NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – April 23, 2009 – HMC (Hospitality Marketing Concepts), the leading solution provider of loyalty membership programmes, has announced exceptional growth in Q1 2009 amidst gloomy outlook in the industry.

HMC signed a number of new contracts in the first 3 months of 2009, adding nearly 300 hotels to its global client portfolio – a 30% growth to the number of its hotel clients. These new projects are both single hotels as well as group-wide programmes, including hotels in China, Philippines, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Spain, U.K., Ireland, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and more. While not all properties qualify to be part of HMC’s exclusive and proprietary CLUBHOTEL© network, this portfolio expansion brings the total number of CLUBHOTEL properties globally to over 600 hotels.

Over its 20-year history, HMC has operated thousands of successful private-label loyal programmes for both individual hotels and hotel groups around the world. HMC is known for its excellent client retention rate as a direct result of its business integrity, results-oriented membership recruitment expertise and unparalleled after-sales support.
“During this global economic challenge, hotels have come to realize that their local and regional market has substantial revenue potential that they simply have not tapped into,” said Mokhtar Ramadan, CEO of Hospitality Marketing Concepts.

“The small and medium businesses that we particularly target – especially executives and professionals with high disposal income – have escaped the hotel’s own efforts because individually they are not cost-effective for the hotel to pursue. However, when you look at their combined revenue potential, we are talking thousands of roomnights at above ADR, and tens of thousands in F&B covers.”
“Building loyalty within the local markets makes sense, because it is almost recession-proof,” said Ramadan. “This affluent market continues to maintain their lifestyle and their need to entertain for business or personal reasons remain. During our years in business we have seen this phenomenon over and over again despite economic and political instability.”

The true test came during previous recessions and crisis such as the SARS outbreak in Asia and the Gulf War in the Middle East and Europe. Client hotels of HMC fared substantially better than their competitors by immediately leveraging their local and regional membership database to stimulate incremental revenue from viable markets. Similarly in Latin America, HMC hotel partners continue to perform remarkably well despite political unrest and currency devaluation. And with HMC’s continual reinvestment in its proprietary, state-of-the-art CRM technology, hoteliers today are achieving even more immediate and effective results.

HMC offers a turnkey business model that requires no cash outlay or human resource from the hotel. This, in itself is a key consideration for many hoteliers while budget cuts and tight cashflow further limit their sales and marketing resources. Now, more than ever, hoteliers are looking to HMC’s proven track record to speed them along the road to recovery.
For more information on HMC’s loyalty solutions, visit www.HMCloyalty.com or contact us for more details and a marketing agreement at partners@clubhotel.com.

ABOUT HMC

Headquartered in Newport Beach, Southern California, HMC is the leading provider of travel industry paid consumer membership and database management programs. HMC provides services to more than 1,000 full-service hotels worldwide. A selection of clients includes InterContinental, Le Meridien, Starwood, Ritz, Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, Husa, Orbis, and Swissotel. HMC is a global company with offices in more than 50 countries including Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, UAE, Egypt, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom and United States. More information about HMC may be found on the company’s website www.hmcloyalty.com or by contacting Peter Gorla, Vice President of Marketing at +1 (949) 260-9538 or via email at gorlap@clubhotel.com.