Hilton Extends Loyalty Program for Small Businesses

16.10.2023 - 13:47 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Chris Silcock

Hilton said Monday it’s taking steps to streamline how small- and medium-sized businesses book and manage billings for business travel and small-group meetings and events.

The hotel giant has quietly opened a waitlist for Hilton for Business, a platform to simplify how businesses book travel at its hotels. Hilton plans to make the platform globally available early next year.

Hilton will offer points rewards to businesses — not just frequent travelers — as an incentive to woo participants. Another Hilton effort that will launch by early next year is expanding its events booking capabilities.

“We don’t think anybody is serving this segment particularly well at this point,” said Chris Silcock, Hilton’s chief commercial officer.

To encourage businesses to sign up, Hilton will run a “loyalty program” that rewards businesses in addition to letting road warriors earn rewards through the Honors loyalty program.

“We’re giving business owners the flexibility with those points to do whatever they want,” Silcock said. “They can keep them for themselves and use them for their personal travel. The owners can give them to their team members. Whatever works for that individual business.”

Hilton will offer bonuses through a few mechanisms, such as for how many employees sign up, the volume of stays, and the volume of stays over time.

Skift estimates that the company’s two initiatives may be relevant to roughly 70 million road warriors next year. Hilton said in May that business transient demand drove “close to 45%” of its mix of guests, and it said on Monday that roughly 85% of Hilton’s business transient guests are small-to-medium-sized enterprises.

Today about three out of four U.S. small and medium-sized businesses book their own travel. But it isn’t easy to get access to discounts, even if they book a lot with the same chain.

Some hotel groups let businesses apply for preferential rates. However, they require the typical applicant to send in a form and wait for a response. Or they might have to find a few hotels and call each and go through an individual negotiation.

Hilton’s new process aims for instant enrollment after a quick online attestation that the business qualifies.

Businesses that sign up will get to see discounted rates on Hilton.com and on the Hilton Honors app at more than 7,000 properties. Managers will then be able to assign different permissions for types of hotel rooms that different employees can book.

Today, when most businesses want to track and understand their company’s travel, they have to click through spreadsheets or go through bank statements.

Hilton will give business owners basic dashboards to see which employees are staying where and what they’re spending.

On this front, the