Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pimping Accommodation Loyalty Schemes

There is a lot of resource pumped into accommodation loyalty schemes and for good reason.

Human behaviour dictates that consumer choices are often made for illogical reasons and we see examples of this occur on a regular basis in our own business.

The lure of getting a stamp, a card loyalty card swiped or points can be a powerful motivation for some.

We were amused to read a story of a pimp that was recently convicted of prostitution-related charges in a Massachusetts court.

The pimp advertised his hookers' services for $240 for an hour and $150 for a half-hour and exclusively used a certain chain of hotels because they offered a generous loyalty point scheme. The pimp booked the rooms and made sure that he collected the reward points up-front. Like any good pimp should, the proceeds of in-room activities were split with the women - but the women were made to pay for the hotel rooms they used.

The cruel irony is that most points earned with loyalty schemes tend to expire after a certain amount of time. Our hapless pimp will more than likely be unable to cash-in on his mountain of accumulated points as he has now checked-in to prison for the next two and a half years.

Click the "Get Widget" link below to place this widget on your website or blog!