The Challenge

Fairmont Hotel & Resorts is the largest luxury hotel company in North America with over 56 hotels and resorts around the world. Fairmont and its on-site Willow Stream spas had a paper certificate program that required a lot of manual reconciliation and administration. In 2007, they decided to replace it with a gift card program usable at every property worldwide.

Our Solution

Givex integrated with all POS systems in use by Fairmont hotels and Willow Stream spas around the world. Manual reconciliation has been eliminated and program management is done through Givex’s administrative website and reports.

Givex set up dynamic currency conversion for Fairmont in advance of the global launch. Each property sells gift cards in local currency. If a foreign gift card is redeemed, transaction amounts are converted in real-time using daily exchange rates and the gift card balance is updated.

To cater to a global customer base, fairmontgiftcard.com was developed using Givex’s Customer WebSuite technology. Through this website, customers could register their cards to protect against loss or theft, purchase gift cards and check card balances and transaction history in real time.

We are very pleased with our existing partnership with Givex. They helped us to launch our electronic gift card program and continue to maintain it today. By moving to electronic gift cards, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was able to provide customers with an easy to get, easy to give gifting solution that meets the needs of recipients worldwide. Eliminating paper certificates helped to increase sales and reduce administrative costs and manual reconciliation.

BRIAN RICHARDSON, VICE PRESIDENT, BRAND MARKETING & COMMUNICATION, FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS

The Results

Not only have the Fairmont gift cards eliminated tedious manual reconciliation but they have also proven to be a better reflection of the Fairmont brand and thus extremely popular with customers, who enjoy the ease in which they can be purchased, redeemed and the flexibility that they allow.  Redemption rates are high and breakage is much lower than it ever was with paper certificates.