Hotels.com The Great Unloyaling promotion offers new members and existing members who have never made a Hotels.com booking the opportunity to earn one free night after making first reservation through the program. This can be a high value offer worth up to $400 if you plan your hotel stays to maximize the free night offer.

How It Works:

• Must be U.S. resident and 18 years of age and either a new member of Hotels.com WelcomeRewards or an existing member who has never made a WelcomeRewards.com booking.
• Register at http://www.keycardcollectors.com/ and fill out form.
• Within 24 hours you should receive an email confirmation of keycardcollectors promotion registration.
• Send proof of 3 hotel stays in 3 separate major hotel loyalty programs since 1/1/2011 or proof of 5 hotel stays in any major hotel loyalty program since 2011.
• Any official receipt, email receipt, screenshot that shows you stayed in three different hotels is acceptable. There appears to be no requirement that these hotel stays earned loyalty points so they can be award stays or Cash & Points stays.
• Send statement proof within 45 days of promotion registration by email, mail or fax to:
  • E-mail: wrpromo@hotels.com
  •  Mail: Hotels.com, c/o WelcomeRewards, 10440 N. Central
    Expressway, Suite 800, Dallas, Texas 75231
  •  Fax: Toll Free (866) 362 – 2606
• When you sign up you are enrolled in Hotels.com FiveStar program until December 31, 2011.
• You will receive a coupon code for your first booking in the FiveStar enrollment confirmation email.
• Complete a hotel booking on Hotels.com using the coupon code and complete your stay by November 15, 2011.
• After you have completed your qualifying stay and your hotel loyalty activity has been verified (hotel stays in three hotels from different major loyalty programs or five stays in hotels in any major loyalty program since 1/1/2011 ), your account will be updated to include a free night for the value of the average room night from your completed Hotels.com stay.
• The free night will appear in the form of 10 Hotels.com WelcomeRewards credits for the value of the average room night from your initial Hotels.com booking, with a maximum value of $400.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

I see two ways to play this promotion.

Low Spender: You can use this to book a cheap room night on Hotels.com, for say $60 to $100 at a hotel. You will earn the free night credits for another room at the same price you paid for the first room night. This is basically a two-for-one hotel nights deal.

High Spender: The real value opportunity I see here is to take advantage of a high priced property or resort that doesn’t have a loyalty program or does not have a good value promotion. This can also be a good opportunity to book a premium suite room and know that the actual rate will be cut in half with your future free night.

For example: Taj Campton Place, San Francisco is a 5-star hotel at Union Square. Hotels.com shows the rate as $342 for September 23, 2011. Campton Place One bedroom King bed suite is $482.

If I book the $482 suite, then my WelcomeRewards free night value will be the maximum full $400 credit for the free night booking. I can book some other high priced hotel and get $400 off the rate.

Las Vegas is a place where a high cost room night can result in a significant savings using Hotels.com. The Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn Encore and Mandarin Oriental are examples of 5-star high cost hotels in Las Vegas. Book one night, even a suite (Wynn Encore $289 Tower Suite Wed. Sep 21) and you will have credit for a future night at the same price anywhere in the world you can book on Hotels.com.

This is a good opportunity to get a high value rebate when staying at an independent hotel. Many ski resorts, beach resorts and major cities have luxury independent hotels where this deal pays off nicely for booking the hotel through Hotels.com. Europe and other international locations have many hotels not affiliated with a major hotel loyalty program.

Bottom line: This is good deal for a Buy One, Get One Free room night that can be used for a free room at whatever price point you desire up to $400 credit for your free night after booking one paid night. Your free night is good for the same value as your paid night average so you can pick your own price point from less than $50 up to $400 and pay for one night and get a future night free.

Not too shabby for compiling three to five hotel stay receipts to send off to Hotels.com.

I personally qualify for this offer and I have been balking at the high rates in San Francisco for a weekend trip my wife wants to take with her friends in peak season September for the City. This looks like the time to take advantage of Hotels.com for my first booking.

This two bonus nights promotion is only for new U.S. members to the Hotels.com WelcomeRewards hotel loyalty program. The basic deal with Hotels.com WelcomeRewards is a free night after every 10 nights at any of 65,000 hotels booked through Hotels.com. This Challenge promotion gives an extra free night bonus  after 15 nights and 30 nights completed by October 1, 2011.  Bonus free nights have a $150 value.

Hotels.com WelcomeRewards Challenge  promotion link.

WelcomeRewards free night is normally the average rate paid from the 10 nights you purchased at Hotels.com. This WelcomeRewards Challenge has the feature of offering a bonus night after 15 nights and 30 nights worth $150 in Hotels.com credit. This gives a promotion leverage potential for anyone paying under $150 night average rates.

One of WelcomeRewards terms appears to allow only one free night per hotel booking.

“Limit one (1) reward night per booking. If you have accumulated more than one reward night, you may choose which reward night to apply to a particular booking.”

WelcomeRewards Terms & Conditions

WelcomeRewards Example: $100 per night average room rate

• Assume you pay an average $100 per night at Hotels.com.
• After completing 10 purchased nights you earn a $100 credit for another hotel night at Hotels.com.
• After 15 nights earn another $150 credit with WelcomeRewards Challenge.
• Pay $1,500 for 15 hotel room nights and get $250 in hotel credit = 16.7% rebate.
• Pay $3,000 for 30 hotel room nights and get $600 in hotel credit = 20% rebate.
• After 30 nights by October 1, 2011 you will be able to book two future hotel nights with $150 per night credit and three hotel nights with a $100 per night credit
• You can always book a more expensive room at Hotels.com for your free night and pay the rate difference of your credit and the hotel room rate.

WelcomeRewards Example: $50 per night average room rate

• Assume you pay an average $50 per night at Hotels.com.
• After completing 10 purchased nights you earn a $50 credit for another hotel night at Hotels.com.
• After 15 nights earn another $150 credit with WelcomeRewards Challenge.
• Pay $750 for 15 hotel room nights and get $200 in hotel credit = 26.7% rebate.
• Pay $1,500 for 30 hotel room nights and get $450 in hotel credit = 30% rebate.
• After 30 nights you can book two future hotel nights with $150 per night credit and three hotel nights with a $50 per night credit.
• You can always book a more expensive room at Hotels.com for your free night and pay the rate difference of your credit and the hotel room rate.

welcomerewards® Refer-a-Friend Email Program

There is a referral program to give a free night to a WelcomeRewards member referrer for any member referee who signs up for the challenge and stays 15 nights. If this Challenge looks like something of interest to you -please consider using my email, ricgarrido@loyaltytraveler.com as referrer.

I’ll check back in a year and see if I have any free night credits.

Or pick a spouse, relative or friend to earn more free nights by using the referrer-referee opportunity.  

WelcomeRewards Challenge Quiz

There is a sweepstakes quiz portion to the challenge for current members of WelcomeRewards. Answer three simple questions about Hotels.com and WelcomeRewards and be entered to win a Flip Ultra Camcorder. You can enter once per day through December 31.

WelcomeRewards Challenge Quiz rules.

Hotels.com advantage over traditional hotel loyalty programs

65,000 hotels are a competitive advantage for Hotels.com. Wyndham Rewards, Choice Hotels, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) are the three largest hotel chains globally.

Wyndham has 13 brands with over 7,000 hotels and continues to acquire new hotel brands every year.

Choice Hotels has 11 hotel brands and more than 6,000 hotels globally.

Wyndham Rewards and Choice Privileges provide hotel loyalty programs for hotels priced in the economy hotel market segment. These tend to be more Mom & Pop type owned and managed hotels.

IHG has around 4,500 hotel properties, most famously Holiday Inn brands, and IHG is the largest hotel chain globally by number of rooms.

Hotels.com Welcome Rewards has the advantage of many hotel choices across all hotel chains. There is a rebate potential in the 20% to 30% range if you use this promotion on inexpensive hotel nights through the WelcomeRewards loyalty program.

WelcomeRewards is a good rebate opportunity when staying at hotels that are not otherwise in a hotel loyalty program like Priority Club, Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges and such. You will generally get a better rebate value, potentially in excess of 30% by taking advantage of hotel loyalty program promotions from the major hotel chains.

Hotel.com WelcomeRewards Challenge for new U.S. members

“Consumers should remember that hotel affordability across the world has not been this good since 2004.” – David Roche, President Hotels.com 

Hotels.com Hotel Price Index is a good report for the frequent guest to gauge global hotel prices and price changes over the past year. There are many tables and graphs for the reader accompanied with some insightful commentary that coincides with industry forecasts from other sources I’ve read this summer.

The survey provides travel destination indicators like Bali, Indonesia. Hotel prices have gone through the roof year-over-year – up 57% from $129 per night 2009-Q2 to $203 per night 2010-Q2 in the wake of ”Eat, Pray, Love” fascination with this location. A flood of tourism dollars is a good sort of tsunami for the region, but rapidly inflated prices steer me to better value locations for my travels.

Bargain destinations like Ireland and Portugal may be the better choice for a budget vacation.  Eastern Europe is giving out great value for travel dollars.

The Hotel Price Index preface notes by David Roche, President of Hotels.com, indicate hotel room rates have shown a global rise, about 2% year-over-year for the first time since 2007.  

Asia is recovering most rapidly. Singapore and Bali aid that growth.

Much of North America, Europe and the Middle East are sitting at hotel rates common to 2004. David Roche points to corporate travel picking up more in North America than in Europe in 2010.

And staycations seem here to stay. Recession travel. There are tables showing the average room rates for the 50 states and major cities.

Hotels.com Hotel Price Index survey

1. Global price changes in the first half of 2010
   Overall
   By region
2. Price changes in global destinations
   Prices across the world’s top cities
   Most expensive destinations
   Highest price rises and falls
3. U.S. hotel prices by state
4. U.S. hotel prices by city
5. Caribbean and Latin American destinations
6. European city destinations
7. Prices paid at home and away
8. Where to go for $150 or $100 per night
9. Average room prices by star rating
10. Luxury for less
11. Travel habits
    Top U.S. destinations for U.S. travelers
    Top overseas destinations for U.S. travelers
    Top U.S. destinations for travelers from overseas

I particularly like the sections “Where to Go for $150 and $100 per night” and “Average room prices by star rating”. Cities where I can expect to find a 4-star hotel for $150 per night is the kind of information I find valuable for travel planning.

“Average Room Prices by Star Rating” table shows a European vacation can be upscale and significantly cheaper if you stay in hotels in countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. 4-star hotels may be half the rate in cities around these countries compared to Paris, Rome and London.

I look most closely at the spread between the 3-star, 4-star and 5-star room rates. In Europe I particularly prefer the 4-star rating due to several experiences in unacceptable 3-star hotels. I am looking for a place where there is a low spread in room rates between 4-star and 3-star hotels and a high spread between 4-star and 5-star.  A place like Amsterdam shows a 4-star hotel is on average $36 more than a 3-star hotel. The rate difference is a high $72 to move up to 5-star room rates. This is a good example of a city where the step up to 4-star is half the cost compared to the step up from 4-star to 5-star rates.

15 cities with the best 5-star value is another great table for cities where a luxury hotel is still available for under $200 per night. Las Vegas is the only cheap hotel destination in the USA.

New York City just blows my mind with its room rates. $150 per night doesn’t even buy a 2-star hotel room. $300 is the average room rate for a 4-star hotel. When I wrote about the InterContinental Hotel New York Times Square yesterday all I could think is how I could save $500 to $600 per night on this luxury hotel by using 40,000 points. Loyalty points are a great investment travel plan if you have need for NYC hotel rooms and you are paying your own bill.

There are several Starwood resorts in Portugal on my bucket list and  I see Cash & Points awards at 4,000 points + $60 for a hotel like the Convento de Espinheiro, Evora. Provided the right SPG promotion I might even go for 149€ per night. My frequent flyer accounts call to me – redeem.

So why is my hotel award so much more?

Hotels.com has released their 7^th annual Hotel Price Index (HPI). This Expedia owned company has extensive hotel data from over 94,000 hotels in 16,000 locations globally, providing comprehensive data on the state of the hotel industry.

This is a fantastic resource for hotel rate data. There are plenty of visuals with geographic detail on hotel rate changes around the world in the 38 page report. You can even see a breakdown of US states and major cities to get an idea of average hotel rates in your location.

Bottom line is hotel rates dropped significantly over 2009. The HPI states hotel rates were actually lower at the end of 2009 than they were at the time of the first set of hotel rate data gathered in the first quarter of 2004.

This might be helpful in planning your vacation if you want to get an idea of where to find the bargain travel destinations. Or perhaps you want to know where the jet set are vacationing? Could it be Capri?

Link to Hotel Price Index Study – March 2010

All good stories come to an end, and sequels rarely match the original offer. Hotels.com launched WelcomeRewards in July 2008 with a simple proposition: Book and stay at any Hotels.com property partner with a Price Match Guarantee sticker and a base rate of at least $40 and the member earns a free night for any hotel up to $400 value after accumulating 10 nights within 18 months. Qualifying hotel night credits expire after 18 months.

My initial review of the Hotels.com WelcomeRewards program launched July 10, 2008 was highly favorable.

“WelcomeRewards is the first loyalty program I have seen to emerge from the online travel agencies that holds significant value comparable to the corporate chain frequent guest programs like Marriott Rewards, Hilton HHonors, and Starwood Preferred Guest.  I look forward to seeing how the hotels.com program evolves.” – Loyalty Traveler, July 25, 2008

The potential to leverage 10 cheap hotel nights into a luxury hotel night worth $400 is definitely a great deal for some travelers. A $40 night here and a $60 night there over the course of 18 months had potential for a high value rebate on your total Hotels.com hotel spending.

Here are the program details highlighting the major features of WelcomeRewards and changes.

Welcome Rewards Program Current Rules for Bookings made before March 9, 2010

1.       You receive one loyalty credit for each qualifying night’s stay booked on Hotels.com at a Price Match Guarantee property priced at $40 or more before taxes and fees.

2.       Bookings must be made on US hotels.com site.

3.       Package bookings and bookings using a coupon do not qualify.

4.       Hotel credits expire after 18 months.

5.       Maximum of 10 free nights (100 WelcomeRewards credits) can be earned in a calendar year.

6.       Maximum value of free night is $400 before taxes and fees and must be a Price Match Guarantee hotels.com partner property.

WelcomeRewards Changes Effective March 9, 2010

1.       Any loyalty credit earned before March 9, 2010 will be subject to new rules.

2.       The minimum room rate for earning loyalty credits is removed, but must be more than $0.00.

3.       Hotel credits expire after 36 months.

4.       Any loyalty credits earned before March 9, 2010 which have not yet expired will receive a new expiration date of March 8, 2013.

5.       There is no limit on free nights earned in a calendar year.

6.       The value of the free night will be valued at the average daily rate paid for the 10 qualifying nights.

7.       The reward night can be used for a higher priced room than your WelcomeRewards credit value, but member must pay the room rate difference.

Sources: Hotels.com WelcomeRewards webpage on March 9, 2010 program changes

Hotels.com Terms & Conditions for WelcomeRewards

In effect, WelcomeRewards has removed the leverage factor whereby a member could get great reward value from low priced hotel stays. Currently a person can stay 10 nights in a $40 per night room and then redeem the credits for a $400 per night hotel. Spending $400 and receiving a $400 credit was the potential leverage factor that made WelcomeRewards a viable alternative to hotel loyalty programs for the frequent traveler desiring flexibility in hotel choice.

Next month the rule changes mean the $40 per night average rate paid by a hotel.com guest will only earn a $40 hotel value credit after 10 nights.

And you thought the Hilton HHonors changes were bad!

Here is a positive note in the 2010 hotel loyalty program scene. Carlson Hotels GoldPoints Plus program has eliminated FlexNights Premium award levels for free nights. The program also lowered the cost for a free night at nearly 30% of their 1,000+ hotels.  

Loyalty Traveler will take a closer look at the GoldPoints Plus program later this week. In this tough hotel economic climate there are programs making consumer-oriented changes and there are programs repositioning their value through loyalty member takeaways.

Thanks to Jeff B. for bringing the WelcomeRewards changes to my attention.

San Francisco seems like a good place to hang out for St. Patrick’s Day. There are quite a number of Irish pubs in the City.

Tuesday night hotel rates in San Francisco can be astronomical at any time of year.  Find yourself in town on a convention night and the upper upscale hotel room is going for $350+ per night. Hit a quiet weekend night or holiday and rates can plummet to $90 for a four star and $120 for a five star hotel and all its associated loyalty program benefits.

Starwood Hotel Rates

San Francisco,

Tuesday night March 17, 2009 (St. Patrick’s Day)

Fisherman’s Wharf is the best rate, but a Union Square/Market Street hotel is going to be more conducive to a pub crawl.

San Francisco has a 14% hotel room tax and at $189 for Westin Market, the one night hotel rate is going to cash out at $216 for a night. I want a better priced option than that.

Kayak.com Comparison for Hotel Rates

A quick survey of Kayak.com rates showed discrepancies between Westin Market Street displayed for $129 at Hotels.com and The Palace Hotel at $119 at HotelClub.net.

I tested the Palace Hotel with HotelClub.net and the system kicked me out near the end of the booking process. When I restarted my search the room rate for the Palace Hotel increased to $249. I also tried other sites still showing a $119 rate for the Palace Hotel and all searches resulted in a rate change with the third party online travel agency to the rate shown on Starwood Hotels sites.

I tried the Westin Market Street through Hotels.com and the rate actually came up even lower at $109 for a Traditional room and the rate was bookable. Even better, an added value certificate for $50 on a future two night Hotels.com booking would accompany the $109 room rate.

I rechecked the Starwood site and the lowest priced room for the Westin Market Street was $169 and called a Grand Deluxe. The Starwood Hotels internet rate had dropped $20 on the room between 6:11pm and 6:53pm.

The Palace Hotel had also dropped in price during the hour, from $249 to $211.

I filed a Best Rate Guarantee claim for the Westin Market Street citing the $109 rate at 6:57pm, March 12, 2009.

Westin Market Street Hotel, San Francisco

The Day After

I checked my email this morning and there was nothing from Starwood Hotels Best Rate Guarantee.

I checked SPG.com for St. Patrick’s Day hotel rates in San Francisco. The Westin Market Street was still listed at $169 for a Grand Deluxe room at 8:00am, March 13.

I saw another opportunity for a BRG claim at the Le Meridien San Francisco for this weekend at $119 on Hotels.com compared to $139 at Starwood Hotels sites.

I checked a few times today looking for the Starwood BRG email, but nothing came.

5:40pm March 13, 2009; Starwood Hotels response came 22 hours, 43 minutes after filing my BRG claim for the San Francisco Westin Market Street. My claim was approved. The Starwood rate is $233.75 and if I book a room at that rate within 24 hours, then my rate will be adjusted to $109 and I will also receive 2,000 Starpoints (a $70 value) for a successful BRG claim.

The $233.75 rate puzzled me so I went to SPG.com and searched rates.  The Westin Market Street rate was displayed as $289. When I selected the hotel rate , the rate dropped to $159 for a Premier room. Premier is a higher category room for $30 less than last night’s initial search showing a Grand Deluxe San Francisco hotel room on the Starwood sites for $189.

The fundamental question I considered these past 24 hours was whether a hotel chain, not Starwood per se, but in general,  ‘Could a hotel skirt the best rate guarantee by just altering inventory to move cheap rooms through third party sites?’ 

A hotel chain could maintain higher category rooms at higher prices on its own sites at times for the guest who doesn’t search around to get better rates or from loyal customers who may not go elsewhere to compare rates.  Best rate guarantees that do go through could technically be voided because the room types are not the same when a lower category room is on a third party site and that room is not bookable online at the hotel chain’s own site.

The point was moot anyhow since Starwood Hotels honored my Best Rate Guarantee claim for $109, a rate $60 less than the $169 Starwood rate for the Westin Market Street, San Francisco, despite the room types being different between the Starwood Hotels and Hotels.com sites.

Hotels.com showed the rate at $229 for March 17, 2009 when I checked just after I received the email of my successful Best Rate Guarantee claim.

TripAdvisor.com is growing at an incredible rate.  I primarily use the site for hotel reviews.  There are also travel forums for discussion, restaurant reviews and recommendations, and destination guides.

In July when I was “mile-high” in Denver I wrote a post, Online Hotel Reviews, comparing TripAdvisor.com to other hotel review sites and its dominance for online hotel reviews.  Looking at the post again today I noticed it was littered with inaccurate assumptions which led to incorrect mathematical analysis of the data.  I had made the assumption that the 1% of site visitors making consumer-generated comments were all hotel reviews when they actually include all types of comments from bulletin board forums to restaurant and sight-seeing recommendations.  I’ll blame my inaccurate analysis on oxygen-deprivation for this California coastal kid writing on the high plains of Colorado.    

The main point I made then and now is TripAdvisor.com is way ahead of the pack for sheer numbers of consumer-generated online hotel reviews. 

TripAdvisor’s media network includes www.Airfarewatchdog.com,  www.BookingBuddy.com,  www.CruiseCritic.com, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.theindependenttraveler.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com,  www.travel-library.com,  www.travelpod.com,  and www.tripadvisor.com.  Expedia.com is the parent corporate entity of this online travel site empire.

And with the financial backing of Expedia, TripAdvisor’s parent company, the social media website acquisitions of TripAdvisor makes this travel conglomerate the Bank of America of online travel research and search sites.  24 million unique monthly visitors and over 6 million registered members is an incredible database for the TripAdvisor-branded websites.

Tripadvisor fact sheet 

TripAdvisor does not actually sell hotel rooms.  Revenue is generated from pay-per-click sponsored ads on the webpage.  For example, looking at the Omni San Francisco Hotel webpage on TripAdvisor, there were 12 sponsored links for booking the Omni San Francisco Hotel through 8 different websites:  hotels.com (an Expedia family website), Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Omni Hotels, HotelClub.com (Orbitz owned), CheapTickets.com (Orbitz owned), Priceline.com, and Otel.com.

From the top of the page the first booking option for the Omni Hotel is a toll-free telephone ad for hotels.com (Expedia owned).  The box below that has four sponsored links: Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Omni Hotels, and Hotels.com.  Two of these links are Expedia booking sites.

Further down the page were four more sponsored links: HotelClub.com (Orbitz owned); CheapTickets.com (Orbitz owned); Priceline.com, and Otel.com.  The bottom of the webpage showed the same sponsored links as the top box.

While there were 12 sponsored links and one telephone toll-free number for actually booking the hotel from the main TripAdvisor webpage for the Omni San Francisco, the fact of the matter is five of these options are Expedia-owned websites and four are Orbitz-owned websites.  Omni Hotels has its own sponsored link appearing twice.  The other two sponsored link options were Priceline.com and Otel.com.

This analysis doesn’t help the consumer in determining which website link will have the lowest room price.  I am just looking at the webpage options provided to the consumer for this hotel property and the fact that most links from TripAdvisor go to Expedia or Orbitz companies.

Share of Online Travel Agency referrals from TripAdvisor for April 2008

Compete.com is a website analytics company that analyzes consumer behavior.  A Compete.com travel research report from July looked at the actual percentage of TripAdvisor referrals going to the different online travel agencies for the month of April 2008.

·         Expedia 48%

·         Travelocity 19%

·         Orbitz 16%

·         Hotels.com 11%  (Expedia)

·         Priceline 5%

·         Cheaptickets 1% (Orbitz)

·         Hotwire <1%  (Expedia)

Source: http://www.competeinc.com/research/newsletters/july-2008-travel-research/

The interesting aspect of this data is the large percentage of referrals going to Travelocity.com who had no sponsored links on the TripAdvisor webpage I studied for the Omni San Francisco hotel and few sponsored links on several other TripAdvisor hotel review pages I searched.  A few years ago (2005?) there was a Cornell Center for Hospitality Research report showing Travelocity.com most frequently had the lowest hotel rates of the Online Travel Agencies.  I have no idea if that would have any validity now in 2008.  I always book through the hotel owned websites for the best deal or seek the Best Rate Guarantee from the hotel company when I occasionally find a better rate with an online travel agency.

Compete.com had another interesting report posted September 11, 2008 analyzing the search traffic share for seven major online travel agencies.  The data reflects all travel search, not just hotels.  Expedia is the online search leader.

Online Travel Agency search share for July 07-July 08  (Expedia at 26% is referenced in the article and the other numbers are my estimates based on the Compete.com chart shown here)

·         Expedia 26%

·         Travelocity 17%

·         Orbitz 16%

·         Hotels.com 10%

·         Priceline 13%

·         Cheaptickets 10%

·         Hotwire 7%

Another chart in this report shows the percentage of paid search traffic to Online Travel Agencies (OTA).  36% of all search traffic comes through sponsored links.  The discussion at the beginning of this post regarding sponsored links on the hotel review webpages of TripAdvisor.com seems to correlate somewhat with this data.  Hotels.com has the highest percentage of visitors accessing the site through sponsored links (44%) and Hotels.com is also the most prominent OTA present on TripAdvisor webpages.

Travelocity is the second highest in percentage of paid search referrals (about 40%) and this may account for the high proportion of referrals from TripAdvisor although I did not see many Travelocity sponsored links on the TripAdvisor hotel review pages I checked.

Orbitz and its other company, CheapTickets.com, show about 35% of traffic is from paid search referrals. Their sponsored links are highly visible on TripAdvisor.  Expedia and Hotwire are around 34% paid search traffic.

Interestingly, Priceline.com has the lowest percentage of paid search traffic (about 27%), yet Priceline is showing strong growth in market share.  And I would expect them to gain even more market share in these tough economic times.

TripAdvisor.com “Take this job and shove it”

A former TripAdvisor web content editor, Diedre Kiely, filed a complaint in July claiming TripAdvisor violated Massachusetts law by classifying her and other content editors as independent contractors.  The suit is pending class-action certification in the U.S. District Court of Boston.  The independent contractors edit reviews of hotels and restaurants according to the complaint. 

The experience of unequal pay for the same work as a “permatemp” led me to say “screw corporate greed” and venture out on my own as Loyalty Traveler.  I still have no benefits and no paid vacation, but at least I have the opportunity to provide value-added content to other hard-working consumers and I can travel when I want.  

Posted from BlogWorld 2008, Las Vegas.  A big thank you to Randy Petersen and BoardingArea.com for sponsoring my trip here.

Hotels.com, an Expedia company, has launched a new loyalty program called WelcomeRewards.

My survey of the WelcomeRewards program leaves Loyalty Traveler with quite a favorable impression of the earning power and usefulness of this frequent guest program. 

The WelcomeRewards program is quite simple.  Earn a free night after you stay 10 nights at any Hotels.com partner property with a base rate of $40 or more and also showing the Price Match Guarantee sticker below the rate.  Your free night can be for a hotel of up to $400 base rate.  Qualifying hotel night credits expire after 18 months of inactivity.

Theoretically, it is possible to get $400 free hotel night after $400 in spending, although finding a $40 hotel room will be a challenge in most locations.  One advantage of WelcomeRewards by hotels.com over a traditional hotel corporate program is the ability to earn free nights with stays at properties like B&Bs, inns, and independent hotels.

My home base on the Monterey Peninsula is a holiday location with about 160 lodging accommodations within a 6 mile radius consisting of mostly independent small inns, B&Bs, and motels, but also with several independent upscale properties.  This is a location where the Hyatt Monterey and Hilton Garden Inn Monterey may have room rates over $250 per night for a basic room while a nicer room with a unique character is available for $170 per night in Carmel. 

Paying less for a nicer room while earning loyalty credit towards a free night is what Loyalty Traveler is all about.  WelcomeRewards by hotels.com is one of the most interesting hotel loyalty programs to emerge in the past couple of years.

Quite realistically, a traveler can book 10 nights at $60/night and earn a $400 room credit.  This is a 67% value-added hotel strategy.  That is competitive with just about any major hotel loyalty program.  Even if you are spending $120 night or $1,200 to earn a free night, the potential for a $400 rebate is a 30% return on your hotel spending.  As long as the Hotels.com rates are competitive with other websites, then you will come out with a good return on your hotel spending investment.

A recent Compete.com report showed Expedia gets 48% of TripAdvisor hotel review referral bookings among online travel agencies and Hotels.com receives 11%.

Expedia.com has its own loyalty program with ThankYou points earned at the rate of 1 point per $1.  A hotel traveler will need to spend $5,000 on Expedia.com just to get a $50 hotel certificate.  Hotels.com WelcomeRewards program has much higher value earning per $1 spending as a loyalty program for the hotel traveler.

A Cornell Hospitality Report from 2006, An Examination of Internet Intermediaries and Hotel Loyalty Programs: How Will Guests Get their Points? by: Bill Carroll Ph.D. and Judy Siguaw Ph.D.  discussed the idea of online travel agencies setting up their own loyalty programs and predicted this business strategy would not play out. 

WelcomeRewards is the first loyalty program I have seen to emerge from the online travel agencies that holds significant value comparable to the corporate chain frequent guest programs like Marriott Rewards, Hilton HHonors, and Starwood Preferred Guest.  I look forward to seeing how the hotels.com program evolves.

The primary drawback to WelcomeRewards is the hotel traveler will not earn hotel frequent guest credit with hotel loyalty programs like Starwood, Marriott, or Hilton when staying at their hotel brands.  If attaining elite status and room upgrades is important, then you know to book through the corporate-branded hotel websites.  I value room upgrades and better room locations when I visit hotels.  But at times, I just want a room or I want a better deal than I see in the major corporate brands for my hotel stay dates and this is where I see value with WelcomeRewards by hotels.com.

The WelcomeRewards by hotels.com loyalty program will benefit guests with no preferred hotel chain or for travel in places where your preferred hotel chain is not available or too expensive.  The flexibility of choosing any hotel without regard to a specific hotel chain’s brands is preferential for some travelers. 

Case Study of hotels.com rates compared to other online travel agencies:

Hotel rates from online searches conducted July 25, 2008

The Monterey Peninsula is a perfect example where a major corporate hotel frequent guest with a program like Marriott or Starwood may find value in WelcomeRewards by hotels.com.

Come to Monterey as a Starwood Preferred Guest and you will find the 70 mile drive to the San Jose Sheraton a bit out of town as the nearest Starwood property to Monterey/Carmel.  And the major chain hotels located here on the Monterey Peninsula tend to be high priced and near the top end of the room rate range for this location with over 160 lodging options in hotels, B&Bs, and resorts.

By the Numbers:

Room Rates for a Monterey, California Hotel Search on Hotels.com for Tuesday, August 5 to Thursday, August 7, 2008.  Room rates for other leading online websites were checked.

InterContinental – The Clement, Monterey  

Hotels.com $239/night  (Best rate found) 

This upscale oceanfront property is just recently opened near the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row and rates are still low and expected to climb about $100/night over the next year.         

Other searches for this hotel:

            Kayak.com= $299 (Orbitz); $324 (IHG)

            Expedia.com $239 (nonrefundable);

            Travelocity.com $324;

            IHG website (AAA rate) $299

            While Expedia has a rate $85 lower than the IHG hotel websites for the same room category, this is not an eligible price rate guarantee claim because the Expedia and hotels.com rates are nonrefundable, and the IHG rate can be cancelled up to 48 hours before arrival.

A Priority Club member should be able to earn 2,000 points for a hotel stay at an InterContinental brand and 2,000 to 8,000 bonus points from current promotions or buying an additional 4,000 points for a $20 higher rate.   Walking away with 10,000 Priority Club points may well be worth the extra $100 rate for some members.  But, hotels.com is a winner here for travelers not invested in Priority Club and seeking a new hotel in a great location at the best available rate.

Marriott Monterey

hotels.com $339/night

Kayak: $339 (Marriott, Orbitz); Expedia $339; Travelocity $339 

(Senior rate $288 on Marriott if you qualify, otherwise I found no other discount rates).  A look at Marriott offers on PointMaven shows I can receive a $25 gift card if I pay with American Express.

Hyatt Highlands Inn, a dreamy location on the cliffs of Carmel Highlands, but at this price???  Rates in the November to April season can drop to near $200/night.

Hotels.com $575/night; Kayak $575 (Hyatt); Expedia $575; Travelocity $575;

Hyatt.com AAA rate $535.50 (lowest rate found)

Clarion Carmel (There are much better options in Carmel for less money) 

            Hotels.com $200;  Kayak $171 (Clarion); Expedia $200; Travelocity $200

Hofsas House Hotel, Carmel (Great location, outdoor pool, several communal decks, rooms are basic.) 

Hotels.com $99  Kayak: $99 (hotelbook); Expedia $99; Travelocity $120

The budget traveler can stay in the Hofsas House with an outdoor pool and large decks with ocean views (beach is about 10 minute walk).  The hotel itself is nothing special, but the location is great and a pool is not that common for this area.  Earn much higher value loyalty credit with hotels.com WelcomeRewards for a stay at this hotel while paying the same price as other booking sites.

Tradewinds Carmel (upscale and independent hotel in great Carmel location)

            Hotels.com $325;  Kayak: (Orbitz) $325; Expedia $325; Travelocity $325;

            Tradewinds hotel website $325

The Tradewinds Carmel is an upscale independent hotel.  This hotel has Asian-design theme rooms, all mod cons and some rooms have one of the finer ocean views available in Carmel from a hotel.  And the price is less than the Marriott in downtown Monterey.

Properties like Hofsas House for the budget minded or the Tradewinds Carmel for the loyalty traveler seeking independence from another big hotel Marriott or ultra-expensive Hyatt is where the WelcomeRewards by hotels.com program shines for the frequent guest. 

WelcomeRewards provides the earning power towards another free hotel night you sometimes need when your primary hotel loyalty program is just not the best choice.  These properties in Carmel are well-situated for budgets of various sizes and the frequent guest will accumulate credit towards the 10 nights for a free night. 

And chances are you can find a free night at the Hyatt Highlands Inn just as the rate hovers around the $399/night mark and get great value out of your hotels.com WelcomeRewards frequent guest program.

The roll-out of the WelcomeRewards by hotels.com is a loyalty program that will very likely cause me to make my first ever booking with this online travel agency.

Online Hotel Reviews

Travelers place a lot of faith in consumer-generated hotel reviews. I trust FlyerTalk.com content because there is a large community of travelers who provide opinions and feedback on each other’s comments. Most major upscale hotels around the world have user comments and reviews from the 100,000+ members of the FlyerTalk.com community.

I believe the self-monitoring independent community of FlyerTalk.com provides more accurate hotel reviews than what is typically found on TripAdvisor.com, particularly when it comes to the experience for elite frequent guests in the major hotel loyalty programs.

Social Media Co-Opted by Corporate Media

The best social media websites with consumer generated comments and hotel reviews have been co-opted by corporate media. Social media websites where users generate the content for free has been a successful marketing partnership for major travel industry players. What in many cases started out as independent, organically developed networks of people creating content for free to help other travelers has developed into the current condition of the major global travel reservations corporations like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com owning social network sites like TripAdvisor.com and IgoUgo.com as corporate subsidiaries.

Meta-search engines like Kayak.com who own TravelPost.com, and bulletin boards like FlyerTalk.com and Cruisecritic.com are not sellers of travel, but make money on an advertising model based on travelers frequently interacting as a community creating new content.

Major Online Hotel Reviews and Their Parent Corporations

IgoUgo.com hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search engine = Travelocity.com (Parent Company)

TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews and hotel rate meta-search = Expedia.com (Parent company)

Hotels.com has a large database for hotel reviews. Hotels.com is also an Expedia company. Hotel guests must have booked stay with Hotels.com to post a review and most of the reviews do not have any written comments. A point scale survey on Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Comfort, and Room Cleanliness are used to give the hotel a rating on a 5 point scale. This website offers a quick snapshot of customer satisfaction for hotel.

TravelPost.com for hotel reviews and Kayak is a meta-search = Kayak.com (Parent Company)

Orbitz.com generates its own database of user-generated hotel reviews based on hotel guests booking through Orbitz.com and responding via e-mail to a post-stay request for a hotel review.

Yahoo! Travel uses a couple of different hotel review databases. When conducting hotel searches through the Yahoo Travel homepage the results use Travelocity and the hotel reviews are the same as Travelocity. When using Yahoo Travel Guides or FareChase for hotel searches the hotel reviews are a different set.

“I Want to Believe” TripAdvisor

A recent article TripAdvisor Staying Ahead of the Pack from Compete.com, the web traffic analysis site, and a blog post by the same writer Ryan Carrigg “TripAdvisor Poised for Success”, shows the dominance of TripAdvisor.com for user-generated content in the online travel research sector. The article states “TripAdvisor.com averaged over 6 million US unique visitors” per month for the year from May 2007 to May 2008. The traffic on TripAdvisor.com has seen 34% growth from May 2007. A finding in this report states that 1.08% of users of TripAdvisor.com had posted content over the past year.  TripAdvisor has hotel reviews, restaurant comments, and general travel forums for destinations.

This TripAdvisor data had me wondering about the hotel review content on other popular websites. I have made a simple analysis of online hotel reviews from several common websites by counting the actual number of hotel reviews for a small sample of hotels in San Francisco.

TripAdvisor Hotel Reviews – What Percentage of Guests Write TripAdvisor Reviews?

(There are a number of unknown variables which makes this analysis a very rough estimate at best.) 

Le Meridien San Francisco TripAdvisor popularity index #14/238 hotels;

197 total hotel reviews; 38 reviews from 2008; 79 reviews in past 12 months;
oldest review from April 26, 2002 when hotel was a Park Hyatt.

360 rooms at Le Meridien San Francisco
Assume a rather low 50% average nightly occupancy or 180 rooms booked per night.
180 rooms x 365 nights = 65,700 room-nights.

65,700 room-nights / 79 hotel reviews = 832 room-nights per hotel review.
1 hotel review for every 832 room-nights could be as few as 1 hotel review per 832 hotel guests (if each guest only stayed 1 night) at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco.  Assume, on average each guest stays 2 nights and the ratio would increase to 1 hotel review per 416 guests. 

If hotel occupancy averaged 65% for the year, then the proportion of guests writing a review decreases. If more than one guest is in the room, then the proportion of hotel guests writing a review decreases.  There are lots of variables.

It seems to me that the actual range of guest hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com is probably about 1 out of every 1,000 to 2,000 guests posts a hotel review for most major hotels.

360 rooms x .65 occupancy = 234 rooms/night are occupied.
234 rooms/night x 365 nights = 85,410 room-nights (some rooms will have more than one guest and some guests will stay more than one night)
85,410 room-nights/ 79 hotel reviews = 1,081 guest occupied rooms for every hotel review posted on TripAdvisor.com

1 hotel review is posted for every 1,081 guests at Le Meridien Hotel San Francisco if the hotel averaged 65% occupancy over past year.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a larger hotel with 805 rooms. Assume 50% occupancy for past year.

TripAdvisor has 37 reviews in 2008 and 66 reviews from past year.

Several floors of this hotel were remodeled in past six months and a newly remodeled Regency Club lounge opened in March.

805 rooms x .50 occupancy = 403 rooms/night occupied.
403 rooms/night x 365 nights = 147,095 room nights (guests) in past year.
147,095 / 66 hotel reviews = 2,229 guests at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco for every 1 review posted on TripAdvisor.com.

Hotel reviews are one strategy for choosing a hotel. I typically look at TripAdvisor to get opinions when I have a couple of hotels to choose from in the same price range. Unfortunately, my elementary analysis of the data indicates that even with the high number of hotel reviews on
TripAdvisor.com there is still only about 1 guest review for every 1,000 guests in the good cases and may be as few as 1 review for every 2,000 guests for other hotels.

When I read a review I wonder what the other 1,999 guests thought of their hotel stay experience for that same property? This is why a site like FlyerTalk.com with the ability to respond to other people’s hotel comments or ask questions provides more consumer-user-friendly content than many of the reviews on the major sites like TripAdvisor.com. Hotel corporate representatives even respond at times on FlyerTalk.com threads about hotels.

Online Hotel Reviews By the Numbers

The data below shows TripAdvisor rules the online hotel review sites for the depth of consumer-generated hotel reviews.

Methodology:
Hotel Reviews for 8 hotels in San Francisco were searched on 6 leading websites including Expedia.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, and Yahoo!Travel .com

1. The total number of hotel reviews for a hotel is given on each of the hotel review sites.

2. I counted the number of reviews posted in 2008 since recent reviews are generally most valid for a reader. For example, Travelpost.com listed the Crowne Plaza Union Square San Francisco as one of their top 5 hotels. The Crowne Plaza changed to Hotel 480 six months ago and is no longer part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) hotel brands.

3. The number of reviews posted since July 1, 2007 was counted. This also shows the number of reviews older than one year. A popular site for submitting hotel reviews several years ago may have a high number of total hotel reviews, but a low number of recent reviews for hotel stays in the past year. This observation can be seen with Yahoo Travel Guides.

Consumer Written Hotel Reviews on Popular Websites
for a Selection of San Francisco Hotels

Le Meridien San Francisco, 360 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 38
Past year = 79
Total = 197

IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 2
Past year = 5
Total = 9

TravelPost(Kayak.com)
2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 18

Orbitz.com
2008 = 6
Past year = 8
Total = 11

Yahoo Travel Guides
2008 = 1
Past year = 4
Total = 12

Hotels.com
2008=122
Past Year = 191
Total = 223

Palace Hotel – The Luxury Collection (Starwood Hotels), 552 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)

2008 = 47
Past year = 83
Total = 211

Hotels .com (Expedia)

2008 = 85; 127 reviews in past year; 161 total reviews;

94% recommend; 4.5 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 4
Past year = 9
Total = 17

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 13

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 4
Total = 4

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 33

Westin St. Francis; 1,195 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 67
Past year = 128
Total = 463

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 13
Past year = 23
Total = 43

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 95

Orbitz.com

2008 = 18
Past year = 31
Total = 61

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 163

Hotels.com = 14 reviews in 2008; 28 reviews in past 12 months; 68 total reviews
Hilton San Francisco; 1,896 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 48
Past year = 110
Total = 232

Hotels.com (Expedia)

85 reviews in 2008; 200 reviews in past 12 months; 373 total reviews; 86% recommend; 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 11
Past year = 41
Total = 75

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 1
Total = 82

Orbitz.com

2008 = 7
Past year = 18
Total = 39

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 4
Total = 93

Hyatt Regency San Francisco; 805 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 37
Past year = 66
Total = 203

Hotels.com (Expedia)

39 reviews in 2008; 63 reviews in past 12 months; 91 total reviews;

93% recommend hotel; 4.3 average rating out of 5

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 6
Total = 11

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 93

Orbitz.com

2008 = 0
Past year = 8
Total = 20

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 4
Past year = 7
Total = 63

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, 685 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 44
Past year = 82
Total = 238

Hotels.com (Expedia)

26 reviews 2008; 54 reviews in past 12 months; 120 total reviews; 84% recommend, 4.2 average rating

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 3
Past year = 18
Total = 45

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 17

Orbitz.com

2008 = 4
Past year = 21
Total = 44

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 2
Past year = 3
Total = 15
J.W. Marriott San Francisco, 337 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 19
Past year = 44
Total = 214
IgoUgo(Travelocity)
2008 = 3
Past year = 10
Total = 16

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 1
Past year = 2
Total = 24

Orbitz.com

2008 = 2
Past year = 2
Total = 2

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 1
Total = 44

Hotels.com

5 reviews in 2008; 12 reviews in past year; 78 total reviews; 88% recommend; 4.2 average rating

Marriott San Francisco; 1,498 rooms

TripAdvisor (Expedia)
2008 = 34
Past year = 75
Total = 206

IgoUgo(Travelocity)

2008 = 2
Past year = 13
Total = 30

TravelPost(Kayak.com)

2008 = 0
Past year = 0
Total = 10

Orbitz.com

2008 = 5
Past year = 6
Total = 17

Yahoo Travel Guides

2008 = 0
Past year = 2
Total = 36

Hotels.com (Expedia)

50 reviews in 2008; 97 reviews in past year; 138 total reviews; 90% recommend; 4.4 average rating
 

The advantage of Hotels.com is the large number of recent reviews and the display provides a quick snapshot of guest satisfaction.

Expedia is definitely the leader in the hotel review market as owner of the two largest databases in Tripadvisor.com and Hotels.com.

[Loyalty Traveler note: The text of this post was edited September 19, 2008 when I reviewed the piece for a new article about TripAdvisor.com and I realized I had incorrectly interpreted the data from Ryan Carrigg's post with respect to the number of hotel reviews posted to TripAdvisor.  I originally wrote that I estimated TripAdvisor had about 90,000 new hotel reviews in May 2008.  The 90,000 figure actually reflects any user-generated content posted to TripAdvisor.com for May 2008 and only a fraction of this content are hotel comments.  There were also errors in the assumptions used to estimate the proportion of hotel guests who post TripAdvisor reviews. 

The main idea to take away from this post is the dominance of TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com, and their parent company, Expedia.com, in the online hotel reviews market segment.]