Cendant Adds Bewitching Incentive For Hotel Stays
Cendant’s Hotel Group is offering consumers an enchanting incentive to stay at one of its eight hotel chains this summer.
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| Cendant offers consumers a magical summer incentive |
The hotel group has teamed with Sony Pictures and its upcoming motion picture release of
Bewitched for its Stay A Spell promotion, which offers movie-themed booklets with any one-night stay at Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Wingate Inn, and AmeriHost brands in the U.S. or Canada.
The booklets, valued at $250, offer a free car rental upgrade from Avis and discounted shopping at TCBY, FTD.com and Radio Shack. The promotion runs through Sept. 15.
Bewitched stars Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine in a remake of the 1960s TV show about the trials and tribulations surrounding the marriage between a good-hearted witch and a mortal. The film hits theaters nationwide on June 24.
As part of the promotion, TripReward members can enter the Stay A Spell sweepstakes to win daily and monthly prizes, including $100 gasoline cards and a grand prize of 1 million TripReward points. Members can log on any of Cendant’s franchised hotels’ Web sites to register.
The sweepstakes offer four grand prizes of 1 million TripRewards points, which can be redeemed for 166 free hotel stays, five months worth of car rentals, 181 $25 gift cards from top retailers, 30 mountain bikes, 18 plane tickets or other rewards. Drawings for the grand prizes, which carry an average value of $6,000, will take place on June 16, July 16, Aug. 16 and Oct. 1.
In addition, the loyalty program is giving away 600 $100 gasoline cards. Internet materials, print ads and TV spots support.
The goal of the promotion is to drive customers to stay in Cendant hotels while offering them a summer of savings, said Peter Strebel, executive VP and CMO for Cendant Hotel Group.
“Entertainment and hotel stays are very much aligned together,” Strebel said. “Piggybacking on a major motion picture was a positive thing to do. It really fit well with our target customers. We have a bigger bang for our buck.”
Cendant Hotel Group launched its TripRewards program in December 2003, while marketing efforts for the program kicked off in February 2004. The TripRewards program has more than 3.5 million members. The loyalty program celebrated its first birthday last month with a cake-eating contest featuring Chicago Bears defensive tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry at Grand Central Station in New York.
