Nigeria tech company launches historic rewards scheme
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – IN what has been lauded as the first such scheme in the world, a Nigeria based ecommerce solution provider is introducing a loyalty programme to simultaneously reward hotel guests and staff using
the company’s e-commerce platform.
SlimTrader, the Nigerian firm, has introduced such a scheme, tagged Mo’Rewardz Club, for its e-commerce platform, MoBiashara.
In stark contrast to traditional loyalty schemes, where customers are rewarded for their loyalty to either a hotel chain or a third party booking site, Mo’Rewardz is brand and sales channel agnostic, allowing travellers and hotels to accrue points via any first or third party sellers that use the MoBiashara online reservation system.
At present, these include Trip Advisor, HotelNowNow, Lagos Oriental Hotel, Protea Hotels and the Maison Fahrenheit Hotels.
Guests are rewarded with points for each reservation, which can be used towards future reservations, to buy mobile airtime, pay bills and can even be cashed out by the guest.
Front desk staff receive loyalty points for creating reservations on the MoBiashara for Hotels Admin area and checking in guests with the system when guests arrive on the hotel’s premises.
The Mo’Rewardz model, currently being rolled out by SlimTrader, is said to be the first of its kind globally.
It has been developed with the African hotel market in mind, which is dominated by thousands of independent hotels, guesthouses and small chains, interspersed with only a few of the large global hotel brands that
are historically associated with loyalty schemes, and 37 percent of hotels on the MoBiashara platform are independent local chains.
SlimTrader’s founder and CEO, Femi Akinde, said aggregating Africa’s fragmented network of hotels under one loyalty programme was a big step for the travel market.
“The launch of this new feature signifies, for us, the maturing of Africa’s hotel and travel sector, as we work more strategically with hotels large and small to deliver choices and incentives for a new class of traveller on the continent, who expects more from their travels,” Akinde.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has a fast-growing hotels sector with over 7 000 hotels (245 000 hotel rooms) and is worth $3 billion.
– CAJ News
