Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Each interview session conducted approximately
between one to two hours. A set of questions were
referred for this semi-structured interviews. Each
interview sessions were recorded using audio vis-
ual tapes. It was then transcribed verbatim, heavily
reviewed and summarized into themes, categories
and concepts.
works. Gable, Fiorito and Topol (2008) corrobo-
rated that loyalty programs can be envisioned as
an obstacle to entry for competing rivals. Main-
taining, updating and upgrading databases also
appeared to be among the core challenges. Most
of the hotels interviewed have at least an average
of 500,000 members worldwide. Thus, hoteliers
need to incorporate and update member's pro-
file from time to time. Additionally, unattractive
reward value became visible core challenges. This
is in line with what had been discussed earlier on in
the literature. Members expect products and serv-
ices of higher grade or quality in retrospect of their
commitments. Hence, hoteliers are encouraged to
focus on satisfying members without incurring
cost. Moreover, the sameness of rewards by com-
petitors contributed as another core challenges.
Matilla (2006) claimed that loyalty programs were
easy to copy and most loyalty programs look alike.
More vigorous efforts need to be put in identifying
ways to stay unique and different from competi-
tors (Shanshan
et al,
2011). Findings also revealed
that difficulty to claim reward appeared as core
challenges. Hoteliers can restructure back on the
reward benefits and redemption for members.
Imposing no blackout dates for members reward
redemption seems to be an alluring marketing
strategy. Item no. 6, employee customer knowl-
edge was exhibited as another core challenges.
Hoteliers have to constantly continue their staff
training especially in encouraging a positive cus-
tomer delivery from hotel staffs. In line with Xie
et al
(2013) study, loyalty programs can be used as
motivational tools for hotel staffs to render better
assistance to members.
For partially common challenges, five (5) items
were recognized (no. 7-11). Three (3) hotels claimed
they spent high investment on the materials. More-
over, marketing campaigns appeared prominent as
it was encountered by five (5) out of six (6) hotels.
Though all hotels established the campaigns on
the net through their websites, Hotel A seems to
fully utilize their online campaigns. Probably other
hotels can considered the approach taken by Hotel
A that use online forum besides promoting in
social media such as face book. Introducing online
forum and face book is easy but what matters are
usually after the post-introductory stages. More
efforts need to be exerted in maintaining members-
hotels program rapport. Additionally, distribution
coverage tends to contribute as second frequent
challenges encountered by all interviewed hotels.
Engaging on online marketing can be considered as
delighting idea for hoteliers as it will increase more
coverage on distribution area. Additionally, three
hotels encountered high start-up cost. It's really
crucial for hoteliers to really think whether these
programs are worth investment for their hotels. It
4
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The next stage after the in-depth interview proc-
ess was generating taxonomical challenges. Table 2
furnished the taxonomy challenges encountered by
these six city hotels in Malaysia; where as Table 3
stipulated the summarized challenges for each inter-
viewed hotels. The three levels of challenges taxon-
omy established were core challenges described as
same challenges encountered by all hotels, partially
common challenges described as part of challenges
that are same among hotels studied and individual
challenges described as unparalleled challenges
encountered by each hotel. It's interesting to dis-
cover that there are six individual challenges in
managing the loyalty program.
Researchers clarified six (6) items (no. 1-6) as
core challenges. Findings indicated that all six
hotels have made ample investments pertaining
to administering costs of their programs to assure
loyalty of targeted members. It's not about only
having a program but it's beyond member's satis-
faction and crucial in ensuring the program really
Table 2.
The loyalty program's challenges taxonomy.
*Source: Self-compiled by researchers.
Table 3.
Hotels with summarized challenges.
*Source: Self-compiled by researchers.
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