Re-Inventing B2B Loyalty

It has been a year since the revolution started and by all accounts, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ SPG Pro B2B loyalty program for meeting and travel professionals has been a rousing success.

Alison Taylor, senior vice-president, Starwood Sales Organization, observed of the program: “SPG Pro allows us to reward our customers like nobody else, offering one holistic program that recognizes the personal and professional bookings with us.”

Taylor continued: “Just one year in, SPG Pro has generated significant revenue, grown our member base in 189 countries, and rewarded enough points to book more than 150,000 room nights.”

And Taylor added: “As we look to be the easiest and most rewarding company to do business with, we will continue to grow and evolve this platform for our global customers.”

When it was introduced a year ago, SPG Pro pretty much revolutionized the B2B loyalty space as it was the first program of its kind to reward members across all segments for all business booked at Starwood, and providing meeting and travel professionals the ability to earn SPG elite status, upgrades and Starpoints for B2B business booked at any of Starwood’s 1,250 properties around the world.

For any SPG member booking an eligible event – whether it’s a corporate business meeting, holiday party, wedding, family reunion or social event, regardless of if they are a professional meeting planner or not – they will earn Starpoints and status for the business they influence.

Starwood’s senior vice-president, digital, loyalty and partnerships, Chris Holden pointed out that “Just as SPG changed the hotel loyalty space over a decade ago, SPG Pro is transforming the B2B loyalty space. A year after launching SPG Pro, we have built true and lasting connections with our customers to ensure they are rewarded for the business they book with us.”

And to mark its one year anniversary, Starwood has launched the SPG Pro Double Double promotion which allows members the opportunity to earn double Starpoints and double eligible nights toward elite status on meetings and events booked through Dec. 31, 2015, for arrival by Dec. 31, 2016.

For more on SPG Pro, go to http://www.spg.com/pro and for more on the SPG Pro Double Double promotion, check out http://www.spg.com/double.