USE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LOYALTY PROGRAMMES IN HOTELS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the use and effectiveness of loyalty programmes in hotels in Saudi Arabia. Millions of tourists visit and stay in hotels in Saudi Arabia. However, there is a lack of research addressing the use of loyalty programs in the country. A review of the literature on loyalty programmes revealed a gap in knowledge on the extent to which loyalty programmes affect customer loyalty, specifically in Saudi Arabia’s hotel industry. the study employed a qualitative approach to data collection by using semi-structured interviews with 11 hotel managers in Saudi Arabia and a thematic analysis of their responses. The results indicate that loyalty programmes have special benefits for most hotels using them, including an increase in revenue, profit generation, customer retention and attraction. The results also show that hotels in Saudi Arabia utilise a number of ways to measure the effectiveness of loyalty programmes, such as participation and redemption rates along with return on investment. Furthermore, this study found that hotels in Saudi Arabia have all developed special policies to protect the customer data gathered by their loyalty programmes. The findings from this study suggest that hotels that do not use loyalty programmes are missing a very beneficial relationship marketing tool and should, thus, be encouraged to adopt it. As a recommendation for further research, it is suggested that more studies be carried out on the impact of customer satisfaction on the success of loyalty programmes.