Happy St. Patrick’s Day, hope you are having a wonderful
spring day. A bit chilly here in North Texas.
Not sure what other corporate gripes are going to come to
mind, but for now a general gripe since it seems we are stuck with them and
their madness.
For Hotels.com it is more specific. They use to have a
pretty straightforward rewards program, but lately it is pretty puny. And why
does this matter. I can go to any number of hotel brands and join and have a
rewards program which is true. Yet that means choosing a brand and sticking
with it.
The reason I like Hotels is because I could have choices. I
wasn’t restricted to one brand. And that is important to me for a variety of
reasons.
Sometimes we travel from point a to b and it takes more than
one day so we have to stay the night somewhere on the way. And since the midpoint
location tends to be a moving target it allows us to be able to look at reviews
of different hotels for the city or town we end up staying. So many times one
brand will have good reviews in one city and not so strong in another city. By
having a choice we can price and quality compare. This gives me strength as a
consumer, or at least in my mind. If I pick one brand to gain reward points I
may be stuck with an inferior product in one town compared to another brand.
Another reason is because of the end destination. Many times
with Hotels we can choose a local hotel instead of a corporate hotel. And this
has worked out well for us. We have enjoyed staying in some unique hotels over
the years and this adds value to any vacation or trip. There have been many
wonderful memories created by having this option. And with Hotels we would
still get the reward points that were equivalent with any other hotel we stayed.
And this last point leads me to the corporate gripe in
general. If you like a rewards program to help save you money then many small
hotel chains or individual properties are hurt by Hotels’ reward program being
so weak. And if these individual properties etc lose business then this only
increases the wealth gap in this country even further. When there is more
competition in business, more choices then people have to work harder for your
business. If a few corporations can hook you into their rewards program then
you are more likely to stay there. Yes this can be good in some circumstances
such as familiarity, comfort level, certain perks, but you lose out on
corporations competing for your business more dynamically. And like I mentioned
small chains and individual properties lose business. The corporations already control
too much of the market and for them to swallow up Mom and Pop businesses, then
this hurts our economy in ways not often considered in most economic or
business articles including increasing the wealth gap. Many small businesses
created wealth for people, maybe not billions, but individual wealth. With small
businesses being eaten up, more and more people are relying on a few
billionaires to provide products and services. And of course they manage their businesses
to achieve more profits not provide better customer service.
You may say their rewards program gives me customer service,
but in the long run, those rewards and apps benefit the corporate bottom line
more than you as a customer. It takes a bit of study and comparisons to realize
this, but the bones they throw you are a small cost to the amount of real work
they would have to do if there were more competition. And you lose out on
originality, value for the dollar spent, meeting and interacting with locals
who thrive and can tell you more about the city than some person hired working
at barely above minimum wage just getting through a shift. Yes people who own
their own business tend to care more about the customer experience than corporations.
And this watered down program from Hotels shows what happens
when corporations have all the power, they can take away something from you if
they expect you will still be their customer. Again Hotels.com has one
advantage and that is choice of brand so they still offer some value, yet in a
value conscious world that value is watered down with the loss of monetary
reward such as a free night.
I have been a customer of theirs for years so this hurt when
Expedia came out with this watered down program. I am struggling with how far I
want to redefine where I stay. Again we have enjoyed some wonderful experiences
in independent hotels. I hate losing that because if you like to travel it is
the experience you are wanting. There was so much more discovered by either
what the hotel offered or the information the people provided about where to go
or best routes to take when sightseeing or just generally experiencing the
town. Nothing like knowing the best restaurants to go in a small town instead
of eating at another chain for breakfast or lunch. Small businesses need all
the help they can receive nowadays, and the more business the better.
This is a sad state of affairs that for this one industry. One
of the perks independent properties had was that Hotels.com gave them business
and now if people like me feel the rewards aren’t worth the effort what else can
they do. So for now we still us them, but I hate to think what the future
brings. I am cheap so I like my free nights and struggling with a budget in
today’s world that unfortunately matters.
No cheers for this madness
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