Visa Inc. this week launched a program called Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection that provides holders of its branded Signature cards more global travel benefits at various high-end hotels and resorts in Dubai and Thailand and at domestic destinations such as south Florida and New York.
Visa Signature is a premium payment card that offers affluent cardholders several benefits in addition to a number of programs that may be offered by Visa Signature partners such as airlines and hotels.
Because of the recession mainly hitting Middle America, “credit card companies are targeting high-end consumers because it’s the most appealing market,” Brian Riley, resource director for bankcards at TowerGroup Inc., a Needham, Mass.-based research and advisory services firm, tells PaymentsSource.
During a Feb. 4 conference call with analysts, Joseph Saunders, Visa chairman and CEO, noted that despite the effects of the recession, there is “considerable interest in the higher end of the retail market.” (
Indeed, it is important to continually enhance products designed for the high-end market by offering them different rewards, especially though hotels, Riley says. “As long as merchants are able to maintain the programs, they do have long-term staying power,” he adds.
The driving force behind Visa’s motives to add more benefits stems from “travel benefits consistently ranking at the top of Signature cardholders’ lists of preferred perks,” Stacey Pinkerd, Visa head of global consumer products strategy, notes in a news release. Through the Signature Luxury Hotel Collection, cardholders may access benefits they value most, such as wine and food, sports and entertainment, Pinkerd adds.
Similar to the benefits MasterCard WorldWide’s World Card and World Elite cardholders may access, the Signature Luxury Hotel Collection includes such benefits as best available room rates, automatic room upgrades if available, later check-out times, free in-room Internet access or valet parking, complimentary concierge services and VIP guest status, the release notes.
The main challenge for card companies is to make sure these cardholders actually use the card instead of their debit cards. “Credit card companies need to push these cards and really make them attractive to consumers,” Riley says.
