Loyalty programs, for all their glossy brochures and fine print promises, have long operated on a simple premise: behave yourself, stay predictable, and we’ll reward you eventually.
It’s a system that works until it doesn’t.
Because travel, at its best, has never been about repetition. It’s about curiosity. About choosing the street you didn’t plan for, the hotel you’ve never heard of, the bar that doesn’t bother with a sign.
So, when Ennismore arrives in Australia with something cheekily titled Dis-loyalty, you get the sense they’ve been paying attention.
And not just to spreadsheets.
A Program That Breaks the Rules
Dis-loyalty isn’t trying to outdo traditional loyalty schemes; it’s quietly dismantling them.
Rather than rewarding travellers for going back to the same place, it nudges them to go somewhere else entirely. Somewhere new. Somewhere unexpected. In short, somewhere more interesting.
It’s a subtle shift, but an important one.
Through a single membership, Australians are suddenly plugged into a network of more than 120 hotels and over 200 restaurants, bars and coffee spots across 80-plus destinations. Not the usual suspects either, but a collection of design-led, culture-first brands, The Hoxton, Mondrian, Hyde, SLS, Mama Shelter properties that tend to have as much personality as their guests.
And frankly, that’s the point.
Travel, But Make It Personal Again
The timing is no accident.
Australians are travelling again with intent. Asia is back on the radar, with Seoul, Hong Kong, and Singapore, while Europe’s perennial favourites continue to draw a crowd. The US, ever the wildcard, remains irresistible from Los Angeles through to Brooklyn.
Dis-loyalty threads through all of it.
One week you’re hopping between Italian cities, the next you’re nursing a cocktail in Ibiza, and somewhere along the line you’ve discovered a neighbourhood café that wasn’t in any guidebook. That’s the territory Ennismore is playing in travel that feels discovered, not delivered.
The Perks (And One Very Clever Hook)
Now, let’s talk brass tacks.
Members receive 50 per cent off at newly opened hotels during their first three months, a clever way to fill rooms while giving travellers bragging rights. There’s also 20 per cent off your first stay at any property, and 10 per cent thereafter.
Food and drink? Ten per cent off globally.
And then there’s the detail that will quietly win people over: one barista-made coffee a day. Three hundred and sixty-five of them, if you’re counting.
It sounds minor until you realise how often that ritual anchors a day on the road.
Australia: Not Just Another Market
The Australian rollout coincides with Ennismore planting some serious flags locally, Mondrian Gold Coast, 25hours Hotel The Olympia, Hyde Melbourne Place and Hyde Perth.
This isn’t a toe-in-the-water exercise. It’s a statement of intent.
More openings are already in the works, including The Hoxton Melbourne, while the broader Asia-Pacific expansion continues to gather pace. Bangkok is on the horizon, and beyond that, you suspect, a steady drumbeat of new addresses designed to keep the curious moving.
Martina Luger, Ennismore’s Chief Brand Officer, puts it plainly:
“Australia has always embraced bold, design-led hospitality and a culture of discovery, making it an incredibly exciting market for the introduction of Dis-loyalty. Dis-loyalty rewards curiosity, whether that’s trying a new hotel, discovering a new restaurant or travelling somewhere unexpected.”
It’s a neat summary but also a quiet acknowledgement that Australian travellers have never needed much encouragement to go off-script.
The Price of Not Standing Still
Membership costs £144 a year (about AUD $275) or £12 a month on a 12-month commitment.
Not pocket change, but not outrageous either, particularly for those who travel frequently. Add in the rotating “Dis-loyalty Drops” limited-time offers, events, and collaborations, and it becomes less about cost and more about access.
Access to places, certainly. But also access to a different way of thinking about travel.
A Small Rebellion, Well Timed
There’s something rather refreshing about all this.
For years, the industry has gently steered travellers towards sameness, same brands, same rooms, same rewards. Safe, reliable, and, if we’re being honest, occasionally dull.
Dis-loyalty doesn’t shout about being different. It doesn’t need to.
It simply rewards the instinct most travellers already have: to try something new.
And in doing so, it might just remind the industry of something it once knew very well.
That loyalty, in travel, was never really about staying put.
