Priority Club(R) Rewards Clinched Top Spots at 2005 Freddie Awards Including First Wins in the Asia Pacific Category

Email

Print

share/save

rss

SINGAPORE, May 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- InterContinental Hotels Group's guest loyalty programme, Priority Club Rewards, has recently earned six first- place awards, eight second-place awards and five third-place awards at the 2005 Freddie Awards.

Priority Club Rewards clinched first-place awards for Best Website and Best Member Communications as well as second-place and third-place awards for Best Bonus Promotion in the Asia Pacific category.

Overall, Priority Club Rewards placed in 19 of 24 award categories. Specifically, the programme earned first-place in the following categories:

Best Web Site - Americas
Best Web Site - Asia
Best Member Communication (formerly "best newsletter") - Americas
Best Member Communication - (formerly "best newsletter") - Asia
Best Bonus Promotion - (Double Points/Double Miles) - Americas
Best Bonus Promotion - (Third Night Bonus Points/Miles) -- Europe

The industry's equivalent to the Academy Awards and the most prestigious consumer-generated awards in the travel industry, the Freddies Awards was introduced by Randy Peterson of InsideFlyer magazine in 1988 and allows travellers to select their favourite frequent travel programmes in the hotel, airline and credit card industries. More than 300,000 ballots were cast this year by frequent travellers worldwide via online ballots.

"We are deeply honoured by this recognition and it is a affirmation of our strategy to focus on customer excellence, partnerships with leading travel providers and committed management to bring value to our guests", said Ms Carmen Lam, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific, InterContinental Hotels Group. "Our wins in the first ever Asia Pacific category are significant milestones as we have tailored the programme based on the needs and wants of this unique market. We will continue to develop more differentiated offerings that encourage programme loyalty."

Different from many other award programmes, Freddie winners are determined by the overall merits of each programme as reflected in "Value Voting" which requires voters to assign a number between 1 and 10 for each programme in addition to ranking programmes according to the voter's preference. The programme receiving the highest average Value Vote with at least 1 percent of the overall popular vote in a category wins that category.

"Priority Club Rewards continues to earn recognition as the most user- friendly and customer-oriented loyalty programme in the industry as we have witnessed through our members' feedback -- we are excited about these results and look forward to more wins next year." said Ms Julia Wong, Director, Loyalty Marketing, InterContinental Hotels Group, Asia Pacific.

Priority Club Rewards is the largest and fastest-growing loyalty programme in the hotel industry available in more than 3,500 hotels in nearly 100 countries. Membership has doubled over the past three years to more than 24 million worldwide, including 1.4 million members in Asia Pacific.

It is the easiest to use and offers more sought-after benefits than any other hotel loyalty programme including Points Transfer, Points Purchase, no blackout dates on Reward Nights and no expiration. It is also the only hotel loyalty programme to offer members the ability to redeem their points toward hotel stays at virtually any hotel worldwide with the introduction of the Any Hotel, Anywhere Card that will be available beginning in July for members who reside in the US.

Enrollment in Priority Club Rewards is free. Guests can enroll online at http://www.priorityclub.com/ , by calling 1800 248 5007 (Singapore) or +63 2 857 8788 (Other Asia Pacific countries), or at the front desk of any InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Express by Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

Related Articles