The new Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey from Ideaworks, a Wisconsin-based company that regularly publishes reports on the travel industry, named Marriott Rewards the most rewarding hotel loyalty program in terms of its reward payback — the ratio between the cost of a reward night in points and its relative cost in dollars.

The study analyzed 1,440 reward queries for key hotel brands in four global loyalty programs: Hilton HHonors, IHG Rewards, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. Marriott received a reward payback of 9.4 percent, while Hilton, IHG and Starwood were found to have 8.9 percent, 8.6 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.

“Consumers want ‘apples-to-apples’ measurements from their loyalty programs to know who is being truly generous with their rewards,” said Daniel Farrar, CEO, Switchfly. “That’s why we launched the Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey: to determine the average reward payback for each program and see how they compare against each other. Determining the average reward payback for each loyalty program will become increasingly important as more hotel chains allow customers to pay with points.

“There are several ways in which hotel loyalty programs can meet and surpass consumer expectations: frequent promotions with concierge-quality services available to lower-tier members; automated check-ins without staff interaction; WiFi (which is no longer an amenity, but a requirement). It’s a brave new world for hotels,” said Farrar.

The study also evaluated the value of reward points, helping members who wish to assess the value of their account balances. Dividing the room price (including local taxes) by the number of points per query provides a simple value to the point currency used by individual programs. SPG points measure at $0.029 per point, valuing more than three times those of IHG and Marriott, each measuring $0.009.

Visit the website to discover more insight about valuation and the study’s methodology.

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