Repeat guests cost less to acquire, leave better reviews, and cause fewer problems. A loyalty programme turns one-time visitors into regulars — and it doesn't require the infrastructure of a hotel chain to run one.
Every booking has an acquisition cost. For bookings from Airbnb or Booking.com, that cost is the platform commission — typically 15-20% of the booking value. For direct bookings, the acquisition cost is lower but still real: marketing spend, website costs, and the time invested in managing your own booking channel.
Repeat guests break this economics. A guest who has already stayed with you and wants to return knows your property, trusts your quality, and doesn't need to be acquired again. The cost of that second and third booking is close to zero.
This is why the most commercially sophisticated holiday rental operators treat guest retention as a core business strategy — not an afterthought.
A loyalty programme for holiday rentals works on the same principle as airline miles or hotel points: guests earn rewards for every stay, and they can redeem those rewards for discounts on future bookings.
For holiday rentals, the mechanics are typically:
The programme incentivises guests to book directly with you (OTA bookings may not earn points, or earn fewer), to return to your properties, and to engage with your brand between stays.
LetPilot includes a built-in loyalty programme that works across your entire portfolio. When a guest completes a stay booked directly, they earn points that are stored in their guest wallet. These points can be redeemed against any future direct booking across any property in your portfolio.
Key features:
The programme integrates directly with the booking flow, so redeeming points is a seamless part of the checkout experience for guests booking through your direct booking site.
Keep it simple. A common approach is 1 point per £1 spent, with 100 points = £1 off. This is easy to explain to guests and creates a clear, predictable value proposition.
Avoid overly complex tier systems unless you have a large, sophisticated guest base. The simpler the programme, the more likely guests are to engage with it.
Beyond stay spend, consider offering points for:
Set a minimum redemption threshold to prevent trivial redemptions. 200-500 points (representing 2-5 stays worth of earning) is typical. This ensures guests have a reason to book again — they've built up value worth using.
A loyalty programme only works if guests know about it. Key communication touchpoints:
At booking: "Every stay earns you loyalty points. This booking will earn you 450 points (worth £4.50 off a future stay)."
At check-in guide: include a section on the loyalty programme with their current points balance
Post-stay email: "Your stay earned you 450 points. Your total balance is now 1,200 points (worth £12 off). Book directly at [your website] to redeem them."
Abandoned booking email: "You have 1,200 points in your wallet — worth £12 off your next stay. Don't let them sit idle."
A loyalty programme is most powerful when it's explicitly tied to direct booking. OTA platforms don't support your loyalty programme — guests booking through Airbnb or Booking.com can't earn points, and even if they could, they'd be earning points from the platform, not from you.
This creates a natural incentive for guests to book direct on their next stay. If they know they have £15 in loyalty points sitting in their wallet, but those points can only be redeemed on your direct booking site, they have a concrete financial reason to bypass the OTA next time.
Over time, a well-run loyalty programme can meaningfully shift your booking mix from OTA-heavy to direct-heavy — reducing your commission cost and improving profitability at scale.
Track these metrics to understand whether your loyalty programme is working:
If return rate is low, the issue is usually either awareness (guests don't know the programme exists) or relevance (they don't holiday in your area repeatedly). If redemption rate is very high and return rate is also high, the programme is working well.
You don't need thousands of past guests to launch a loyalty programme. Even with a modest guest database, starting the programme creates the right habits and systems. Early adopters become your most loyal guests, and as your guest base grows, the compounding effect of repeat bookings becomes increasingly significant to your bottom line.