Source: Amar Saleem
If you’re not leveraging your customer data in some type of recognition strategy and adding reward content to help drive interest and engagement, you’re missing a pretty big mark in what it’s going to take to keep customers today.
Ellis Connolly
Chief Revenue Officer
Laasie
Retention is the new acquisition. The cost of winning new hotel guests has soared, making loyalty the most valuable asset on the books—and it all hinges on data.
Ellis Connolly, Chief Revenue Officer at Laasie, a company specializing in loyalty solutions, is focused on data-driven retention.
Same guests, more stable costs: "If you're not leveraging your customer data in some type of recognition strategy and adding reward content to help drive interest and engagement, you're missing a pretty big mark in what it's going to take to keep customers today," warns Connolly. The danger becomes acute when demand dips: "Everyone starts to lower pricing, everyone starts to begin discounting. Everyone tries to go after the same demand," he explains. In that scramble, he adds, the old adage rings truer than ever: "Acquiring new customers costs more than retaining existing ones."
Points, pointless: Old-school loyalty programs aren’t cutting it. Post-COVID changes made redemptions harder and less rewarding, igniting a shift away from points-based programs. Connolly puts it plainly: While "the points motivate the road warriors," they’re falling flat with most guests. "Points most likely aren't motivating the larger majority of the program members," he explains. Instead, he sees real value in thinking beyond the tired earn-and-burn model: "There are many different things that we could do to motivate a second booking, a third booking, that sit outside of your traditional strategy."
Points most likely aren’t motivating the larger majority of the program members.
Ellis Connolly
Chief Revenue Officer
Laasie
The dopamine effect: Connolly leans into instant gratification. By layering high-value, low-cost rewards on top of discounts, hotels can drive a "massive revenue impact" while tapping into the rising experience economy. Personalized recognition doesn’t just feel good, it fuels loyalty and drives recurring revenue.
To make it work, Connolly promotes tailoring rewards to prompt specific actions and kickstarting enrollment with "tangible value" powered by the "dopamine effect of instant gratification." His rollout follows a “crawl, walk, run” approach, gradually scaling complexity. As guests engage, their choices enrich the data, paving the way for future offers that feel genuinely personal.
The new standard: For Connolly, data-informed, value-first loyalty is the next chapter. "That's exactly the point of view that we've brought to market,” he says, “and we're trying to drive for a little bit of change there because we think it brings tremendous value to hotels."