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Great Wolf Resorts built an innovative, easy-to-earn loyalty program to drive repeat bookings and overall folio spend across its properties.
“The implementation and growth of this program has helped our team make significant strides in customer acquisition and has served as a major contributor to increasing repeat rates.”
Great Wolf wanted its first loyalty program to be inclusive, easy to use, and clearly valuable for families. The goal was to increase repeat bookings, boost on-site spend, and give guests more reasons to return while keeping joy at the center of the brand experience.
With Marigold Loyalty, Great Wolf launched Voyagers Club, a program that rewards members with 1 point for every $10 spent across their entire folio. Designed to be simple and accessible, members can quickly earn and redeem points on rooms, attractions, dining, and more, encouraging return visits and deeper engagement across properties.
In just 12 months, Voyagers Club delivered double-digit growth in repeat visit rate, attracted 1.7 million members, and drove 40% of all bookings from loyalty participants. The program has become a key driver of customer acquisition, retention, and ongoing engagement for Great Wolf Resorts.
When creating its first-ever loyalty program, Great Wolf Resorts continuously came back to one pillar: make it inclusive. Great Wolf wanted Voyagers Club to drive repeat visits and room stays, as well as incentivize guests to experience more while there. Above all, the program needed to cultivate a brand experience core to its values by bringing joy to families. Launched within months, here’s how they did it:
Easy to Earn & Redeem: Rather than a traditional tiered program, Voyagers Club allows members to earn 1 point for every $10 spent across the entire folio, and redeem in a 1:1 model – a key differentiator.
Democratic: All guests can become Voyagers Club members, and all members have the same opportunity to experience the resort and to earn. No elite tiers or charges for faster access.
Tangible Value: Straightforward without any loopholes, the value of joining and being rewarded is easily realized. Guests earn on all spending – room and ancillary purchases, incentivizing them to spend and earn more.
Reason to Return: The program is designed based on a 2-night minimum stay, allowing members to earn and redeem quickly so they come back again in order to come back more.
“The Voyagers Club program is a unique way to earn and use points to experience everything Great Wolf has to offer. It’s not just about earning points, but engaging with customers, learning who they are, and delivering tools that allow them to have the best experience possible.” Dave Van Saun, Vice President of CRM and Ancillary, Great Wolf Resorts
Making a meaningful, positive impact on the lives of guests is what drives Great Wolf Resorts. Working with Marigold, Great Wolf launched Voyagers Club, designed to quickly reward members and drive return visits. Powered by Marigold Loyalty, the end-to-end program fully integrates with the Great Wolf system for automatic account updates, making it an effortless experience for everyone. The four main program innovations were as follows:
Immediate value: “Easy to” redeem, earn, and understand helps create immediate value for members. Simple and straightforward, with no elite tiers or charges for faster access – meaning members don’t need to gamify the program to experience maximum benefits. And they can see their points at any time. Once earned, points can be applied to the next reservation.
All-inclusive earning: Part of the bespoke offering is that members earn on the entire folio, not just rooms. Experiencing all the resort has to offer, its inclusive loyalty program now mirrors that. Members earn on everything (from room nights to attractions, and all amenities), so they both earn and redeem at a faster rate. The Marigold platform does this with ease and accuracy.
Bonus deals & referrals: The addition of Bonus Deals and Refer-a-Friend generated thousands in redemptions within the first year. Bonus Deals add additional hard dollar savings to existing deals that members get access to at resorts.
Operational excellence: Tactically, the loyalty program was executed flawlessly - the Great Wolf team was happy with the design and rollout, and also the surpassed KPIs. An unexpected positive surprise: Completely seamless customer adoption with fewer than a dozen support calls since launch.
Marigold Loyalty enabled Great Wolf Resorts to strengthen engagement, boost repeat visits, and give guests more reasons to return.
In just 12 months, the program delivered impressive growth and loyalty at scale:
