I recently stayed at a Wyndham Rewards hotel in Austin, Texas. I found the place through Trivago.com and reserved the hotel through Expedia.com.
A few days after arriving home, I was asked to respond to a survey by Wyndham. I immediately thought, “Wow, I didn’t realize the hotel I had selected was part of the Wyndham family of hotels–I’ll call to get this stay credited on my rewards account.” No one had asked me about whether I had membership in Wyndham Rewards at check-in.
I called the Wyndham toll-free number and they confirmed that they knew about my stay. I was impressed. That good impression quickly changed to bad when they told me that, because I had not booked the hotel directly with them, they were “unable” to give me credit for the stay. Isn’t that special!
This is the second time that I’ve been unable to comply with the “fine print” of the Wyndham Rewards program. And, for that, I recognize them for their business execution failure.
Does the person running the Wyndham Rewards program believe that this is the best approach to win the loyalty of Wyndham Rewards members? Hint: It’s not. And, it may be some emboldened manager will claim, “Others are doing the same.” Okay. So what? Why would you allow bad practices of competitors to influence your reward practices?
The Wyndham Rewards program should not be run with a “carrot and a stick” approach–you get the carrot if you book directly through them and a stick if you don’t.
The way they just treated me is a disincentive to stay at a Wyndham property, not an incentive. What do they think about that? Is that consistent with the goals for a rewards program?
0 Comments