I have always felt that LOYALTY to a brand matters, when you are on the road constantly. Today I had a flight from Colombo to London Heathrow, a 11 hour flight and when you arrive in London, especially in the morning the place is crowded with flights coming in from all over the world. Fortunately this flight was to arrive at 7 pm.
I have a connecting flight to Miami tomorrow on BA, and I wanted to rest the night at a hotel at the airport.
I have status at both HILTON and MARRIOTT hotels. I do not check hotel booking agencies if one of these hotels are aplenty on site. Hilton alone has five or six properties near Heathrow airport and this is a fairly new hotel, and the only one attached to the terminal 2
Most of the workers at the airport had no idea how to get to Hilton Garden Inn as it is fairly new. In the end after much trial and error I found my way to the hotel entrance without having to take HOPPA buses
As I approached the Hilton Honours desk, i had the vague feeling that I had seen the agent before. He looking up from his task, greeted me very warmly and remembered the last time, when I had stayed one night at Hilton Gatwick and we had chance to chat. He gave me a nice room with a view and I was grateful.
Loyalty does pays off, from a convenience point of view but being an anthropologist, the human point of view is so precious to me. What are the chances of meeting a Hilton Employee that you met at another hotel one year ago, at another hotel.. chance here is due to the time we spent talking together the last time. Since then he must have checked in thousands of guests..
