People Don't Return for Points
They return for alignment.
Welcome to Issue No. 020 of Sojourn. An independent publication delivering strategic interpretation for leaders shaping the future of travel and hospitality.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. When people talk about a place they keep going back to, they almost never mention the program. They talk about the place: how it felt, how it moved, what it was like to be there. The points don’t come up.
Interpretation: The loyalty program model was built on a real insight: reward return behavior and you’ll see more of it. That still holds. But it operates downstream of a more basic question, does someone actually want to come back? A guest who already feels at home somewhere doesn’t need an incentive to return. Or do they? They just go. Points can tip a decision. They don’t create the pull that makes someone want to go back in the first place.
There’s a difference between a guest who returns because their status is there and a guest who returns because going somewhere else would feel like starting over. One is maintained, the other is earned.