Expedia and sister company Hotels.com have agreed to sell Red Lion Hotels’ exclusive member rates on their sites.
As hotel groups such as Marriott and Hilton try to curb bookings through OTAs by offering cheap and loyalty member only deals through direct booking, Red Lion has taken the unpreceneted move by selling through one of travel’s largest online booking sites.
Businesses booking the Red Lion member rate on Expedia sites will benefit from double loyalty rewards, through Expedia.com’s Expedia+ and Hotels.com Rewards loyalty points, as well as Hello Rewards benefits, which include:
- A free night every 7 stays
- Hello Rewards Rate, best rate guarantee
- Express check-in with late check-out (when available)
- Room upgrades (when available) and exclusive Hello Rewards member-only offers
- More Hello Rewards perks from every stay
“It can be difficult for brands to generate any real, meaningful demand or ROI though loyalty programs without spending substantial amounts of marketing dollars on a long-term basis,” said Red Lion CMO Bill Linehan.
“Our approach is to be extremely respectful of the guest and the channel they chose to make their booking, so we in turn view OTAs like Expedia as partners and make sure we leverage their marketing and innovation investments to drive both customer acquisition and future loyalty.”
Melissa Maher, senior vice president of Expedia’s Global Partner Group, said: “Many of our partners, like RLHC, are looking for ways to differentiate themselves, so by providing them with new and unique offerings that improve their visibility in the Expedia marketplace, while delivering incremental business that benefits their bottom line, we’re investing in our long term partnership.”
Expedia said its in discussions with other chains to offer similar deals.
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