What happens when you put two hotel loyalty leaders on the same call and ask them to disagree on purpose? You get something far more revealing than a panel discussion. As the North American Loyalty Association (NALA™) gears up for its first US-based conference, The BIG Handshake (TBH) Loyalty™ Chicago on November 10, we wanted to give the industry a preview of the kind of substance our speakers bring, and the kind of energy that makes a TBH Loyalty event different from a day of presentations. So we built a debate: serious questions, tackled with the kind of light, sparring-partner banter that’s become a TBH Loyalty signature.
The coincidence almost wrote the headline itself. Our two debaters both work in hospitality, but at very different ends of the spectrum, which is exactly the kind of contrast NALA looks for when curating speakers. Lindsay Eichten is Senior Director of Loyalty and Customer Engagement at Omni Hotels & Resorts, a brand built on high-touch, experiential stays where loyalty ambassadors personalize a guest’s journey from booking to departure. Dave Van Saun is VP of CRM and Ancillary at Great Wolf Lodge, where the loyalty challenge looks completely different: most families visit once or twice a year, so the program has to earn its keep with far less frequency to work with.
The question on the table: Is loyalty becoming too transactional? Dave took the “yes” side. Lindsay argued “no.” Two minutes each, a buzzer, notes scribbled for rebuttals, and a minute apiece to push back. Here’s how it played out.
The case for “yes”
Dave opened by tracing the arc of loyalty programs over the past 15 to 20 years, drawing on his early career at United Airlines. Points used to mean something clear. Over time, that clarity eroded: programs started getting into devaluations and into the opacity of values of points, making it harder for members to tell where the value was actually coming from.
Layer onto that the sheer volume of programs now competing for attention, plus a new category of players entirely: aggregator apps. Dave pointed to tools like Credit Karma that now sit on top of loyalty and credit card points, telling consumers in real time which card or program to use for any given purchase. The result, he argued, is a customer base that’s optimizing for the next transaction rather than building any real relationship with a brand, and that’s exactly the trap loyalty programs need to avoid falling into.
The case for “no”
Lindsay didn’t dispute the premise that today’s loyalty landscape is messier and more transparent than ever; she largely agreed with Dave’s diagnosis. Where she pushed back was on the conclusion. For brands like Omni, the experience itself, not the points ledger, is what drives repeat visits: dining, golf, spa, the kind of stay that has nothing to do with a transaction. That, she argued, is the real engine behind retention.
But she added an important nuance: transactional value still has a job to do, and it’s at the front door. Without a clear, rational value proposition, getting a customer to enroll in the first place becomes a hard sell. Once that customer is in the program, the experiential side takes over and does the work of earning the repeat visit. In her words, the responsibility then shifts to the property and to every digital touchpoint to live up to what was promised at sign-up.
Where they actually agreed
The rebuttal round, billed as the moment the gloves might come off, turned out to be the most collegial part of the debate. Dave conceded Lindsay’s point about needing a clear value proposition up front, while flagging a related danger: third-party providers dangling steep discounts just to drive sign-ups, which conditions customers to chase the deal rather than evaluate whether the brand relationship is worth keeping.
Lindsay picked up that exact thread in her closing. She shared an example from earlier in her career where a “welcome reward” promotion backfired: members started re-enrolling on every visit just to keep unlocking the introductory discount. A poorly designed transactional incentive, she said, can spiral quickly. Her closing position landed somewhere both debaters could shake hands on: transactional value has to lead in a brand’s owned channels, like email, text, and push, because that’s where cost-effective reach happens, but it only works if the soft, experiential side of the brand is delivering on the promise.
Why this matters for TBH Loyalty™ Chicago
This wasn’t just a fun pre-event segment; it’s a glimpse of the caliber of thinking NALA brings together for The BIG Handshake Loyalty Chicago on November 10. The debate is one format among many at TBH Loyalty; most of the day looks like real conversation, not a formal presentation, but the underlying standard stays the same: speakers who know the space cold and aren’t afraid to make a case. Lindsay will be hosting the event from Omni’s own property, and Dave will be speaking about one of the more underexplored corners of loyalty strategy, how to build a meaningful program when repeat visits are rare.
What this exchange really shows is the spirit behind every TBH Loyalty event. The subject matter is serious, devaluation, enrollment economics, the real drivers of repeat behavior, but the room is never stiff. Two experts who’d clearly thought hard about the question still found room to laugh, concede points, and riff off each other. That’s the TBH Loyalty formula: substance with zero pretense.
The full debate will be released as video content in the lead-up to the conference. TBH Loyalty Chicago remains free for brand attendees, with a limited number of sponsors in the room who are there to share research and case studies, not sales pitches. Want to be in the room for conversations like this one? Register for your free ticket.
