Preferred Travel Group connects independent hotels, hospitality companies, and destinations to key markets worldwide through strategic branding, sales, integrated marketing, revenue management, distribution services, and other consultancy services.
When Preferred Travel Group rebranded and relaunched their rewards program, there was one major sticking point: mobile apps.
In 2023, providing an app to support their rewards program is essential. The majority of travelers are going to be on mobile, and today’s consumers just expect to have a user experience catered towards mobile.
That left them a huge task to accomplish, with the deadline of their rebrand launch looming. Luckily, MobiLoud was there to help them launch the perfect mobile app companion.
Preferred Travel Group and the I Prefer Rewards Program
Preferred Travel Group is a cooperative group of more than 650 independent hotels across 85 countries. It encompasses four brands: Preferred Hotels & Resorts; Beyond Green; Historic Hotels of America; and Historic Hotels Worldwide.
Part of the offering is their “I Prefer” loyalty program, which lets members earn points, bonuses and unique rewards when staying at Preferred Travel Group hotels and resorts.
The company itself, along with the rewards program, was quite old, and in need of a facelift, which is where MobiLoud entered the picture.
The Challenge
Senior Software Development Manager Joshua Camacho put the challenge thus:
“The I Prefer program got completely rebranded, so it had a new color scheme, and new concepts to it and we had an existing app that was at this point pretty old. None of that app was matching the new design, and because the app was so old, it was going to require a rewrite to meet the new standards of the app stores.”
Joshua’s team needed a way to build a new app, or radically renovate their existing app, to match the time frame for their overall rebrand.
As most brands do, the first thing they thought about was building a native app from scratch. But it became clear that this wouldn’t match their launch schedule.
“We considered a native app, and that still is in the discovery process but we knew that there wasn't enough time to do a native app. We just didn't have time to design a whole new mobile app and keep up with the release date of this new look and feel.”
The Solution
Joshua eventually found MobiLoud. MobiLoud fit the bill perfectly - a way to launch a mobile app fast, that matched the branding and user experience of the new site.
MobiLoud allowed them to simply transform their new website, which was being redone to be a modern, responsive website, into an app. No need for another lengthy and complicated redesign.
“To be honest, we didn't find any other company that did what you did. When we started looking into you it was because you were doing exactly what we wanted, which was to be able to create a native app of our mobile website. Nobody else seemed to have that.”
Time to launch was the key point that stood out.
“One of the things that made MobiLoud the deciding factor was the speed at which we could enable it.”
With MobiLoud, they were able to launch in weeks, where a native app would have them waiting months until completion.
Results
“Everything has been extraordinarily positive from the users to the stakeholders of the company. Everyone was super happy that we were able to get this out, to match the new design. No one was happy with the previous app.”
They were able to launch their app within the planned time frame, by using MobiLoud. Not only did it match the rebrand, but it provided a welcome improvement over the old, dated app they already had.
“We're excited about the new app, the old app was in dire need of being replaced. I was happy to hear that there have been more than 10,000 downloads already.”
Launching the app in time for the rebrand allowed them to promote it in their press releases, on major platforms like Yahoo.
Along with looking and working great for users, it’s a welcome improvement within Joshua’s team, as it’s significantly easier to maintain and update the app.
“My team is super pleased with it because we get to manage how the app looks now. A little more app specific when you're on the app. It's been great.”
The flexibility of MobiLoud also lets them differentiate, where necessary, between the mobile website and app experiences. They have a true native app experience for app users, even though the app is simply a recreation of their website.
“We have different ways to detect that you're coming from an app and we show and hide certain things to make the website and app unique.”
Use MobiLoud to Build Mobile Apps Today
Preferred Travel Group are one of many brands who were surprised at the ease, affordability and power of MobiLoud.
When you already have a website or web app, building mobile apps this way is far superior to coding apps from scratch. You can go live in as little as two weeks, for minimal investment, and deliver something that looks and feels like any other native app to the end user.
No matter what kind of website you have, if you have mobile users, you can provide a far better user experience to them, along with boosting engagement and retention, by launching an app.
Let us help you do it. Schedule a free, personalized demo call to see how the process works and get a preview of what your site will look like in an app.
Launching a mobile app is the best way to grow your business today. There’s no risk - just get in touch and see what we can do for your business.
Preferred Travel Group connects independent hotels, hospitality companies, and destinations to key markets worldwide through strategic branding, sales, integrated marketing, revenue management, distribution services, and other consultancy services.
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