FFB Insider: A Golden Tulip blooms in the bonus garden

European based Golden Tulip Hotels may not be as well known in the loyalty circles as brands like Starwood, InterContinental or Marriott but it appears they may be wanting to change that. FFB has been tracking or better said tracking the lack thereof of bonus offers for Golden Tulip’s Flavours program for many years but only added them to our websites this year. Why did we only add them in 2011? Up until early this year we could not find evidence of one bonus point offer for the Flavours program. There were occassional offers for bonus miles from one of their seven airline partners but never bonuses for their own loyalty program. Come 2011 and that seems to have changed, it appears Golden Tulip is adopting a mildly aggressive marketing campaign for their Flavours programs and for their airline partners.

It all started earlier in the year, when for the first ever we found hotel stay bonuses for Flavours members posted on the Golden Tulip website. To say we were surprised was an understatement as the Flavours special offer page was bookmarked and visited by us once a week for the past 2+ years and it always stated the same thing: “No Special Offers at this Time” (or something like that). What Golden Tulip Flavours had rolled out was some stay bonuses for select locations in Asia, OK, not huge but still they offered something. These offers ran for the first quarter and a little beyond. Our next question here at FFB was “Would it continue?” It sure did. As late April rolled around, our weekly check of the page showed new Flavours bonuses for stays at a few Golden Tulip locations in Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary that were valid for the remainder of the year. A week or two later and the list was expanded to include properties in France and Poland.

Fast forward to the middle of June and suddenly we are finding more Golden Tulip bonuses, this time it is double miles for their airline partners and not for one or two properties but for virtually every property that Golden Tulip operates from Armenia to the U.S. and in between. First it was Saudi Arabian Airlines Alfursan that released the offer and this was quickly followed within the next week by Oman Air Sindbad, American Airlines and finally Qatar Airways. Chances are the promo will be available to members of the other airline programs that are partnered with Golden Tulip but we have not found them or they have not been publicly posted yet. Air France KLM’s Flying Program does however have a separate promotion running for Kyriad, Kyriad Prestige and Campanile Hotels managed by Golden Tulip offering Triple Miles for weekend stays at participating locations Worldwide.

The Golden Tulip Flavours program seem to have come full circle from the years before and embraced the power of the bonus offer promotion whether it is from within their own loyalty program or for their partner’s programs. The first six months of 2011 have shown that they are willing to take the plunge to offer such promotions in attempt to attract more business to their properties and compete with the larger hotel chain’s loyalty programs. Time will tell whether these marketing efforts will pay off for this small European brand, if we continue to see the release of these bonuses, then one could assume it did. As always we will keep you  up to date on all the bonuses offered by Golden Tulip on the Frequent Flyer Bonuses websites and to see what they are currently offering please visit our Flavours Bonus Point Opportunities page.

This article is part of the FFB Insider, our corporate/B2B newsletter for those who work in the travel, travel rewards and/or loyalty industries. It offers insights into the world of bonus offers and other loyalty promotions found in the world of travel. It also features updates and news on the FFB Group. The FFB Insider is sent once a month and you can subscribe to it here.