Loyalty program settings control how the CRM evaluates guest membership tiers across all loyalty programs for your property or brand. These settings determine:
When and how often the system evaluates guests for tier downgrades.
Whether tier qualification periods are based on individual guest join dates or fixed calendar dates.
What happens when a guest no longer meets the requirements for their current tier.
Whether to include or exclude guest activity that occurred before they joined the program.
These settings apply globally to all loyalty programs and work in conjunction with the tier rules configured in membership tiers. The system uses these settings to calculate qualification periods and determine downgrade behavior during automated tier evaluation.
How tier evaluation works
The CRM evaluates tier qualification using two distinct processes:
Upgrade calculations run daily, allowing guests to advance to higher tiers immediately when they meet the qualification criteria.
Downgrade calculations follow the configured program cycle and evaluation frequency, meaning guests are only downgraded at specific intervals rather than immediately when they fall short of requirements. This prevents guests from experiencing frequent tier changes that could negatively impact their experience.
The program settings determine the evaluation windows, downgrade timing, and downgrade behavior for all tier calculations.
Program cycle options
The program cycle determines how the system calculates each guest's tier evaluation period. Two options are available:
Membership – Each guest has an individual evaluation period based on their Sign Up Time or program join date. If the program term is set to one year, a guest who joined on March 15, 2023 will be evaluated for downgrade on March 15, 2024, March 15, 2025, and so on.
Program calendar – All guests share the same evaluation period based on a fixed program start date set by the hotel or brand. If the program start date is January 1, 2023 and the program term is one year, all guests will be evaluated on January 1, 2024, January 1, 2025, and so on, regardless of when they joined.
The program cycle setting works together with the program term to define when downgrade calculations occur.
Downgrade condition options
When a guest no longer qualifies for their current tier, the system applies one of three downgrade conditions:
Downgrade to qualified tier - The system evaluates the guest against all tier rules and assigns them to the highest tier they currently qualify for based on their activity during the evaluation period.
Downgrade one tier down - The guest is moved down exactly one tier level from their current tier, regardless of whether they qualify for a lower tier.
Downgrade to base tier - The guest is moved to the lowest tier in your tier structure (the tier configured as the default in Membership Tiers).
Activity inclusion rules - The exclude transactions prior to sign up date setting controls whether the system counts stays and spend that occurred before a guest officially joined the loyalty program.
When unchecked this is the default, all activity within the evaluation period counts toward tier qualification, even if it occurred before the guest's Sign Up Time. This is useful when enrolling existing guests who have stayed at your properties before joining the program.
When checked, only activity after the guest's sign up time is included in tier calculations. Stays and spend from before they joined the program are excluded from qualification evaluations.
This setting works with the exclude transactions prior sign up date field in the program settings database table.
Key characteristics
Outlined below are key characteristics of loyalty program settings.
Program settings apply to all loyalty programs configured for the client and cannot be set individually per program.
Only one active program settings record exists per client in the program settings table.
Upgrade calculations run daily via automated processes, while downgrade calculations follow the configured program cycle.
Manual tier adjustments made to guest profiles are included in automatic tier calculations unless the Ignore tier auto assignment flag is enabled on the individual guest profile.
Changes to program settings affect future tier evaluations but do not retroactively recalculate existing tier assignments.
Before you start
Outlined below are important factors to know before configuring loyalty program settings.
You must have loyalty setup access.
Decide whether your loyalty program structure works better with individual guest evaluation periods (Membership) or fixed brand-wide evaluation dates (Program Calendar).
Understand your downgrade policy whether guests should drop to the lowest tier, move down one level at a time, or land at their qualified tier.
Determine whether to include activity from before guests joined the program, especially important when enrolling existing customers.
Coordinate with your revenue management team, as these settings impact tier qualification and exclusive rate access.
Configure loyalty program settings
Follow the steps below to configure global loyalty program settings.
From the left navigation menu, click Loyalty Setup.
Click Program Settings.
Complete the following fields:
Program cycle this is required – Select one of the following:
Membership – Evaluation periods are based on each guest's individual join date. Downgrade calculations occur on each guest's program anniversary.
Program Calendar – Evaluation periods use a fixed calendar date for all guests. Downgrade calculations occur on the same date for all members.
Program term this is required – Enter the number of years for each evaluation cycle. For example, enter one for annual evaluation, two for biennial evaluation, or three for triennial evaluation.
Program start date, this is required when program cycle is set to program calendar. Select the fixed date when evaluation periods begin. This date anchors all tier evaluation cycles when using program calendar mode.
Downgrade condition this is required – Select one of the following:
Downgrade to qualified tier – Guest moves to the highest tier they currently qualify for based on activity during the evaluation period.
Downgrade one tier down – Guest moves down exactly one tier level from their current tier.
Downgrade to base tier – Guest moves to the lowest tier, the default tier in membership tiers configuration.
Exclude transactions prior to sign up date – Check this box to exclude stays and spend from before the guest's join date. Leave unchecked to include all activity within the evaluation period.
Click Save and Close. .
📌Note: When program cycle is set to membership, the program start date field is not used. When program cycle is set to program calendar, the program start date must be greater than the current date.
Modify existing program settings
Follow the steps below to modify existing program settings.
From the left navigation menu, click Loyalty Setup.
Click Program Settings.
Make your changes to any of the available fields.
Click Save and Close to save your changes, or click Cancel to discard changes.
📌Note: Changes to program settings affect future tier evaluations. Existing tier assignments are not retroactively recalculated.
How the system uses program settings
The CRM uses program settings in combination with membership tier rules to evaluate tier qualification. Below is how the system applies these settings during automated tier evaluation processes.
Calculating evaluation periods
The system determines each guest's current evaluation period using the following logic:
When program cycle is set to membership:
The system uses the guest's sign up time as the anchor date.
It calculates the current evaluation period by adding program term years repeatedly to the sign up time until reaching a date range that includes the current date.
Example:
Guest joined March 15, 2023.
Program term is one year.
On May 1, 2024, the current evaluation period is March 15, 2024 to March 14, 2025.
When program cycle is set to program calendar:
The system uses the program start date as the anchor date.
It calculates the current evaluation period by adding program term years repeatedly to the program start date until reaching a date range that includes the current date.
Example:
Program start date is January 1, 2023.
Program term is one year.
On May 1, 2024, the current evaluation period is January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
Filtering qualifying activity
After determining the evaluation period, the system filters guest reservations and transactions:
When exclude transactions prior to sign up date is unchecked:
All completed stays with DayOut within the evaluation period are included, regardless of whether they occurred before or after the guest's SignUpTime.
When exclude transactions prior to sign up date is checked:
Only completed stays with DayOut within the evaluation period and DayOut greater than or equal to the guest's SignUpTime are included.
Stays from before the guest joined the program are excluded even if they fall within the evaluation period.
Applying downgrade conditions
During downgrade calculation processes, the system evaluates each guest's activity against all tier rules and applies the configured downgrade condition:
Downgrade to qualified tier:
The system evaluates the guest's activity against each tier's qualification rules in order of tier rank which is lowest rank number to highest.
The guest is assigned to the highest-priority tier (lowest rank number) for which they meet all qualification criteria.
If the guest does not meet any tier's requirements, they are assigned to the default tier.
Downgrade one tier down:
The system identifies the guest's current tier rank.
It finds the tier with the next higher rank number, one level lower in the tier hierarchy.
The guest is assigned to that tier regardless of whether they meet its qualification criteria.
Downgrade to base tier:
The system identifies the default tier, the tier with the default flag enabled in membership tiers configuration.
The guest is assigned to the default tier regardless of their current activity level.
Troubleshooting
Guests not being downgraded when expected
Verify that a downgrade calculation process has run since the guest's evaluation period ended. Downgrades are not instantaneous and follow the program cycle.
Check whether the guest's profile has the ignore tier auto assignment flag enabled. If enabled, automatic tier calculations will not affect the guest.
Confirm that the program cycle, program term, and downgrade condition settings are configured as intended.
All guests evaluated on the same date instead of individual anniversaries
The program cycle is likely set to program calendar instead of membership. Change it to membership if individual evaluation periods are desired.
Guests' pre-enrollment activity not counting toward qualification
The exclude transactions prior to sign up date checkbox is likely enabled. Uncheck it to include activity from before the guest joined the program.
Program start date validation error
When program cycle is set to program calendar, the program start date must be greater than the current date. Enter a future date to resolve the error.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between membership and program calendar cycles?
Membership cycle uses each guest's individual join date as the evaluation period anchor, meaning guests are evaluated on their program anniversary. Program calendar uses a fixed date set by the hotel or brand, meaning all guests share the same evaluation schedule regardless of when they joined.
How often are upgrade calculations performed?
Upgrade calculations run daily, so guests can advance to higher tiers as soon as they qualify based on their activity.
How often are downgrade calculations performed?
Downgrade calculations follow the program cycle and term. For example, if program term is one year, downgrades are evaluated once per year on each guest's anniversary date (Membership cycle) or on the program start date (Program Calendar cycle).
Can I set different program settings for different loyalty programs?
No. Program settings apply globally to all loyalty programs configured for the client. All programs share the same program cycle, downgrade condition, and activity inclusion rules.
What happens if I change the program cycle setting?
Future tier evaluations will use the new program cycle to calculate evaluation periods. However, existing tier assignments are not retroactively recalculated when you change this setting.
Why would I exclude transactions prior to the sign-up date?
You might exclude pre-enrollment activity if your loyalty program requires members to meet qualification criteria only through activity completed after joining. This ensures that only post-enrollment engagement counts toward tier advancement.
Can guests manually assigned to a tier be downgraded automatically?
Yes, unless the ignore tier auto assignment flag is enabled on the guest's profile. When that flag is enabled, the guest will not be affected by automatic tier calculations and will remain at their manually assigned tier.