Social diffusion and loyalty programs : a path to succeed

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to define a model of social technology diffusion, comprising constructs that explain guests’ likelihood of recommending their hotel loyalty program to their peers. Design/methodology/approach: The diffusion effect is explained by commitment-trust, satisfaction with user-to-user interactivity, satisfaction with user identifiability and word of mouth. A total of 2,812 usable responses were obtained through an online questionnaire sent to guests with two or more transactions with the loyalty program. Findings: The results suggest that commitment and trust and word of mouth are crucial to enact social diffusion. As such, hotel loyalty programs need to be leveraged through enacting social diffusion. Practical implications: Tourism and hospitality practitioners dealing with loyalty programs should create and post new trustworthy content that might be beneficial for the hotel loyalty program in their efforts to provide a more valuable experience for guests. Originality/value: The paper provides empirical evidence that the likelihood of sharing with other guests or the intention to belong to a hotel loyalty program community exists and then goes on to offer a range of possible responses based upon four relational mediators.