Scaling Membership: Digital Design’s Role in Loyalty Program Growth
Membership growth doesn’t just happen. In 2024, we focused on thoughtfully removing friction, clearly highlighting real benefits, and making loyalty enrollment feel like a natural next step for every guest.
MY ROLE
I guided a cross‑team design approach that aligned on member personas, standardized content and UI, and embedded experimentation into our workflow. Collaboration with stakeholders helped us focus resources on the initiatives most likely to drive engagement and enrollment.
Measurable Impact Across Enrollment, Engagement, and Revenue
30M
new members added, meeting the ambitious enrollment target.
7%
digital enrollment growth, driven by UX and content optimizations.
12%
more room nights were driven by loyalty members in 2024
Our design and research efforts led to meaningful improvements across key membership and engagement metrics. These results demonstrate how focused, user-centered design can drive loyalty growth at scale.
Scaling Loyalty in a Record-Breaking Year
Hilton’s loyalty program has been rewarding guests for over three decades, offering members access to exclusive rates, points for free nights, and benefits like room upgrades, late check-out, and digital conveniences that make every stay smoother. By 2024, it had become one of the largest hotel loyalty programs in the world, with a membership base that continued to grow at record pace.
This year, the program set an ambitious goal: enroll 30 million new members. We closed the year on target, with digital enrollments outperforming expectations by 7% and overall occupancy climbing 1.5 points.
Such rapid growth brought new challenges in helping guests understand their benefits and making enrollment a natural part of booking. Meeting this moment required research-driven, design-led innovation to convert more bookings into memberships and deepen guest loyalty.
Insights That Informed Smarter Design Decisions
Our research effort began with a deep dive into guest behaviors across the booking flow to identify where potential members were dropping off or hesitating to enroll. By combining qualitative interviews with quantitative data analysis, we pinpointed specific barriers such as complex forms, unclear messaging, and missed opportunities to communicate benefits that slowed the path to membership.
To address these, we ran multiple A/B tests focusing on tooltip messaging near the “Honors Discount” price, experimenting with language that clearly conveyed the value of joining. The tests revealed messaging variants that boosted interest and enrollment rates.
We also focused heavily on simplifying the enrollment form itself. Ongoing experiments tested shorter, more user-friendly forms with optimized content designed to help guests quickly understand the benefits they would receive by joining. This iterative approach helped reduce friction and increase conversions.
In parallel, we gathered direct member feedback on login and personalization features, which informed refinements in how loyalty benefits were surfaced across the digital experience.
Testing, Refining, and Launching High-Impact Enhancements
Throughout 2024, we embraced a test-and-learn approach, running multiple experiments to refine messaging, streamline enrollment, and boost engagement. From tweaking tooltip copy to redesigning login prompts and refreshing UI components, each iteration built on data and user feedback to deliver continuous improvements that supported our membership growth goals.
