Frontier Airlines, a budget airline based out of Denver, Colorado, announced an "all you can fly" promotion that offers pass holders unlimited domestic flights, including to Puerto Rico.

The so called GoWild! passes are valid for 12 months and are available at the introductory price of $599 per person. Applicable taxes and fees as well as options like bags, seats and other products are available for an additional cost.The pass is not transferable and includes a number of blackout dates in 2023 and 2024.

The question is, will any hotel brand - big or small - or independent hotel follow suit and introduce a hotel pass with unlimited stays?

Frontier Airlines' annual airline travel pass is a variation of the subscription business model that is not a new concept in the travel industry, where subscription programs and travel clubs have existed for over five decades. In hospitality alone, there are a number of hotel-operated, OTA-operated and specialized third-party subscription programs with annual fees or enrollment plus monthly subscription fees.

Hotel-run programs:

• Soho House Club with membership levels starting at 3,400/year and offering a number of benefits and member-only rates;
• Rosewood Hotels' Carlyle & Co. member-only club with $11,500 joining fee and $3,700 annual membership;
• CitizenM Hotels' business travel subscription program at $600/month, including up to 3 nights per month with no blackout dates plus amenities

Third-party travel subscription programs:

• Bidroom claims to be the first travel subscription club with direct connects with hotel and travel suppliers;
• Spain's eDreams Odigeo travel club with 750,000 members at Euro 69/year.
• TripAdvisor's Trip Plus with $99/year
• Inspirato Pass travel membership club with $2,500 enrollment fee and $2,500 monthly fee, which offers a few luxury hotel stays
• ExclusiveResorts.com - member only luxury vacation club 400 super luxury villas;  $85,000 membership fee

What is new with the Frontier Airlines GoWild! pass is the unlimited number of flights you can take, though within the confines of a number of blackout days and restrictions.

So the question is, can a hotel pass with UNLIMITED STAYS exist in hospitality? There are major business, technological and consumer psychological impediments facing a concept like this one in hospitality. 

To begin with, the general public is already experiencing the so called "subscription fatigue." Subscription membership services maybe a novelty in hospitality, but this business model is widely used in other industries:  media streaming, transportation, retail, entertainment, etc. I believe there is a real consumer subscription fatigue nowadays since an avalanche of subscription services are being pushed to you every day.

I believe today the novelty of subscription services has worn off and only players with already existing huge captive audiences like Disney, NBC, Discovery, etc. can launch a successful subscription service. In travel, in addition to the existing subscription clubs (Tripadvisor, Odigeo, CitizenM Hotels, etc.), only major hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton, or OTAs like Booking..com and Expedia, each with hundreds of millions of loyalty members, can launch a viable subscription service with LIMITED STAYS per year.

I doubt that a startup hotel subscription service could be successful today since it would require humongous investments at both ends of the equation: a) B2B to convince hoteliers to participate, and b) B2C to convince the traveling public of their value proposition. Impossible task!

In addition, I believe there are serious technological challenges. How do you make a reservation if you a holder of an unlimited hotel stay pass? How do you account for these reservations? How do you keep track of number of roomnights stayed for each pass holder?Current website booking engines, CRS, channel managers and PMS cannot handle such reservations and accounting. Using special rate codes or requesting that pass holders call a specific number is antiquated and awkward. Your staff needs special and constant training to handle these reservations and pass holders.

In conclusion, with the current pen-up travel demand in the post-pandemic environment, I doubt that any hotel company - big or small - has the incentive to introduce a pass for unlimited stays.