Dive Brief:
- Choice Hotels International launched its Million Points Sweepstakes, a giveaway that will grant 1 million Choice Privileges points to the top loyalty member winner, the hotel company announced today.
- Choice Privileges loyalty members can also enter to win packages including a VIP NASCAR experience or 100,000 Choice Privileges points. The promotion runs from July 22 to Oct. 7.
- The sweepstakes follows a refresh of Choice’s loyalty program earlier this year, according to Nandika Suri, vice president of loyalty. Suri previously told Hotel Dive that loyalty “is becoming less and less about the transaction benefits that you get from the program and more about experiential benefits.”
Dive Insight:
“What has really become important is understanding that end-to-end journey of the customer and figuring out how the loyalty program can be relevant in the context of their overall journey,” Suri shared during a fireside chat last month.
In addition to experiences such as the VIP NASCAR Trackhouse Race Experience, sweepstakes winners can redeem points across Choice’s portfolio and its partners’, which now include more luxury and upscale stays.
In a statement, Suri said the revamp, which also includes extending the booking window to 50 weeks and more flexible point redemption options, was intended to “deliver even greater value to our more than 70 million members, along with many more ways to use their points.”
The company is leveraging brand partnerships to expand its loyalty offerings, particularly in upscale. Choice’s partnership with Westgate Resorts, announced earlier this year, added 21 resorts across nine states under its reservation system. The move follows Choice’s 2022 acquisition of Radisson Americas, which also expanded the company’s upper-tier offerings.
Through the acquisition and recent brand partnerships, Choice is “able to provide more attractive offerings to our members” as well as “appeal to a wider base of customers,” Suri said last month.
Marriott International’s Marriott Bonvoy has also used sweepstakes to boost loyalty membership with recent giveaways centered on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour.
