Most hospitality loyalty systems are not evil. They are just unbearably boring. They are optimized, efficient, automated - and almost completely devoid of soul. If we want to move beyond transactional fatigue, we have to admit that the current model is fundamentally uninteresting and start treating loyalty as a medium for ideas, not just discounts.
I. WHAT "THE GREAT BOREDOM" REALLY IS
When I say “The Great Boredom”, I don’t mean bad technology or lack of features. In fact, today's loyalty stacks are extremely feature-rich: dynamic pricing, tier multipliers, partner earning, bonus campaigns, apps, AI recommendations - everything.
The boredom comes from something deeper: almost every system is built on the same unspoken equation: more money in → more points out → more discounts later. Change the colors, the logo, the airline or hotel flag - the underlying logic stays identical.
To a spreadsheet, this is elegant. To a human, this is dead air.
HOW GUESTS EXPERIENCE THE BOREDOM
- They know exactly what will happen: earn a bit, redeem a bit, maybe get a 5% voucher next quarter.
- They never tell stories about it to friends - nobody sits at dinner saying, “You have to hear what my points did.”
- They treat points like loose change in an old jacket - nice to find, but never worth waking up for.
- They feel like one of millions in a CRM table - not a character in a narrative, just a row in a database.
The result is a paradox: brands invest millions into “loyalty”, but what they often buy is passive, numerical compliance - not active, emotional loyalty.
II. WHY POINTS AREN’T THE ENEMY (BUT DESIGN IS)
It’s easy to blame points as a mechanic. But points are just units of potential - like pixels for an artist or notes for a composer.
The real problem is that we have used them almost exclusively in one dimension: accumulate → spend → repeat. No identity, no philosophy, no playfulness, no contradiction.
COMMON FAILURE PATTERNS
- Spreadsheet Thinking: Every decision is framed in ROI. Anything that cannot be justified by a spreadsheet is killed before it can become interesting.
- Fear of Absurdity: Brands are scared of ideas that cannot be explained in three bullet points. True loyalty needs myth, not only mechanics.
- Short-Term Bribery: “Do X now, get Y now” creates conditioned response, not lasting feeling. When the bribe stops, engagement evaporates.
- Copy-Paste Design: If you can replace one hotel logo with another and the program still works identically, you have an industrial commodity, not a relationship system.
The Great Boredom is not a bug - it is the natural outcome of optimizing loyalty only for finance and retention dashboards, never for meaning.
III. HOW BRANDS TRAINED GUESTS TO STOP CARING
Over decades, large programs trained a generation of guests to think about loyalty like this: “If I collect enough, I might get a free night or a flight - if they don’t devalue it first.”
1. POINT INFLATION AS STANDARD PRACTICE
Every few years, many programs quietly increase the number of points required for a free night, or switch to fully dynamic redemption tied to cash price. Mathematically understandable. Emotionally, it feels like:
- “What I thought I earned isn’t what I actually get.”
- “This system can change the rules at any time. I’m not safe here.”
2. 90% OF USERS NEVER REACH MEANINGFUL STATUS
Most programs are pyramids. The top 1-5% are showered with lounges, upgrades and late check-outs. Everyone else gets:
- an app,
- a plastic card,
- and emails reminding them they are “just 18 nights away from Gold!”.
This doesn’t build loyalty. It builds quiet resentment and resignation.
3. LOYALTY AS ADMIN WORK
Many guests now experience loyalty as unpaid admin work:
- checking expiry dates and small print,
- comparing redemption rates across programs,
- fighting chatbots for missing points,
- optimizing trips around tier cut-offs instead of joy.
When the cognitive load of managing loyalty outweighs the joy of receiving it, loyalty becomes a chore - not a gift.
IV. WHY “LOYALTY 3.0” DIDN’T SAVE US
In slide decks and conference panels we hear: “Loyalty 3.0 - AI, blockchain, hyper-personalization, real-time engagement.”
These are powerful tools. But in most real implementations they are used to:
- segment you more precisely,
- predict your spend more accurately,
- automate the same old rewards more efficiently.
It is the same boredom, delivered faster and with better dashboards.
AI WITH NO IMAGINATION
AI is mostly used to:
- pre-fill your check-in forms,
- suggest slightly better upsells,
- optimize pricing windows.
Very little of it is used to create new forms of **feeling** - surreal memories, playful interactions, poetic glitches in an otherwise predictable stay.
BLOCKCHAIN WITH NO PURPOSE
Plenty of “loyalty tokens” are simply:
- points on a fancier ledger,
- fully controlled by the brand,
- without any open ecosystem or story.
Blockchain without narrative is just an expensive database.
V. LO-FI LOYALTY: A DIFFERENT STARTING POINT
LOYAL.WTF starts from a different assumption:
Loyalty is not about efficiency of rewards. Loyalty is about the stories people tell after they leave.
Instead of asking: “How do we get guests to come back 3.2 times per year?” we ask: “What is the strangest, most human thing we could let them do with their points?”
FROM FUNCTIONAL TO CONCEPTUAL VALUE
Functional value: “1000 points = 10 € discount.”
Conceptual value:
- “You burned 500 points to have your name engraved on a Wall of Believers.”
- “You used your points to buy a drink for someone you’ll never meet.”
- “You spent points to buy 15 minutes of total silence for the entire hotel.”
To a CFO, those look irrational. To a guest, they are unforgettable.
VI. THREE PATTERNS TO ESCAPE THE GREAT BOREDOM
To move out of the boredom zone, loyalty systems need at least one of these qualities:
1. ASYMMETRY (IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU)
Today, almost all loyalty is self-directed: you earn for yourself, you redeem for yourself.
Asymmetry flips this:
- Drink Chain - your reward goes to the next guest.
- Anonymous Patron - you never see the reaction, only trust the effect.
- Entropy Funds - your decayed points become surprise gifts for strangers.
The story is no longer “I got a free night”. It becomes “I used my loyalty to do something weirdly kind.”
2. NARRATIVE (YOU ARE A CHARACTER, NOT A ROW)
Points should not just accumulate. They should tell a story:
- who you are (Silent Observer, Night Owl, Mountain Whisperer),
- what you did (Chain Master, Void Believer),
- which path you chose (Patron vs Hoarder).
Even a simple title or badge can begin to shift loyalty from admin to identity.
3. SURPRISE (SOMETHING EXCEL CAN’T FORECAST)
A loyalty system that never surprises is just a slow refund engine.
Surprise doesn’t mean chaos - it can be:
- a Time Capsule you forgot you left for yourself,
- a Mystery Box that turns into a rooftop performance,
- a Dream Report generated by AI that reacts to your sleep pattern.
The more a loyalty system feels like a living world, not a static chart, the less likely it is to fall back into The Great Boredom.
VII. WHAT LOYAL.WTF IS (AND ISN’T)
LOYAL.WTF is a concept lab, not a product yet. It exists to explore, document, and prototype surreal loyalty mechanics that most brands would never dare to test internally.
Right now, that means:
- publishing experiments like Drink Chain, AI Souvenir, Void Protocol and Time Capsule,
- thinking about how loyalty, AI, blockchain and game design can intersect without becoming gimmicks,
- treating loyalty as a canvas for art, narrative and philosophy - not just retention.
In the future:
- LOYAL.WTF will act as an independent loyalty R&D partner for hotels, brands and products that want to go far beyond points and tiers.
- We will be open to collaborations, pilots and co-designed experiments with brave operators and product teams.
- The first brands to adopt and implement these kinds of concepts will not just “improve NPS” - they will completely own the cultural conversation around loyalty in their segment.
The lab stage is where we break things safely. The collaboration stage is where we turn the best ideas into living systems.