Welcome to the unofficial start of summer 😎! Here in Boston, we went from 93 to 53, back up to 83, all within 5 days. Gotta love New England weather.
Industry news tends to be lighter this time of year, so not sure if my bi-weekly cadence of issues will hold since this is my first full summer live. But we’ll see how it goes.
Finally, Issue #19 brought great (and positive) feedback regarding my pointed takes on the latest industry news. Will certainly bring it back when the time is right.
In this Issue:
👉🏻The Big Point: You’re confusing loyalty strategy with loyalty program
🔎 Points Worth Reading: Articles from NYT and The Drum
⚡Quick Points: Scannable to know, clickable to learn more
👉 THE BIG POINT
Loyalty Needs a Strategy.
Airbnb’s whiplash stance on loyalty is emblematic of a bigger industry issue. Confusing program with strategy.
If you’ve been following the Airbnb loyalty news over the past 3 years, you might have whiplash. Let me enlighten:
2023: “I’m not a fan of loyalty programs, and the best loyalty program is a product people love. If you have to pay someone to come back, then they’re not truly loyal”. (2023 Earnings Call)
2025: “I don’t know if we’ll ever do a traditional loyalty points program because traditional-approach programs are kind of like a subsidy” (May 2025 interview)
2026: “..Loyalty, we think can be a massive accelerator for our company. We are absolutely looking at this…testing different benefits that could be a loyalty program” (Feb 2026 Earnings Call).
2026: “I have always said we are looking at something, but if we do, we would not do an additive points program. We are looking at our version of a really compelling program.” (May 2026 Earnings Call)
Chesky has put himself in a pretzel over the years, trying to explain his approach to loyalty. So what gives?
Well, Airbnb is wrestling with the same issue many brands do: you’re confusing loyalty strategy with loyalty program.
Many Great Brands don’t have loyalty programs. And Great Loyalty programs don’t solve brand problems.
While the number of great brands without formal loyalty programs is shrinking, they still exist. Trader Joe’s, Patagonia and In-N-Out have all built deep customer affinity without a points ledger attached.
But the reverse is also true: plenty of brands with excellent loyalty programs still hit real business trouble. Chipotle, Ulta, Target and Starbucks all have massive programs that are often held up as best-in-class. And yet each has faced sales pressure, traffic softness, or broader brand challenges over the past few years. Their programs did not cause the problems. But they also could not magically solve them.
This is where loyalty gets dangerous. Not because the programs are bad, but because the expectations are inflated
A 2025 PwC study found that loyalty programs may be solving the wrong problem. According to the study, 57% of executives said their loyalty systems are not delivering the outcomes they need, and 46% said their current program will be irrelevant in three years. Ouch. But I don’t think this is just a program design problem. It is an expectation problem.
Brands think you’ll launch a program, enroll millions of consumers, collect a whole bunch of data to provide offers that get consumers coming back again and again.
The reality? Programs rarely create loyalty from scratch. They are much better at recognizing, rewarding, and deepening existing loyalty.
This is what so many loyalty program designs miss. Which leads me to the 4 truths.
4 Truths of a Loyalty Strategy
Too many brands are starting with a loyalty program and not a strategy. Here are 4 hard truths:
You can’t loyalty program around a bad product
No program will make a consumer eat a pizza that tastes bad, or stay in hotels that treat them badly, or buy clothing they find ugly. Fix your product, then your customer experience, then your brand, and tack the loyalty strategy on top.
Not every brand is built for a program
Reasons not to have a program: Low frequency, low margin, small footprint, one or a few products, commodity, unpredictable buying behavior, and the inability to capture data. If you’re a brand that checks many of these, a program is likely a waste of money. For a long time, Airbnb fit this list due to its low frequency and unpredictable buying habits. Now, as they expand into hotels, experiences, and more, a program might (and I stress might) make more sense.
Loyalty is an experience, not an economy
Yes, members will earn and consumer points like water (and demand points when you don’t have it), but the real emotion comes from exclusive service, access, great technology that feels personalized, and more. Points create a reason to transact, experiences create a reason to care. Experience is hard to do at scale. So don’t. Leave it for your true fans.
If it’s for everyone, it’s for no one.
This one is controversial and often disagreed with. I had many comments when I said I was ok with American no longer giving out points for basic economy. Because what they're saying is their program is not for everyone. Programs should be designed for your most profitable and frequent customers first, then work backward. Instead, too many brands are focused on designing for non-members, hoping to make the join journey so easy that my dog could sign up (but she is really smart, I must say).
Start your Loyalty Strategy by driving brand love
I agree with Chesky when he said the best loyalty program is a product people love. It’s the right place to start. Points or cash back is just the optional add-on mechanism that helps structure and ground the program for the consumer.
Before building tiers, currencies or earning tables, brands should ask: what behavior are we trying to deepen, what customer really matter, and what makes them feel recognized instead of rebated?
Just remember, loyalty programs don’t create loyalty. They reward it.
Your POV:
Do you agree or disagree with my 4 truths? And if Airbnb does do a program, what do you want to see it in?
🔎 POINTS WORTH READING
⚡ QUICK POINTS
✈️ TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION
Hyatt’s new award chart went into effect (not dynamic pricing but pretty darn close), and it might get worse next year. 😢
Expedia and CLEAR now have a partnership, but it seems that One Key members who sign up for CLEAR only get a discount and not much else special.
🍴RESTAURANTS
Merch and food ‘drops’ are now the new loyalty incentive for restaurants. Because a discount is not enough to stand out now (and drops are more fun!)
⬆ Per the previous bullet, check out Wendy’s new merch drop that you can’t buy but only win.
With gas prices soaring, Cracker Barrel is running a contest for rewards members where they can earn Cracker Barrel and gas gift cards.
🛒RETAIL
Walmart+ hit a record number of members this quarter, with membership income rising 17%. Another good stat: Members spend 4x as much as non-members.
Fanatics now has a cobrand card with American Express and Amex will be a presenting sponsor at Fanatics Fest NYC. This brand/bank hook-up makes sense.
Grocer Sprouts said a key part of its growth strategy is its new loyalty program, where they plan to use the data for more personalization.
🙃 RANDOM
You can’t make this up…but AI can. EY had to remove its Loyalty Rewards and Cyber Risk study after some of the data and references were found to have been AI hallucinations.
Long overdue! Google is adding loyalty features to its Google Wallet, such as prompts to join frequent-flyer programs when boarding or retail programs when tapping to pay. More features are coming.
Not so loyal? Per a new survey, 60% of consumers stopped buying a brand they were loyal to this year due to price increases.
I didn’t write this article on how hyphenated names break loyalty systems, but I could have!