Apologies in advance for not finding a recent thread where people speculated on the number of elite HHonors, so if somebody updated already, great.
In the Oct. 18 edition of Business Travel News, Adam Burke is quoted as saying of 6.5 million active Hilton HHonors members, 9 percent are gold, while 2.5 percent are diamond.
The stats were revealed in an article about hotel elite programs, and cited a Cornell study that found a highly tenuous connection between guest satisfaction and loyalty. The study concluded that a large core of guests will switch to other properties no matter how happy they are. Therefore, money spent on loyalty programs c"could be better applied in other ways."
Business travelers turned out to be the least loyal guests. What engendered loyalty was the property's design, amenities and the quality of employees, all of which the study authors argue should get money that's being lured to make us all jeweled up with precious metal in these programs.
You wonder if the chains are sitting up and taking notice. Given cutbacks, subtle and otherwise, that may already be the case. In the end, you'll have to wonder if making Diamond, like I did for the first time this year, will mean all that much in the future.
