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Would You Join a Loyalty Program for Independent Hotels?

May 25, 2010 at 12:39 PM | by | Comments (3)

A new loyalty program wants to steal hotel guests away from the big chains. What makes Stash Hotel Rewards different from the others is that it's a program for independent boutique hotels.

Although Stash—founded by travel and e-commerce vets from Expedia, Amazon, Microsoft and Zillow—tries to lure you away from big-chain hotels, it copies the model that places like Marriott use. It's free to enroll, and you earn five points for every dollar you spend at a partner hotel. Earn enough points and you can redeem them for free stays at any of the participating hotels.

The points don't expire and there aren't any blackout dates. Stash will also provide exclusive deals to members: it will match point bonuses to a your travel history and customize weekend getaway offers to your home city.

One pro of such a program is that you'd be able to stay in a one-of-a-kind hotel that's more in tune with the area you're visiting, rather than a cookie-cutter property that you'd find in any city. Plus, it's always nice to throw money toward an independent business rather than some big conglomerate.

A big con, however, is that because it's not some big company, there are fewer options. While the program launched with 65 properties such as the Lenox Boston, Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood and Bardessono in Napa, as of now there aren't any hotels available in major cities like Chicago, Miami, D.C. or New York (though the website says hotels in those areas are coming soon; 200 more will join by the end of the year, officials say). So the chains, for all their predictability, do have the convenience factor.

Would you join a loyalty program for independent hotels? Why or why not? Holla back at us in the comments below.

Comments (3)

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Independant hotels with a better program

Sure, I'm tooting my own horn here (I built the program), but http://www.epoquehotels.com/clubepoque/join-club-epoque.html is far more effective. All the hotels belong, there are no black out or exclusion dates (ever) and you always get money back to use for future reservations.
dmerians on May 25, 2010 at 2:09 PM #Permalink

Loyalty Programs

Thanks for this great post. It really helped, but I do worry about small loyalty programs since I can't use them everywhere. But then, this sounds a lot better than a loyalty program for a big chain that has so many black out dates it's not even usable.
mpeters on May 25, 2010 at 2:54 PM #Permalink

i would take a chance on it!

it cant hurt to join it so long as there is no membership fee. what's the worst that could happen? you wont earn points for a stay? well, that would have happened anyways. so yes, im going to try this out.
juliana on May 26, 2010 at 11:11 AM #Permalink

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