Travel portals operated by banks face a defining tension: loyalty pricing - the strategy to dynamically raise hotel prices to help fund accelerators and other card benefits - protects program economics but risks losing members who compare shops and book elsewhere. Over-discount to compete, and you train members to wait for deals while eroding program economics. Hold rates high, and booking volume can stagnate.
A major financial institution partnered with us to measure their customers' hotel price elasticity - not just to understand pricing sensitivity, but to drive two critical outcomes: make their travel portal part of members' consideration set when price shopping and ultimately convert that awareness into actual bookings.
The institution needed to understand how to optimize their complete travel value proposition, including pricing, benefits, and acquisition strategy, to shift member behavior from "check the portal occasionally" to "book through the portal consistently." Working together, we designed a controlled experiment to answer these questions before committing to a full program rollout.
The test revealed that competitive hotel pricing unlocked massive latent demand—members who had been comparison-shopping elsewhere returned to book through the portal.
While all customers received identical pricing, different cardholder segments showed distinct booking patterns, revealing how the institution's existing card benefits interact with competitive hotel pricing.
The insight: Premium cardholders with travel-focused benefits are highly engaged when competitive hotel rates validate the value of their existing card benefits. They don't need deeper discounts—they need confidence that portal rates are competitive with what they'd find on OTAs. Once that pricing friction is removed, they actively choose higher-value inventory because their accelerators and benefits deliver clear incremental value on top of competitive base rates.
The experiment provided the data foundation to optimize this institution's complete travel value proposition, moving from assumption to measurement. Knowing this institution's unique customer price elasticity, we're applying insights into their card portfolios.
Benefits Design: Premium cardholders have made a strategic investment in travel-focused card products, and the data validated this direction. These customers showed 60-77%hotel booking growth when competitive rates validated the incremental value of their existing accelerators and benefits—they seek value delivery, not subsidies.
Acquisition & Marketing: First-time bookers showed 57% conversion lift with high price sensitivity. This insight drives targeted acquisition campaigns and promotional strategies designed to convert skeptics into repeat portal users, growing wallet share of travel spend.
The case demonstrates the value of measuring your unique customer price elasticity rather than assuming universal truths. This institution's customers proved highly price-sensitive for hotel bookings. Other institutions have different customer bases and may see different results. The strategic value isn't in copying this outcome, but in testing to discover your own.
No single lever works in isolation—pricing, benefits, customer service, inventory breadth, and site usability all contribute to travel portal success.
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Become a partnerTravel portals operated by banks face a defining tension: loyalty pricing - the strategy to dynamically raise hotel prices to help fund accelerators and other card benefits - protects program economics but risks losing members who compare shops and book elsewhere. Over-discount to compete, and you train members to wait for deals while eroding program economics. Hold rates high, and booking volume can stagnate.
We partnered with a leading US airline loyalty program to re-imagine their existing “Boost" feature— enhancing it with new premium booking packages and VIP perks—driving 25-30% attach rates and 30% higher average order values.
Nectar, a leading UK loyalty program, teamed up with Rocket Travel by Agoda to launch Nectar Hotels, a fully branded travel platform for loyalty members
As one of Japan’s most diverse and culturally significant regions, Hyogo Prefecture stands out not only for its world-renowned attractions like the UNESCO-listed Himeji Castle and the historic Arima Onsen, but also impressive scale, with a population of over 5.5 million and attracting over 1.4 million overnight guests per month in 2024.
Founded in 1994, Smiles is the most known frequent-flyer program in Brazil. With a customer base of approximately 17M travelers, Smiles is now the loyalty program for GOL, the largest Brazilian airline. Rocket Travel by Agoda and Smiles have been working together since 2017. The company was the first global partner to leverage Rocket’s leading technology to provide its customers with the option to redeem miles on hotel stays.3.4% increase in email open rate0.6% increase in click-through rate5% increase in direct market share.
Flying Blue, the loyalty programme of Air France, KLM, Transavia, Aircalin, Kenya Airways, and TAROM, and Rocket Travel by Agoda launched a new platform that provides Flying Blue customers with more options to earn and use points on hotel stays. With this launch, Rocket Travel by Agoda has expanded its reach globally, as Flying Blue became Rocket’s second white label partner in Europe.Since launch, bookings have increased by 200%. The customer-centric and partner-branded website, the improved user experience, the expanded option to earn and redeem Miles, and the emphasis on delivering quality support are some of the key reasons why this partnership has been successful.
One leading global aviation company with a successful loyalty program turned to Rocket Travel by Agoda to create a redefined hotel booking experience.The airline market’s profits dropped 33% in Q2 of 2024, amid an increase in labor costs and jet fuel prices. These market conditions are forcing airlines to look at how they can maintain profitability, coming in the form of cutting routes, grounding planes, and finding ways to increase efficiency. Smart airlines are leveraging their loyalty programs to cultivate new revenue streams and achieve their business objectives.
Jim Thompson, the iconic Thai lifestyle brand, aimed to expand its visibility among a diverse, global travel audience. To do so, they needed to place their promotional offers in front of travelers who were actively planning their trips. However, advertising channels tend be imprecise, often showing ads to a general audience instead of people who are actively planning a trip. This can lead to wasted budget and missed opportunities to connect with interested travelers.
ShopBack is Asia-Pacific's leading shopping and rewards platform. They connect over 50 million users with 15 million merchants and partners, driving billions in sales for them annually. Given their current scale, it's hard to believe that just over a decade ago, ShopBack only started to set out to help people across the region save money with cashback on their everyday shopping. Very quickly after launching, ShopBack identified an opportunity to launch a dedicated travel vertical. Their goal for the vertical was to provide strong travel offerings that would drive high booking volumes for travel partners, enabling ShopBack to earn from these referrals and pass higher cashback deals back to their members. However, launching a travel vertical presented unique challenges for a platform primarily known for retail cashback. To win member confidence for these higher-value travel purchases and provide a truly competitive service from day one, ShopBack knew they needed two key elements: access to a vast selection of global travel options and the backing of an established, trusted name in the travel industry. This was about more than just adding inventory it was about ensuring a reliable and appealing booking experience that members would trust. “We needed a partner who could offer both scale and trust. Rocket Travel by Agoda gave us global reach with local credibility, which was key to winning our users’ confidence early on.” - Hazel Then, Regional Head of Commercial, ShopBack
