Vacation rental units join loyalty game

Posted on Mon, Jul. 18, 2005

CONSUMER TRAVEL

TONY MECIA

Fly enough on an airline and get a free ticket. Charge enough on a credit card and get points redeemable for magazines and other gifts. Eat frequently at the same restaurant and get a free meal.

Rewarding repeat customers with freebies -- a concept known as "loyalty programs" -- is a marketing strategy now moving into unlikely terrain: vacation rentals.

Crafting a successful reward program for beach and mountain rentals has been a hot topic at recent industry gatherings, says Michael Sarka, executive director of the Vacation Rental Managers Association in Santa Cruz, Calif.

"When we have education sessions, those are the types of topics people want to find out more about," he said.

For vacation rental companies, the approach has the appeal of saving precious advertising money. Targeting and retaining proven customers, the thinking goes, is far cheaper than taking out ads in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet.

For people who rent vacation houses, of course, it means the increased potential for free gifts and discounts.

Starting this summer, vacationers who returned to Outer Beaches Realty on North Carolina's Outer Banks received a free beach tote bag. The company offers other benefits to members of its "Outer Beaches Beach Club," such as discounts at stores, free use of a swimming pool and early notice of rental specials.

In future years, repeat guest will get beach towels, beach chairs and coolers, says Scott Leggat, Outer Beaches' vice president of marketing and administration.

He says no vacationer will make a decision to stay at one of the company's rentals because they receive a bag. But the program is designed to cultivate and reward relationships between the company and its best guests.

"When you're advertising, you're basically casting a pretty broad net, hoping to find a few that are interested in coming to Hatteras Island," Leggat said. "Everyone who is a member of the Beach Club has made that decision once. They're a much more qualified lead."

Loyalty programs started in the airline industry in the early 1980s. It then spread into other fields such as hotels and credit cards, and more recently into retail.

The strategy is becoming more essential for other industries such as vacation rentals, because so much information is now available to consumers through the Internet, says Gail Sneed, director of professional services with Maritz Loyalty Marketing in St. Louis, which designs loyalty programs.

"There are so many more choices," she said. "It's a matter of what's going to grab that attention?"

The most successful programs are ones that are straightforward and do not take too long to earn rewards, she said.

In Calabash, just over the N.C. line from North Myrtle Beach, Bill Bernier has learned to value his repeat customers. At the Brunswick Plantation Golf Resort that he manages, 86 percent of vacationers last year had stayed there before.

He's started giving repeat customers special deals, such as having them pay last year's rates or offering a free room to the leader of a group of 12 or more golfers.

"We try to work the loyalty thing," he says.

Bring that food aboard!

Last week's column on changes to air travel in recent years brought a few letters, and a few questions.

One reader wanted to know if airlines frown on passengers who take food aboard, since airlines have started selling meals and snacks of their own. The answer is no -- take whatever you like.

In addition, a flight attendant from Matthews wanted to address a few other misperceptions some passengers have: Airlines stopped handing out playing cards about 10 years ago, and if there are empty seats in first class, you cannot simply move up there.