How did you get started in the hospitality industry?
My journey in hospitality began with a deep interest in how service, operations, and guest experience interplay. Over 23 years ago, I joined a restaurant group in a technical/IT role (initially a front of house role during university). That first exposure—working behind the scenes, supporting restaurant operations—immersed me in the challenges and systems that make hospitality tick. Over time I progressed into leadership positions managing IT, data, systems, and integrations across multiple venues. That operational foundation gave me a front-row seat to the pain points in loyalty, guest communications, and technology fragmentation across F&B and hotel brands.
What led to you founding TheLoyaltyCo?
While working inside established hospitality groups, I repeatedly saw the same bottleneck: hotels and restaurants had rich data, guest touchpoints, and loyalty ambitions — but lacked the technical architecture or strategic clarity to activate them effectively. Earlier in my career, I built “Club Individual” for Individual Restaurants, which grew substantially (to nearly 2 million members) and taught me what loyalty should look like in practice.
That success planted the seed: what if I could take those capabilities and lessons beyond one brand, and help many hospitality operators build scalable loyalty, data, and engagement systems? That insight led me to spin out TLC (TheLoyaltyCo) — to deliver high-tech, scalable loyalty & guest-experience platforms to the broader hospitality sector.
What is your mission?
At a company level, TLC’s mission is to empower hospitality brands—whether boutique hotels or large chains—to transform their guest relationships through data-driven loyalty, engagement, and omnichannel experiences.
On a personal level, I believe technology should be the enabler of emotional connection—not a barrier. I aim to bridge the gap between complex systems and real human experiences, ensuring every guest feels valued, remembered, and rewarded.
How is your approach unique?
We don’t just build software; we design ecosystems. Many “loyalty providers” offer point-accumulation systems or plug-ins. At TLC, we start with data strategy, guest journey mapping, and integration architecture. We look at your operational systems, CRM, POS, communications stack, and then design a unified stack so loyalty becomes seamless, not siloed.
Our uniqueness also lies in the fact that I’ve worked operationally in hospitality for decades, so I speak both tech and hospitality fluently. We don’t propose idealistic solutions detached from real-world constraints—our designs are built to run in hotels and restaurants, not just in theory.
What services do you offer?
Our core offerings include:
- Loyalty strategy, design and implementation
- Data architecture, ETL and analytics
- Omnichannel communications (email, SMS, in-app, web)
- CRM integrations, guest profile unification
- Custom software development & platform builds
- Technology consulting for hospitality operations
- Business mentoring and transformation guidance
We operate through two arms: TLC Solutions (the tech/IT systems side) and TheLoyaltyCo (the loyalty/engagement brand).
What has been your biggest success as a company?
One of our proudest achievements is scaling what began as a restaurant-group loyalty club (Club Individual) into a beacon example of full-stack loyalty, which showed the real ROI and influence of loyalty in hospitality. That success validated our model and gave us credibility in the marketplace. Aside from this, and as the company grew, The Ivy Collection in the UK was our next proudest achievement.
More recently, we’ve delivered over 150 projects, served more than 130 clients, and built a cross-border presence in the UK, UAE, EU markets.
You have worked with several high-profile brands; can you share a case study of a successful client project?
One example (which I can speak of publicly) is how we worked with a mid-size regional hotel chain that struggled with fragmented guest data and weak repeat visitation. They had multiple disconnected systems (PMS, POS, email, booking engine) and no unified loyalty layer.
We stepped in and designed a loyalty ecosystem that unified guest profiles across properties, layered a point/reward model that was meaningful, and built an omnichannel communication engine. Over 12 months:
- Direct bookings via loyalty program increased by 35%
- Guest reactivation uplifted by 22%
- Email + SMS open rates improved by 50%
- Incremental revenue from members outpaced cost of loyalty operations within the first year
That transformation gave the client not just more revenue, but deeper guest insights, stronger retention, and a more defensible competitive position.
What is your most in-demand service right now?
Currently, loyalty (design + implementation) and data architecture/integration are the most sought-after services. Many hospitality brands know they need loyalty, but don’t know where to start; others already have loyalty but suffer from poor data hygiene or siloed systems.
As a data-driven company, how do you measure the results of a project?
We define KPIs at the outset, aligning them with the client’s business goals (revenue lift, repeat visitation, customer lifetime value, incremental spend, reactivation, etc.). Then we rely on dashboards, cohort analysis, A/B testing, attribution modeling, and ongoing data sampling to track performance over time.
We also monitor softer metrics: engagement (open/click rates), incremental spend per member, ratio of active vs dormant members, redemption behaviors, campaign ROI, and guest feedback where available. If a campaign underperforms, we iterate and optimize.
What is the biggest challenge hospitality brands are facing right now?
The biggest challenge is data silos and fragmented guest touchpoints — hotels, resorts, and restaurants often use different systems (PMS, POS, booking engines, spa, F&B) that don’t talk to each other. That fragmentation prevents a unified guest view, which weakens loyalty and personalized engagement.
We tackle this by building integration layers, data pipelines, and middleware, to unify the guest data. Then we overlay loyalty and communication systems. In short: we glue the systems together and bring coherence.
Another challenge is ROI skepticism — many brands view loyalty as cost rather than investment. We counter that by building proof-of-concept pilots, showing early wins, and focusing on low-risk MVPs before scaling.
What are the biggest tech trends right now in the Middle East that hospitality brands need to be aware of?
- Hyper-personalization — using AI / ML to predict preferences, tailor offers in real time, and send exactly the right message at the right time.
- Unified loyalty ecosystems & plug-and-play platforms — more hotel groups want loyalty systems that scale and integrate across properties regionally.
- Mobile-first guest experiences — mobile apps not just for booking, but order, communication, in-stay interaction, check-out.
- Blockchain / tokenised loyalty — not mainstream yet, but concepts such as loyalty points as tradable tokens or interoperable across brands are experimented with.
- Embedded financial / “pay with points” systems — allowing guests to use loyalty currency at the point of interaction (F&B, spa, retail) seamlessly.
- Voice, IoT, and room-tech integration — loyalty systems that trigger room personalization (lighting, preferences) or in-room services.
How do you see the industry evolving over the next 5–10 years?
- Loyalty will evolve from point systems to experience ecosystems. Brands will compete on emotional connection, not just discounts.
- Data and AI will drive guest anticipation — brands that can foresee a guest’s next need before they articulate it will dominate.
- Interoperability and network loyalty (alliances between hospitality, retail, wellness) may become more common.
- Real-time, frictionless guest journeys (app, voice, in-stay control) will become standard.
- Reputation and sustainability will merge with loyalty — guests will reward brands with strong ESG credentials and meaningful loyalty beyond transactional points.
What is next for you?
I’m focusing on scaling TLC’s presence in the Middle East and APAC, forming strategic partnerships (e.g. with PMS vendors, fintechs, hospitality groups), and evolving our platform to include more predictive AI and guest intelligence modules. I also want to co-create more loyalty ecosystems (alliances) across travel, retail, and wellness. And personally, I’m looking to mentor more founders in hospitality-tech and give back to the ecosystem.
Where can readers find out more?
Readers can learn more about our work at theloyaltyco.app. You can also connect with me via adampurslow.com. If you’d like to talk about loyalty, guest technology, or how to transform your operations, drop me a message at adam@theloyaltyco.app
