The Loyalty Wake-Up Call
Blurry on purpose... like you just woke up!
Guest Loyalty Doesn’t Need to Be Boring… It Needs to Evolve
For as long as you can remeber, hotel loyalty programs have followed a familiar playbook: enroll guests, assign them points, and reward them after enough nights, dollars, or stays. While this model worked in an era of delayed gratification, today’s travelers demand more. They expect value now, recognition throughout their journey, and rewards that reflect their lifestyle—not just the brand’s bottom line.
At Laasie, we believe loyalty needs to evolve. It needs to break free from the rigidity of points-only models and embrace the power of instant gratification. In this post, we explore how the hospitality industry can revitalize guest loyalty, enhance the guest experience, and ultimately drive more direct revenue by combining points-based structures with modern reward mechanics.
The Loyalty Wake-Up Call
Hotel brands are spending more than ever on loyalty programs—yet many guests feel like they get less value than before. The truth? Most loyalty programs today suffer from three key problems:
Guests feel forgotten between stays. Months can pass between visits, and guests receive little to no engagement. Out of sight, out of mind.
Points are confusing and slow to deliver value. Accrual rules, blackout dates, and complex redemption paths make the guest journey frustrating instead of rewarding.
Smaller brands and independents can’t compete. With limited resources, they struggle to offer the same scale or perceived value of a major brand’s program.
Today’s traveler is different. They’re more digitally savvy, more spontaneous, and more selective about where they spend their money. And crucially, they expect value at every step—not just someday down the line.
What Today’s Guest Actually Wants
We live in the age of Uber, Amazon, and TikTok—a world driven by instant access and gratification. Guests want experiences that are:
Immediate: Value should come at the point of engagement, not weeks or months later.
Personalized: Rewards should reflect their interests, location, and lifestyle.
Simple: Guests don’t want to read a rulebook to understand how to benefit.
Flexible: One-size-fits-all rewards don’t make sense for a traveler who values local, diverse, or unique experiences.
Modern loyalty must cater to these expectations. And for that, we need a new approach.
Where Points Still Work (But Fall Short Alone)
Let’s be clear: points-based programs aren’t going away. When done right, they provide structure and long-term value. Points and tiers can be effective tools for:
Building brand equity
Rewarding high-frequency guests
Creating aspirational goals (e.g., free nights, elite status)
But points alone are no longer enough. They don’t create moments of delight during the booking process. They don’t bring lapsed guests back. And they certainly don’t help independent hotels without the infrastructure to build complex programs.
What’s needed is a way to bring instant value into the picture—without cannibalizing existing systems.
The Power of Instant Rewards
This is where Laasie shines. We enable hotels to offer instant, branded, and personalized rewards at key touchpoints across the guest journey.
From the moment a guest books direct, they can receive an immediate reward—ranging from digital gift cards to popular brands, to local experiences, to wellness products and more. It’s a simple message:
"Book with us, and we’ll thank you instantly."
These rewards aren’t just perks. They’re conversion tools, loyalty builders, and data engines. And because they’re offered in real-time, they match the guest’s expectations around immediacy and personalization.
Boosting Your Existing Loyalty Program
For brands already running a points program, instant rewards don’t replace—they enhance.
Think of it like this:
Top of Funnel: Offer a reward to first-time direct bookers to encourage a shift from OTA.
Middle Funnel: Reward loyalty program sign-ups or email opt-ins.
Bottom Funnel: Drive upsells, return visits, or app downloads with targeted instant rewards.
Each of these interactions builds toward long-term loyalty—but they also deliver short-term results. That’s the dual power of this model.
A Game-Changer for Independent Hotels
Perhaps the biggest winners in this evolution? Independent hotels and smaller brands.
Traditional points programs are expensive to manage and difficult to scale. They require:
A robust back-end system
CRM and PMS integration
Frequent guest tracking and redemptions
Long-term cost forecasting
Laasie’s solution works out-of-the-box. There are no apps to download. No points to manage. Just real rewards, delivered in real time, based on real guest behavior.
This allows independents to:
Launch a loyalty-like program in weeks, not months
Offer branded rewards on a month-to-month basis
Compete with big chains on experience and value
And because Laasie is performance-based, you only pay when a reward drives a result.
Real Results from Real Hotels
We’ve partnered with leading independent and branded hotel groups to bring this model to life—and the results speak for themselves:
43% increase in booking conversion for properties using Laasie Convert
22% increase in direct bookings when rewards are layered into the booking path
3x loyalty program sign-ups with incentive-driven registration
94% guest satisfaction with instant reward experiences
One partner, Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, saw a significant boost in member acquisition and retention by integrating Laasie into their existing booking flow.
Another, Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, used instant rewards to target high-intent lookers and convert them in real time—improving ROI on digital spend.
Loyalty is Your New Data Engine
There’s a hidden benefit to evolving your loyalty strategy: data.
First-party data is becoming more critical as third-party cookies fade into history. With Laasie, every reward interaction is an opportunity to capture valuable guest preferences and behaviors:
What categories of rewards do they choose?
When do they engage?
What campaigns drive the most conversion?
All of this fuels better marketing, more personalized messaging, and smarter retention strategies.
Loyalty is no longer just about recognition—it’s about intelligence.
The Loyalty Stack of the Future
If we had to summarize our philosophy, it’s this:
Loyalty should be a layered strategy, not a single solution.
At Laasie, we see a modern loyalty stack that includes:
Instant Rewards (base): High-frequency, high-impact touchpoints that deliver immediate value.
Milestone & Trigger-Based Rewards: Automate incentives around guest behaviors (e.g., return visits, upsells, referrals).
Tiers (top layer): Long-term engagement, status recognition, and aspirational rewards.
Together, these tools create a loyalty ecosystem that is:
Flexible
Scalable
Personal
Profitable
What to Do Next
Whether you’re managing an enterprise loyalty program or running a boutique hotel, the next steps are the same:
Identify behaviors you want to influence. Are you trying to convert OTA guests? Encourage app downloads? Re-engage past bookers?
Layer in instant rewards. Use these touchpoints to deliver value immediately and capture guest data in the process.
Evaluate results in weeks. Don’t wait months or years. See ROI within your current quarter.
With Laasie, you don’t need to overhaul your entire loyalty strategy to get started. You just need to start rewarding the moments that matter most to your guests.
Final Thoughts
Loyalty doesn’t have to be boring. It doesn’t have to be expensive. And it certainly doesn’t have to follow the same tired formula.
Today’s traveler is evolving—and your loyalty strategy should too.
Let Laasie help you create loyalty that’s modern, meaningful, and measurable.