Tuesday, August 30, 2005

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• InterContinental Hotels Group Surprises Travelers Nationwide with $250,000 in Free Stays

To kickoff its most recent innovation in hotel loyalty programs, InterContinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest and most global hotel company, is declaring today Free Stay Day to reward the everyday traveler through its loyalty program, Priority Club® Rewards.

Hundreds of Priority Club Rewards representatives will hit the business districts of New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles today to award morning commuters with free stays equaling $250,000 using the program’s newest reward, the “Any Hotel, Anywhere” card. Thousands of luggage tags, of which one in six will have a winning numeric code, will be distributed. Recipients can go online at priorityclub.com/freestayday by September 5th to see if they are a winner and receive their “Any Hotel, Anywhere” card.

IHG revolutionized the hotel loyalty industry with its introduction of the “Any Hotel, Anywhere” reward in July. This reward allows Priority Club Rewards members the ability to redeem points for a prepaid lodging card that can be used as payment at over 500,000 lodging establishments where American Express® Cards are welcome, including IHG’s competitors. The “Any Hotel, Anywhere” reward has no blackout dates or capacity restrictions.

“With 3,500 hotels in nearly 100 countries around the world, Priority Club Rewards already gives our members great choice in redeeming their points,” said Steve Sickel, senior vice president, Priority Club Rewards, IHG. “But even with so many hotels, we can’t have hotels in every location; no hotel company can. So, to provide the ultimate flexibility to our members, we allow them to redeem their points for the “Any Hotel, Anywhere” card so they can stay at virtually any hotel in the world – even our rivals’ hotels.”

Introduced on July 18, the “Any Hotel, Anywhere” reward has been a big hit with Priority Club Rewards members. After just over a month, Priority Club Rewards members have already redeemed nearly 23 million points for “Any Hotel, Anywhere” prepaid lodging cards. “It’s all about creating win-win situations. By providing this flexibility, Priority Club Rewards members will have an even stronger reason to choose our brands - which include Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® and InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts - to accumulate points in their Priority Club Rewards accounts. We believe – and early results seem to prove – that by giving our members this value and flexibility, they will give more of their business and loyalty to IHG hotels.”

This industry-leading move comes on the heels of studies indicating that frequent travelers feel many travel loyalty programs make it too hard to redeem miles or points. In a 2004 Phoenix Marketing International survey, 60 percent of respondents indicated they weren’t satisfied with the overall award redemption process of their loyalty program. In fact, industry research shows that travelers could be spending more than 9 trillion unredeemed points/miles, translating into millions of dollars in savings.

“It really doesn’t make much sense to create a loyalty program that is difficult to use or doesn’t provide the flexibility people want. That won’t win you a customer’s loyalty,” Sickel said. “The ‘Any Hotel, Anywhere’ reward shows Priority Club Rewards is not like other loyalty programs. We are our guests’ number one advocate and constantly build innovations to be the most flexible loyalty program in the industry.”

Enrollment in Priority Club Rewards is free. Guests can enroll in the program by visiting priorityclub.com, by calling 1-888-211-9874 or by inquiring at the front desk of any InterContinental Hotels Group property.

InterContinental Hotels Group has a history of innovation, including the creation of Priority Club Rewards as the world’s first hotel loyalty program in 1983. IHG was also the first company to ensure that customers can quickly and easily find the lowest room rate available on their branded websites with its Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee.

Priority Club Rewards is the industry's first, largest and fastest-growing hotel loyalty program, with more than 26 million members. Members already have a wide range of options for point redemption including: Reward Nights at more than 3,500 InterContinental Hotels Group properties worldwide including InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites® hotels and resorts worldwide; airline miles on more than one dozen partner carriers; auto rentals; hundreds of products and gift certificates, as well as a unique Personal Shopper program which allows members the flexibility to use their points for items not found in the Rewards Catalog.

posted by Priority Club® Rewards @ 10:56 AM

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