Affiliation to a seal is a differentiation strategy to differentiate a hotel and is proven to help increase income. Many hotels in Mallorca are adopting this strategy and belong to multiple seals which offer advantages such as global loyalty programs.

Against the excess of supply of hotels in the tourism industry, segmentation and specialization are a good way to position your hotel between all of the hotels in your competitive set. In this case, Affiliation to a seal is a strategy that is showing positive results for hoteliers that wish to differentiate their product or capture their target client.

Over the past months, the hotel factory has conducted studies about the most important hotel affiliations in Spain at the moment, such as The Leadings Hotels of the World, Relais & Château, Preferred Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Design Hotels, Kiwi Collection, Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

Affiliation appears to be a good way to make sophisticated clients aware of your hotel, given that the marketing used by these is based on a high presence in social media, prestige magazines and websites.

Hotels that belong to these seals, need to meet certain requirements and quality standards in order to enter the seal, to be able to fulfill its client’s needs. Examples of these requirements are: gifts to welcome clients upon arrival at the hotel, discounts, promotions, VISA card points, to be located in a strategic spot…

Being admitted in one of these affiliation seals can be harder depending on the seal’s requirements and rules, which are assessed through internal audits. For example, in the case of The Leadings Hotels of the World there are more than 1.200 rules that need to be followed,  in thePreferred Hotels the hotel that wishes to belong to the seal must pass a yearly audit with more than 1.600 evaluation criteria, hotels that belong toRelais & Chatêau can’t be affiliated to any other seal or hotel chain in order to enter and in the case of Design Hotels and Kiwi Collection one of the requirements is that the hotel uses the seals’ reservation channel.

In addition to the requirements, annual fees must be paid, the amount varies depending on the seal and the size of the hotel, for example a hotel with 250 rooms the fee can vary from 90.000€ to 600.000€. This fee includes: set up fee (only 1st year), member fee, commissions that origin from reservations made from their websites, marketing fees and other concepts such as audits or insurance policies

Being part of one of these seals results in an increase of income, for example according to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, hotels in this seal increased their total revenue by 7% in 2014 compared to 2013 and they were identified as direct competitors by hotel chains such as Marriott, Starwood and Hilton.

Amongst the advantages of belonging to an affiliation seal we find innovative marketing programs, global loyalty programs, yield & support desk, delegation to promote the hotel, etc.

Hotels in Mallorca are also joining this strategy. The affiliation seals with more presence in the island are the following:

• Kiwi Collection: it gathers 2.300 properties in more than 130 countries, 13 of them in Mallorca, such as La Residencia and Hospes Maricel, making it the biggest hotel affiliation seal of the island. Although there is no entry fee, to be able to enter an invitation from Kiwi Collection is needed. According to the prestigious magazine forbes.com: “Kiwi Collection is to luxury hotels what the Michelin Guide is to restaurants”.

• Design Hotels: it has more than 280 independent luxury boutique hotels in more than 50 countries of which we can find 5 in Mallorca, for example Nakar Hotel and OD Portals.

• Small Luxury Hotels of the World: More than 250 small and independent hotels in more than 80 countries belong to Small Luxury Hotels of the World. 3 of these are from Mallorca, Sant Francesc Singular o Cap Rocat. Their hotels have won multiple awards such as World Travel Awards (2014 &  2015) and British Travel Awards (2014)

• Relais & Châteaux: It’s one of the most prestigious affiliation seals of the world, composed of more than 530 luxury hotels and restaurants in 64 countries; every year more than 150 establishments apply to join this seal, of which only 34 are able to join. In Mallorca, only the Hotel Son Brull and Valldemossa Hotel are part of this seal.

• The Leading Hotels of the World: It is the oldest affiliation seal, specialized in classic luxury hotels. It gathers 430 hotels, of which only Castell de Son Claret represents Mallorca.

Despite the high costs and the requirements to enter a seal, this affiliation is a differentiating tool for a hotel that wishes to position itself among the most singular hotels in the world, and at the same time capture the attention of the target market that can only be reached through this channel. Given the number of existing seals, requirements and costs, it is necessary to carry out an analysis of suitability and feasibility as the hotel factory has done for many customers.