Instead of aiming to achieve as many members as possible, it is important to focus on retaining customers, which is achieved with the support of loyalty programmes. As the tourism and hospital industries have become the fastest growing sectors in the world, hotels have realised the potential to focus on their loyal customers. A qualitative approach was adopted to explore the attractiveness of loyalty programmes to Chinese consumers and the challenges of such programmes in the hospitality industry. The aim of this paper is to identify which aspects of a loyalty programme in the hospitality industry are perceived as attractive to Chinese customers. This qualitative research highlights the perspective of industry leaders such as general managers and executives working in the club lounges of five-star hotels in Suzhou as well as loyalty programme consultants with a focus on China. The qualitative research findings are aimed at supporting hotels in China and loyalty programmes with a focus on Chinese consumers in the hospitality industry in order to receive more knowledge and to explore new strategies on how to retain and satisfy Chinese programme members.

To understand how to strengthen employee’s loyalty programme (LP) behaviour, this research examined the connection between Chinese hotel employee’s intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM), their intention to apply loyalty programme practices (LPP) in the Chinese hotel industry and lastly the degree to which Chinese hotel employees feel that LPP are relevant to them. Data was collected from 1047 hotel employees (893 final valid responses) in China. Path analysis was employed by SPSS Statistics 24 and Mplus 7.4 to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings suggest that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of Chinese hotel employees were found to have a positive impact on their intentions to adopt LPP. The employee’s loyalty programme involvement mediated the above influence process. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

This study examines Chinese hotel employees’ understanding of customer relationship management (CRM) practices, with a focus on loyalty programme behaviour (LPB). Specifically, it investigates how three factors—loyalty programme (LP) awareness, LP knowledge, and LP concerns—shape employees’ intentions to implement loyalty programme practices (LPP) in the hospitality industry. A quantitative research design was adopted to test the proposed hypotheses. Data was collected through a self-administered survey of 893 Chinese hotel employees. To evaluate the proposed hypotheses, path analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics 24 and Mplus 7.4. The findings reveal that LP awareness and LP knowledge are both positively associated with employees’ intentions to implement loyalty programme practices, whereas LP concerns showed no significant effect. Moreover, employees’ intentions were positively linked to loyalty programme behaviour and served as a mediator between awareness, knowledge, and behavioural outcomes. Theoretical insights and practical applications are also addressed.