FORTE GIVES TRAVELLERS GENEROUS MOMENTS.COM

In line with its customer focused strategy, award-winning Forte Hotel Group goes ‘live’ on-line and starts recruiting today for MOMENTS.COM, its new, multi-million pound reward and customer recognition programme open to travellers around the globe, according to Michel Noblet, managing director for Forte Hotels in the Middle East and West Asia.

"MOMENTS.COM, considered to be most generous and straightforward scheme of its kind in the marketplace, is officially launched," he said.

Noblet explained that members are awarded 1 MOMENTS point for every £2 spent on accommodation, food or drink at any Le Meridien, Heritage Hotels or Posthouse hotel.

"Points can be redeemed at any of Forte’s 240-strong portfolio for room nights, room upgrades, dining offers or health and beauty treatments.

He said that there are no blackout dates and indicated that the hotel group is in talks with a number of its trade partners to extend this earning system in the near future.

The scheme operates two tiers, Blue and Gold, giving members access to a range of service benefits, including 48-hour guaranteed availability, room allocation according to preference and pre-registered check-in, as well as special offers.

MOMENTS.COM involved extensive research to establish what frequent guests really value from hotels and restaurants : "This found simplicity, generosity, honesty and individual treatment to be the most highly rated elements.

"Forte has made these core values of MOMENTS.COM," said Russel Sharpe, senior vice president, sales and marketing for the region.

On Forte’s claim to be the most generous reward scheme, Sharpe said that research findings have been undertaken and confirm the statement. He cited the findings of loyalty expert Professor Steve Worthington of Staffordshire University on the real customer value of the different types of reward programmes available in the UK today.

"Worthington found that MOMENTS.COM surpassed its main competitors to provide a 10.5 per cent rate of return on money spent. This equates to an actual monetary value of £315.90 on a £3,000 spend - £70 more than its closest competitor," said Sharpe.

Professor Worthington comments: "Many companies will fall short of encouraging consumer loyalty because they do not truly reward the consumer. The most generous schemes, in particular Forte, are clearly not guilty of such incongruity. MOMENTS.COM has been created with the customer in mind offering simplicity in design and genuine, accessible rewards without the usual raft of exclusions and conditions."

According to Sharpe, consumers are still motivated by ‘points for prize’ rewards, but there are too many offers in the marketplace to keep them loyal to one company for this reason alone : "Quality of product is important, but we passionately believe that it is the people and the service that make up the customer’s relationship with an establishment and it is these elements that will keep them coming back.

"MOMENTS.COM is a fully integrated mechanism to enable us to know our most valued customers, recognise them at our properties, provide them with the products and service levels we know they welcome and, at the same time, reward them for their business."

MOMENTS.COM is ‘fronted’ by a personalised website that will provide members with details of their account balances, details of special offers tailored to their profiles, information from hotels and brands and also facilitate reservations giving real time availability. The capacity exists to develop the site further in the future.

Noblet concludes: "In our industry, delivering superior customer service is the key differentiator for the future. Forte’s strategy is to place the customer at the heart of our business – helping us fulfil our vision to be the best and most profitable hotel operator in every market segment in which we choose to operate. MOMENTS.COM takes us a large step closer to achieving this target."

Helping Forte deliver MOMENTS.COM are : Broadvision, providing web-based personalisation to the site; Syntegra, who developed the MOMENTS.COM central database application that is browser-based and supports the Carlson call centre responsible for administrating the scheme; Ixl have built the internet site; Oracle, the database and IBM provided equipment and consultation.

The scheme is backed by extensive training rolled out across the entire portfolio that builds on the company’s customer-focused Commitment to Excellent culture programme.

Part of Granada Group plc, Forte Hotel Group is the UK's largest hotel operator with some 430 hotels and resorts offering over 59,000 bedrooms across 55 countries worldwide. Award- winning Forte operates four clearly differentiated hotel brands – 123 international, upscale Le Meridien; 44 traditional Heritage Hotels; 80 mid-market Posthouse and 195 budget Travelodge in the UK. Also part of the Group is one of the UK’s leading health club operators and No.1 contract operator in the UK, Granada Health & Fitness. This division has 123 clubs and 83,000 members.