 

It is quite possible that in 2025 we will see Hilton Honors loyalty program take the first place in terms of the number of program members.