January 2013 has seen hotel loyalty program changes growing faster than hotel construction. The managers must be working late nights.

Wyndham Rewards changed from 4 to 7 reward categories for their brands. Kind of a shock to see a hotel award night rise from 16,000 points to 45,000 points with no warning. So far it looks like New York City hotels are the first awards to hit new high tiers.

Priority Club drops chain brand award tiers on January 18, 2013 for a nine (9) category award system at 5,000 point increments from 10,000 to 50,000 points per award night. Is this going to be a bad points devaluation? January 18 we will see.

Loads of new promotions with Q-1 2013 offers out from all the major chains.

January 2013 hotel loyalty promotions

Le Club Accorhotels - Read More…

Drury Hotels just received the J.D. Power & Associates award for “Highest in Guest Satisfaction Among Mid-Scale Limited Service Hotel Chains” for the 7th year in a row.

Drury Hotels $7 discount on Weekly e-Saver Rates

In celebration of the 7th consecutive award from J.D. Power, Drury Hotels is offering $7 off their weekly e-Saver rates for 7 weeks from July 25 to September 12, 2012.

Promotion: Stay 3 times and earn 10,000 Bonus Points.

Stay 3 times at a Drury Hotels brand between July 17 and October 31, 2012 and earn 10,000 bonus points. Only one bonus of 10,000 points may be earned per member during this promotion. Bonus points will be added to your account in November 2012. Read More…

July 2012 promotions from Top Ten hotel loyalty programs:

Links to my Loyalty Traveler posts provide more detail and promotion analysis for each offer.

Most hotel loyalty promotions are two to four months in duration.

The easiest way to quickly see a list of all hotel loyalty promotions discussed on Loyalty Traveler is to check my Loyalty Traveler Facebook page. All Loyalty Traveler post links feed into Twitter and all my tweets feed into Loyalty Traveler Facebook.

Summer 2012 hotel loyalty promotions

Le Club Accorhotels - this Europe-based program officially changed its name from A|Club to Le Club Accorhotels on March 28, 2012. Accor Hotels offers a variety of global regional bonuses and rate discounts. The program tends to have regionalized rate and bonus points promotions. Read More…

Drury Hotels, a chain with 130 hotels primarily in the Midwest, is celebrating being recognized by J.D. Power & Associates as one of the 2012 Top 50 Customer Service Champions among 800 brands in the U.S. by giving away free night certificates to ten winners.

From March 29 through April 4, 2012 simply “Like” Drury Hotels on Facebook and look for the Celebration Sweepstakes link. Enter the Sweepstakes with your name and email. You are allowed one online entry during the sweepstakes period.

Ten (10) winners will receive a certificate for one free night at any Drury Hotel valid for one year. Winners will be announced April 5 on the Drury Hotels Facebook page and also notified by email. Drury Sweepstakes T&C.

Drury Hotels is also a six-time repeat annual winner of the J.D. Power Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey for MidScale Limited Service Hotels released each July.

Entering the Drury Hotels sweepstakes should take less than a minute for a chance to win one free night.

Related Posts:

I have written a few articles on Drury Hotels and Drury Gold Key Club.

Drury Hotels Double Points Sep 20-Nov 20, 2011.

Drury Gold Key Club Triple Points Promotion April 1-May 31, 2011. This article describes Drury Hotels and the loyalty program.

Drury Hotels Gold Key Club 125,000 points Facebook Sweepstakes (10-20-2010).

Do a Marriott Courtyard and a Hilton Garden Inn have about the same room rate on average? How do Hyatt Place and Starwood Hotels aloft brands stack up in room rates?

STR and STR Global package hotel industry data. I like to read HotelNewsNow.com to see hotel industry trends and average room rates, although to get detailed information about hotel brands and places requires paying for information. I stick with the free stuff.

One of the valuable STR resources for me is the chain scale hotel list that categorizes hundreds of USA and global hotel brands on a scale of six market segments from economy to luxury. Hotel brands are placed on the scale solely using average daily rate as the factor. Note: the average daily rate data was added March 7 based on Smith Travel Research data for January 2012.

• Luxury = $262 ADR
• Upper Upscale = $148 ADR
• Upscale = $112 ADR
• Upper Midscale = $94 ADR
• Midscale = $73 ADR
• Economy = $50 ADR

Any specific hotel may have a large rate differential from another hotel in that brand, but the average rate says something about the brand overall across the hotel chain and across the USA and globe.

STR and STR Global have moved some hotel brands to a higher chain scale based on 2011 average daily rates.

• Best Western Premier moved from upper-midscale to upscale. Best Western launched a rebranding campaign in 2011 to distinguish the better hotels in the 4,000+ global chain.

All the other chains operate several different hotel brands across different market segments and Best Western finally got into the game with three tiers of Best Western, (3,000 or so hotels), Best Western Plus (1,000+ hotels) and Best Western Premier (over 100 hotels). The numbers given here are just rough estimates based on past data I have seen.

Best Western Premier moves to upscale hotels. My stay last year in Napa was a great room in an old motel style building. The room was definitely upscale.

Napa, California Best Western Premier Hotel Ivy

Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier Hotel.

Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier.

• Country Inns & Suites moved from midscale to upper-midscale. That is a huge accomplishment for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group working to become a more recognized name in the chain scale competition.

Upper midscale includes brands like Hampton Inn, Clarion, Best Western Plus, Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

Candlewood Suites, La Quinta and Ramada are examples of hotel brands in the midscale segment.

Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Four Points are in the higher upscale segment. The bad news for Club Carlson members is this chain segment change indicates rates are rising at Country Inns.

Loyalty Traveler note: This post originally had seven hotel brand changes based on a HotelNewsNow.com article (media arm of STR and STRGlobal). I received an email on March 7 stating HNN will issue a correction on their article and only Best Western Premier and Country Inns are changing in the hotel chain scale. I deleted references to the other hotel brands originally included in this post.

Drury Hotels has a double points offer for stays booked online at druryhotels.com by Drury Gold Key Club members. Registration is required for this offer. Bonus points will post in December 2011. Terms indicate this offer is for new reservations booked since September 20.

Drury Gold Key regular rate for earning points is 10 points/$1. Double points is 20 points/$1. Free rooms start at 7,500 points; equivalent to $375 in hotel spend with this double points offer. Most Drury Hotels offer free nights for 10,000 points while some of the premier properties go for 20,000 points.

New Drury Gold Key members earn 1,000 points for loyalty program enrollment.

Drury Hotels have been ranked  #1 in guest satisfaction for the past six consecutive years in the annual J.D. Power and Associates  North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Studies for limited service midscale hotel chains in the U.S.

The map of Drury Hotel locations shows 125 hotels in the U.S.

Here is a link to a Loyalty Traveler previous article on Drury Hotels with more descriptive information on the hotel brand.

Drury Gold Key Club Triple Points Promotion April 1-May 31, 2011.

Stay three times at Drury Hotels between April 1 and May 31, 2011 and all your stays earn triple points for the promotion period, even if more than three stays. Checkout date determines stay date for promotion. Bonus points will be deposited into your account in June.

Drury Gold Key Club Triple Points promotion Registration is required.

What are Drury Hotels?

You may be asking yourself – I did.  I was unfamiliar with Drury Hotels when I saw in August 2010 the Drury Hotels chain was the only 5-circle ranked hotel chain in the 2010 J.D. Power Overall Guest Satisfaction Index for the Midscale Limited Service Hotels market segment. This brand has been the top rated mid-scale hotel brand for the past five years in the JD Power & Associates annual survey.

Here is a compelling email ad from Drury Hotels and indicates many of the benefits that probably lead to high guest satisfaction in surveys.

Drury Hotels ad for free amenities during hotel stays

Drury Hotels are based out of St. Louis, Missouri. There are around 120 hotels in 19 states, mostly in the Midwest and southern states. No hotels in California or Pacific Northwest, no hotels in the northeast U.S., and nothing in Florida.

Here is a Drury Hotels property list link.

If you find yourself in a location and see Drury Hotel then you know you have a popular place due to free hot breakfast, free 5:30pm hot food snack with free cold drinks (beer is shown in the website photo), free wi-fi and phone calls. That sounds like guest satisfaction to me.

Drury Gold Key Club

New members enrolling in Gold Key Club receive 1,000 bonus points.

Earn rate: 10 points per dollar. 3x points = 30 points/$1 for this promotion.

Members with 20 room nights in a 365-day period earn Inner Circle status and an additional 5 bonus points per dollar in hotel spend.

Drury Gold Key Club Membership Rules.

Burn Rate: Hotel room nights require 7,500 to 50,000 points. The triple points promotion will earn sufficient points with just $250 in hotel spend for a free night at the 7,500 points level.

Loyalty Traveler 4-Key promotion means this is likely one of the best promotions you will see for a midscale chain in 2011 providing an opportunity to earn free nights for middle America travelers staying in Drury Hotels.

Enter the Drury Hotels Facebook Sweepstakes by Friday October 22, 11pm CDT for a chance to win 125,000 Gold Key Club points.

Simply enroll in Drury Gold Key Club and you earn 1,000 enrollment bonus points. Then go to Facebook.

http://www.Facebook.com/DruryHotels and “Like” the Drury Hotels page. 

Fill out the sweepstakes form on the Facebook page and you will have a chance to win.

This is a short promotion period of just a little over 100 hours so I’d say that makes odds of winning rather good. 

125,000 points is sufficient for 15 free nights at the lowest category hotels or about 3 to 4 free nights at upper category properties.

What are Drury Hotels?

You may be asking yourself – I did.  I was unfamiliar with Drury Hotels when I saw in August the Drury Hotels chain was the only 5-circle ranked hotel chain in the 2010 J.D. Power Overall Guest Satisfaction Index for the Midscale Limited Service Hotels market segment.

Drury Hotels are based out of St. Louis, Missouri. There are around 120 hotels, mostly in the Midwest and southern states. No hotels in California or Pacific Northwest, no hotels in the northeast U.S., and nothing in Florida.

Here is a Drury Hotels property list link.

But if you find yourself in a location and see Drury Hotel then you know you have a popular place due to free hot breakfast, free 5:30pm hot food snack with free cold drinks (beer is shown in the website photo), free wi-fi and phone calls. That sounds like guest satisfaction to me.

And 125,000 points will give you an opportunity to test run this hotel brand if you have not already discovered Drury Hotels.