8 loyalty programme KPIs that show real health

The vendor shows you a dashboard with "150K members and 50M points issued". Cool. It means nothing.

What serious program managers measure

1. Members per Room

Members ÷ number of rooms. Benchmark (McKinsey 2024) — 10-15× for a healthy programme. 500 rooms and 8K members = 16× — great. 200K members on 500 rooms = something is wrong with base cleaning.

2. Breakage rate

% of points issued and never redeemed. Benchmark — 20-30%. Too low (<10%) — financial pain (large liability). Too high (>50%) — programme isn't working (guests don't return to use).

3. Liability outstanding

In ₽ — programme obligations for unspent points. A line item on the balance sheet (IFRS 15). Should grow, but controlled.

4. Direct vs OTA savings

How much you saved on OTA commission thanks to direct bookings from members. Direct booking from a Gold member = 18% × ADR × nights = direct profit. Programme should pay back through this alone in 12-18 months.

5. Tier movement rate

% of members promoted in tier over 12mo. Benchmark — 10-20%. Too low — tiers unreachable. Too high — tiers too easy.

6. Share of Wallet

What portion of the guest's hospitality spend in the category goes to you. Mature Gold-member programme — 60-70%. The most important "loyalty by substance" metric.

7. Frequency rate

Average stays per active-cohort member over 12mo. Resort baseline — 1.2-1.5. Programmed cohort — 2.0-3.0. Sanatorium — 1.5-2.0.

8. Cross-stay migration

% of members visiting >1 property in the chain. Critical for multi-property tenants — if 90% of guests are tied to one property, no network effect. Benchmark — 25-40% after 24 months.

Vanity metrics we ignore

• "Members enrolled" — no quality dimension. PMS auto-enrol gives huge numbers, zero value.
• "Email open rate" — depends on subject line, not the programme.
• "Points issued" — input, not output.
• "NPS among members" — interesting but biased (only engaged respond).

What we do

In the TTE admin dashboard these 8 metrics are a dedicated "Programme Health" panel next to traction metrics. With context and benchmarks (McKinsey/Skift/HSMAI). So the program manager sees "Tier Movement 14% vs benchmark 15-20% — Gold threshold too high".