Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / Luxury Stays: A Q&A with Preferred Hotels on Customer Loyalty and Forming Strategic Partnerships in the Travel Industry
Transcript
- 0:05Mark Johnson: Good afternoon, good morning.
- 0:06Mark Johnson: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360.
- 0:08Mark Johnson: I hope everyone is happy, safe and well.
- 0:10Mark Johnson: I wanted to welcome you back to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series.
- 0:14Mark Johnson: In this series, we talk to the brand leaders about what they are seeing on the front lines of the customer channel and brand loyalty.
- 0:19Mark Johnson: Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Lori Strasberg.
- 0:22Mark Johnson: She's a Senior Vice President of Marketing for Preferred Hotels and Resorts.
- 0:26Mark Johnson: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us today, Lori.
- 0:29Mark Johnson: How are you?
- 0:30Lori Strasberg: I'm well and happy to be here, so thanks for inviting me to participate.
- 0:35Mark Johnson: Absolutely.
- 0:36Mark Johnson: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak and first off, we love to start these on a more personal level, get to know the individual we're speaking with.
- 0:43Mark Johnson: So we'd love to know a little bit more about you, your current role and maybe some previous positions you've held that kind of shaped your path, and also maybe a fun fact or passion you may have outside of work.
- 0:56Lori Strasberg: Okay sounds good.
- 0:56Lori Strasberg: So I got into the hospitality space in early 2002 and joined Starwood Hotels not long after 9-11.
- 1:05Lori Strasberg: Our CEO, Barry Sternlich ever the contrarian invested in building a travel company just when everyone else was cutting back.
- 1:13Lori Strasberg: After travel really receded post 9-11.
- 1:17Lori Strasberg: I was at Starwood for quite some time and did a number of roles, including running brand management for Sheraton Hotels and Tribute Hotels and building the field marketing team, which was like an internal digital agency serving our hotels that we launched in the very, very early days of the internet.
- 1:37Lori Strasberg: Not long after Marriott acquired Starwood, I joined Marriott as part of the launch team for Marriott Bonvoy, and that was a really exciting experience.
- 1:47Lori Strasberg: It was the first time it really went deep into the loyalty space and, of course, there was so much passion, both from Starwood preferred guest members as well as Marriott rewards members regarding where the program was going to go.
- 2:03Lori Strasberg: So we had a lot of fun launching that.
- 2:06Lori Strasberg: It was an exciting time.
- 2:08Lori Strasberg: And then COVID hit, so things really slowed down in the travel business and then I joined preferred hotels about a year ago.
- 2:17Lori Strasberg: So currently I lead marketing, which includes digital partnerships, portfolio marketing and, of course, loyalty.
- 2:25Lori Strasberg: So in terms of my passions, of course, travel is one of them.
- 2:31Lori Strasberg: Not surprisingly, some of my others are my family and my habit of shopping online endlessly for furniture that I never buy.
- 2:43Mark Johnson: That's good.
- 2:43Mark Johnson: I have passions like those, for sure.
- 2:48Lori Strasberg: What a waste of time, but I have fun with it.
- 2:51Mark Johnson: It's always good to look and not to buy.
- 2:54Mark Johnson: Yes, see what's out there.
- 2:55Mark Johnson: So when you look at Preferred Hotels and Resorts a very unique organization, upscale hotel offering.
- 3:07Mark Johnson: For those who may not be familiar with Preferred Hotels and Resorts, can you give us a brief overview of what you guys do, how you do it and who you do it with?
- 3:15Lori Strasberg: Sure.
- 3:15Lori Strasberg: So actually we expanded the company and we're now called Preferred Travel Group, which includes Preferred Hotels as well as a sustainable brand called Beyond Green.
- 3:26Lori Strasberg: We also own historic hotels of America and historic hotels worldwide and have really expanded in consulting services.
- 3:35Lori Strasberg: We really function in the luxury space.
- 3:38Lori Strasberg: The company was founded in 1968, so we've been around for quite some time and it really began with 12 independent luxury hotels as a cross-referral organization.
- 3:50Lori Strasberg: Over the decades the company evolved and created a new organization, adding representation in sales, marketing and technology resources, and continue to add hotels as the value of that offering really became apparent and the need for scale also became apparent to these independent luxury hotels.
- 4:12Lori Strasberg: In 2004, the company became owned and operated by the Uberock family, who have a really deep history in the travel business and have really built incredible relationships both with all of our hotels as well as outside our company but throughout the travel business.
- 4:33Mark Johnson: Okay, your customer loyalty program I Prefer is a very significant program.
- 4:41Mark Johnson: Can you do us an overview of how the program works, how members engage with it and what are the benefits?
- 4:47Lori Strasberg: Sure.
- 4:48Lori Strasberg: So I prefer our loyalty program, where members can enjoy benefits from really the minute they join.
- 4:55Lori Strasberg: So, unlike a lot of other loyalty programs, of course you earn points beginning with your very first day, but you also get free Wi-Fi and you're eligible for upgraded rooms when they're available, again from your very first day.
- 5:09Lori Strasberg: So that is a little bit different.
- 5:10Lori Strasberg: We do award points that can be redeemed for room nights or that you can combine with cash.
- 5:17Lori Strasberg: We also offer reward certificates that can be redeemed during your stay.
- 5:22Lori Strasberg: So if somebody has a lower points balance, maybe not enough for a room, they can redeem those for credit for a future stay on anything really on their folio.
- 5:36Lori Strasberg: We also recently added a super interesting benefit called key access.
- 5:41Lori Strasberg: It's for members only and it offers really incredible deals.
- 5:46Lori Strasberg: It requires a pretty small points balance and you add cash to that, but even with one stay, a member should have enough points to take advantage of that program.
- 5:58Mark Johnson: Okay, and key access.
- 5:59Mark Johnson: Can you give us a little more detail on that?
- 6:02Mark Johnson: Is it product, is it services that they can engage with?
- 6:06Lori Strasberg: Yeah, so key access is for rooms.
- 6:07Lori Strasberg: So again, we're a luxury portfolio.
- 6:10Lori Strasberg: We do lean toward leisure.
- 6:13Lori Strasberg: So, unlike a lot of programs that are really focused on the road warrior who's logging 20, 30, 40 stays a year, our program is really targeted toward high end leisure and, by definition, they don't take tons of trips, so they earn points but they're not necessarily generating that frequency.
- 6:37Lori Strasberg: So we want to make sure that for people who are spending a thousand $2,000 to stay with us, that there is something valuable for them that they can redeem for.
- 6:48Lori Strasberg: So, with key access, it's a host of hotels in our portfolio.
- 6:53Lori Strasberg: Again, you don't need a ton of points to be able to redeem there.
- 6:58Lori Strasberg: It's a cash and points offering, but the cash that's required does make it a really amazing deal, unlike a lot of publicly available rates.
- 7:11Mark Johnson: That's awesome and I think that's a great realization that you have that your customers are different, so the road warrior is going to have significantly different needs and interests.
- 7:23Mark Johnson: Right, maybe wanting an upgrade, maybe wanting some offers at check-in or some recognition, but personalization is a big piece and it sounds like you have a great understanding, and in-depth understanding, of your customers.
- 7:36Lori Strasberg: Yeah, it's a different need.
- 7:37Lori Strasberg: Again, these are high end hotels, so members are spending a lot of money on a single stay and we want to make sure they get rewarded for that.
- 7:47Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 7:47Mark Johnson: Partnerships are an significant area of interest for our members of WLT360.
- 7:54Mark Johnson: We actually have a partnership committee that meets and discusses best practices.
- 7:58Mark Johnson: So when you look at partnerships, what do they mean to preferred hotels and resorts and how do you approach them traditionally?
- 8:06Lori Strasberg: So partnerships are immensely important to us.
- 8:09Lori Strasberg: They're really a way that we can help our brand and our hotels be exposed to a wider qualified audience.
- 8:17Lori Strasberg: So we work closely with American Express, mastercard, visa.
- 8:22Lori Strasberg: We also work with some luxury lifestyle partners and we do have a few on the horizon, but I can't talk about them yet.
- 8:31Lori Strasberg: But we are excited for what's coming in 2024 and how we'll round out the partners that we're working with.
- 8:38Mark Johnson: Okay Again with some of the things that we see from a partnership perspective, is there's a kind of a clarion call right now to simplify partnerships within the travel Hospitality Arena in general as well.
- 8:51Mark Johnson: When you look at your approach, how are you looking to potentially simplify or more align the partnerships with your customers?
- 9:00Lori Strasberg: Well, the way that we work with partners.
- 9:02Lori Strasberg: It really depends on the partner and the market and what the opportunity looks like on both sides.
- 9:08Lori Strasberg: But to your point, everything has to make sense to the consumer, especially with the loyalty space being as saturated as it is.
- 9:18Lori Strasberg: Everything has to resonate for them on an intuitive level.
- 9:23Lori Strasberg: So one of the things that we're doing.
- 9:26Lori Strasberg: At the time we introduced our tier names Insider, explorer and Elite.
- 9:33Lori Strasberg: They really fit the brand very well, but we came to realize that consumers don't really understand that naming.
- 9:40Lori Strasberg: So we are renaming our tiers to more of an industry standard maybe not as sexy, but again makes the program a lot easier for our hotels to deliver as well as for our members to understand.
- 9:53Lori Strasberg: We're always looking at ways to simplify at the same time that we add more and more value to the program.
- 10:01Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 10:02Mark Johnson: When you look at travel very emotive and personal you know how does the employee loyalty approach, or what does employee loyalty mean, into, how does it factor in the customer loyalty efforts of the program?
- 10:18Lori Strasberg: Yeah.
- 10:19Lori Strasberg: So Preferred is a really interesting and different company in that way and our brand is truly about emotion, so not just the emotion of the traveler and how special they want that stay to be, particularly in a high service luxury hotel.
- 10:40Lori Strasberg: But the company is owned by a family and treats our associates like family.
- 10:50Lori Strasberg: They, the Uber oth family, has a deep and personal connection to travel and many of our hotels around the world choose to be part of Preferred because of the personal connection that is such a focus for us.
- 11:03Lori Strasberg: Our hotels are really the opposite of the big box hotels.
- 11:07Lori Strasberg: So many of them are family owned and run their coveted destinations in and of themselves.
- 11:13Lori Strasberg: They all love what they do.
- 11:15Lori Strasberg: They put the heart and hospitality and they love the personal connection and the personal touch of being part of Preferred.
- 11:23Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 11:23Mark Johnson: There was a great deal of discussion with regard to customers, customers changing, evolving, changing, going into COVID now changing going out of COVID and travel was significantly impacted during COVID.
- 11:38Mark Johnson: Hyour customers changing coming out of COVID.
- 11:40Mark Johnson: What are you saying?
- 11:42Lori Strasberg: Well, it was certainly an interesting time, and I think there were impacts of COVID that were temporary in nature and impacts that we believe will be permanent in nature.
- 11:55Lori Strasberg: And one of those changes that we believe will be permanent is the shift to how consumers prioritize travel.
- 12:04Lori Strasberg: We all saw a huge bump in you know what's known as revenge travel.
- 12:09Lori Strasberg: So everybody came out of COVID and they were going to travel come hell or high water.
- 12:14Lori Strasberg: But what we're seeing longer term is that people are not willing to give up travel ever again.
- 12:21Lori Strasberg: They'll give up almost anything else before their special trip or their opportunity to see another part of the world or be with friends and family.
- 12:32Lori Strasberg: So I think we really will see an ongoing prioritization of cutting almost any other kind of discretionary spend before you skip your trip.
- 12:45Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 12:45Mark Johnson: What's the future for hospitality and travel?
- 12:49Mark Johnson: Are you seeing trends that could be potential game changers?
- 12:53Lori Strasberg: Well, this probably won't be a big surprise, but I think we're all assuming that AI will drive huge changes in how people research and plan travel.
- 13:04Lori Strasberg: Of course, all of our companies in the space are working out the kinks.
- 13:09Lori Strasberg: The tools aren't quite perfect, but I think ultimately, the expectation is that an AI program should really be able to assist travelers in planning a trip under their parameters and have that platform do a pretty decent job in planning.
- 13:27Lori Strasberg: I think we're all expecting AI to enable predictive personalization, end-to-end, among other things, and that is really going to up the expectation for travel companies to know who you are and provide a customer experience that's personalized to you.
- 13:45Lori Strasberg: It's been discussed for years, but it does seem that the technology is finally almost here, but it's something I think everybody in the space is keeping their eye on.
- 13:58Lori Strasberg: Sorry, I was going to keep going.
- 14:02Lori Strasberg: So the other thing that is increasingly front and center of sustainability, another thing that's been discussed for a long time, but with all the crises around climate that we've experienced, particularly this summer, we're going to see more and more environmental consciousness as well as interest in destinations that are not as subject to climate change.
- 14:31Lori Strasberg: So I think we'll see a lot more people choosing Norway instead of Greece in the summer.
- 14:37Lori Strasberg: Those kinds of choices will be impacted by climate change.
- 14:42Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 14:43Mark Johnson: And when you look at those changes, if someone has so much threshold capacity at Greece and all of a sudden they're going to Norway, that's going to take some planning on your part as well to be able to price and offer and make sure you have the right products there as well, correct?
- 14:58Lori Strasberg: Yeah, well, fortunately for us we do have pretty good penetration in Scandinavia.
- 15:03Lori Strasberg: But yeah, it affects how we market and, again, with understanding the customer, which hotels and which destinations we should put in front of them across the channels where they interact with us.
- 15:18Mark Johnson: Yeah, it's interesting.
- 15:19Mark Johnson: We just had a discussion with one of our cruise members and they seem the same thing.
- 15:23Mark Johnson: Right, because they're pushed back right now in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, they don't want the bigger ships.
- 15:28Mark Johnson: They're starting to restrict them, which will have impacts, obviously, on those who offer the services or the extras on the island.
- 15:34Mark Johnson: But you also see a lot of cruise lines now by buying islands right to do their own.
- 15:39Mark Johnson: Yeah, some of those restrictions.
- 15:42Mark Johnson: It's very interesting, I'm sure.
- 15:44Lori Strasberg: Yeah, it's a really transformational time in travel, no question about it.
- 15:49Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 15:50Mark Johnson: Are there other programs that you are personally loyal to, that you admire?
- 15:56Lori Strasberg: So, in terms of programs I admire, one that was super interesting recently was Delta.
- 16:03Lori Strasberg: So of course, everyone was crazy about Delta's program.
- 16:07Lori Strasberg: They then made some changes that were fairly dramatic, so they had really differentiated themselves and provided a true human touch to help members and offered members a ton of value, which is we all know.
- 16:23Lori Strasberg: They then announced they were changing.
- 16:25Lori Strasberg: One thing that I really admire was that they recognized how unhappy their members were with those changes and rolled them back, and that's really what a loyalty program should do is be responsive to their members and move away from transactional loyalty into a real commitment to those members.
- 16:48Lori Strasberg: I'm also a big fan of Amazon Prime.
- 16:51Lori Strasberg: At the time they introduced Prime Video, honestly, to me it seemed like a real disconnect.
- 16:57Lori Strasberg: Yet in making it a core part of their value proposition, it's really a benefit that scales like crazy, so you can add more and more members without adding more cost, and when you can do that in loyalty, it just really increases the value proposition.
- 17:14Lori Strasberg: So I think they've been incredibly smart about what they've done with Amazon Prime.
- 17:20Mark Johnson: And, it's interesting you mentioned Delta and kind of the extreme blowback they got around customer loyalty.
- 17:25Mark Johnson: There is a big push to revalue programs right now.
- 17:28Mark Johnson: Brands are looking at their consumer value propositions to make sure they're aligned.
- 17:33Mark Johnson: But I think there's a disconnect sometimes and dissonance in what the brand wants and what the consumer wants and radical changes like that can have.
- 17:41Mark Johnson: You know, the tier is the impact, the impact.
- 17:43Mark Johnson: So the brand I know JetBlue and others jumped on the chance to kind of market against that.
- 17:49Mark Johnson: But you mentioned Amazon as well.
- 17:51Mark Johnson: They did the same thing.
- 17:52Mark Johnson: They made some changes into their seller program, how they were charging fees for some of their kind of you know the people that provide them a product and they had to change that a couple of weeks back as well.
- 18:03Mark Johnson: So extreme blowback and it's great to hear that voice of the customer can have that impact because that's what customer loyalty should be focused on.
- 18:09Lori Strasberg: Yeah, I mean emotional connection is a really huge part of loyalty.
- 18:13Lori Strasberg: And the other thing of course that we've seen a ton of is points devaluation.
- 18:18Lori Strasberg: So I'm proud to say that preferred has not done that.
- 18:22Lori Strasberg: So our points are, you know, especially with rising ADRs, our points are worth more than ever and we have no plans to devalue our points.
- 18:30Lori Strasberg: So I know other loyalty programs have been trying to increase their profitability by doing that.
- 18:37Lori Strasberg: We have no plans to take that approach.
- 18:39Mark Johnson: Well, again there, when you do devalue your points, I think you have to look at and be cognizant of the changes that could come forth right.
- 18:45Mark Johnson: So there's a big discussion right now with regard to getting people obviously to move up to here, to get more engaged with the brand, but the consumer value proposition is not aligned and you make draconian changes to it.
- 18:56Mark Johnson: It can have a pretty significant impact with the program and we see that time and time again in our membership.
- 19:01Mark Johnson: It's a big area of discussion, let's say.
- 19:05Lori Strasberg: For sure.
- 19:06Mark Johnson: Yeah, so when you look at your customer loyalty program, your team, your efforts, what can Loyalty 360 do to help you and your team?
- 19:15Lori Strasberg: Well, I always love hearing about and understanding what other loyalty players are doing and how they're thinking about differentiating and evolving what loyalty means.
- 19:25Lori Strasberg: Everyone offers points we do as well but how do you build upon that to create, as we talked about, emotional connection and something that really does feel distinctive With preferred?
- 19:38Lori Strasberg: Again, we're fortunate that we have such beautiful hotels and aspirational hotels, so it does make it easy when we can put a hotel in front of a member and they understand their ability to access that hotel as being part of our program.
- 19:56Lori Strasberg: Other things, of course, as we talked about a little bit before this, call understanding privacy regulations and other restrictions.
- 20:06Lori Strasberg: In a crowded space program, stickiness is really important and, as privacy regulations tighten up, owning your channels and owning your data is super important.
- 20:19Lori Strasberg: So, understanding how other loyalty programs are approaching that and it's always fun to know what other programs are thinking about how to become truly special and memorable, particularly outside the travel space, because so much inspiration can really be found there and then applied in our space.
- 20:40Mark Johnson: Absolutely, and I think that's one of the things we do.
- 20:42Mark Johnson: We try to do very well, as we do our research topic every month, but we bring brands together in a fairly regular cadence to talk about the challenges that they're having, whether it's privacy, emotional loyalty you know, next generation customer loyalty metrics and the interest in the community of sharing versus not sharing.
- 21:01Mark Johnson: The reticence that's kind of went away and brands are very interested in kind of elevating and discussing, because I think that helps others understand what's working, what's not working, versus viewing everything as secret sauce or proprietary, which is which is great to see for the industry.
- 21:16Lori Strasberg: Yeah, I think that's right.
- 21:18Mark Johnson: Excellent, and now we have our quick fire session.
- 21:20Mark Johnson: Looking forward to these, what is your favorite word?
- 21:26Lori Strasberg: So I love these questions because they really make me think.
- 21:30Lori Strasberg: So my favorite word, both in business and personally, is growth.
- 21:37Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 21:37Mark Johnson: What is your least favorite word?
- 21:40Lori Strasberg: My least favorite word is can't.
- 21:43Mark Johnson: Okay, there's an interesting book out right now, magic Words, by Jonah Berger.
- 21:48Mark Johnson: He's a professor at the Wharton School.
- 21:51Mark Johnson: He said you should never use can't should always.
- 21:53Mark Johnson: You just don't, because can't implies there's an element of blame.
- 21:57Mark Johnson: Right where don't is internal locus control.
- 22:00Mark Johnson: So completely sidebar.
- 22:02Mark Johnson: I had a random book and the book just came out two weeks ago Amazing book, probably the best book I've ever read in the business world, by far.
- 22:08Mark Johnson: Yeah.
- 22:09Lori Strasberg: And I think you know, with the word can't, anything's possible.
- 22:13Lori Strasberg: It's just a matter of time and resources.
- 22:15Lori Strasberg: So prioritization is important, but you always can or I should say almost always can do something if you're willing to invest in it.
- 22:26Mark Johnson: Interesting.
- 22:27Mark Johnson: What excites you?
- 22:29Lori Strasberg: So I love trying new things and having new adventures, even when they're scary.
- 22:35Lori Strasberg: I tried skydiving, canyoning, a few things like that, and often been terrified but always thankful in the end that I pushed myself outside my comfort zone.
- 22:50Mark Johnson: What do you find tiresome?
- 22:52Lori Strasberg: People complaining.
- 22:54Mark Johnson: What is your favorite travel destination?
- 22:57Lori Strasberg: So my favorite place that I've been is New Zealand.
- 23:00Lori Strasberg: I went there on my honeymoon and I just found it so friendly and full of adventure and natural beauty.
- 23:08Lori Strasberg: And of course, they did have a female prime minister with a baby, so maybe someday the US will do the same.
- 23:16Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 23:16Mark Johnson: So what profession, other than the one you're in currently, would you like to attempt?
- 23:22Lori Strasberg: So I love what I'm doing now so I had to really think about this.
- 23:25Lori Strasberg: I think it would be super fun to be a guide for international trips, just to have people experience the world and experience the wonder of new places and meeting new people.
- 23:40Lori Strasberg: It's just such a special thing to experience and sharing that with others and guiding others to that I think would be a ton of fun.
- 23:51Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 23:53Mark Johnson: What profession would you avoid?
- 23:56Lori Strasberg: Anything having to do with blood and guts.
- 23:59Mark Johnson: Okay, who inspired you to become the person you are today?
- 24:04Lori Strasberg: So this was a little bit later in life, I suppose, but my husband has had huge influence on me and he really prioritizes people family and friends above all else, and being with him has just shown me how meaningful that can be.
- 24:24Mark Johnson: What do you typically think about at the end of the day?
- 24:26Lori Strasberg: So I think about how quickly I can get outside, especially on the days that I'm on a million calls back to back.
- 24:33Lori Strasberg: That's also when I walk the dog and she's very patient waiting for me all day, so I'm always happy to see her excitement to be able to get out with me.
- 24:44Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 24:44Mark Johnson: And what do you want to be remembered?
- 24:47Mark Johnson: How do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
- 24:50Lori Strasberg: So that's a really sad question in some way.
- 24:54Lori Strasberg: So hopefully being remembered is still a long way away, but I'd love to be known as someone who really kept my fire and my passion throughout my old age.
- 25:08Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 25:08Mark Johnson: Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today, Lori.
- 25:12Mark Johnson: It was great giving to know you and also getting to know more about the I Prefer program.
- 25:17Mark Johnson: Look forward to hearing more from you and the team in the coming years.
- 25:21Lori Strasberg: Of course.
- 25:22Lori Strasberg: Thank you so much for having me, and here's looking forward to a lot of news coming your way from our program in 2024 and beyond.
- 25:30Mark Johnson: Excellent, and thank you everyone for taking the time to listen today.
- 25:33Mark Johnson: Make sure you join us back for another edition of the Leaders in Customer Loyalty series and until then, have a wonderful day.