Next week I’ll be flying out to Ikos Aria. This’ll be my seventh Ikos holiday, having stayed at all 7 resorts. I’ve already got my eighth Ikos holiday booked for next year (going back to Andalusia, my current favourite resort, with a group of friends) and know I’ll go to Kissamos in 2027. Which got me thinking, is Ikos doing enough to recognise loyalty?

If you book direct with Ikos, to encourage you to book again, you get a code for 10% off your next stay. But that’s it. Considering the price point, and the hardened following the group has, I feel like more could be done to recognise guests that return year after year. 

I do want to be fair to Ikos…for nearly all of my non-deluxe stays we’ve had restaurants booked for every night of our stay, a benefit usually reserved for deluxe guests (one of our stays was during Covid so it was kind of a requirement to prebook restaurants). We’ve also done ok with room allocation and upgrades. At Odisia, I think we had a double upgrade, which was appreciated. 

Hotel loyalty programmes aren’t known for their generosity and I’m not advocating for a points based system like IHG, Hilton or Marriott but I think Ikos could offer some additional benefits for regularly returning guests. So what would that look like?

From maybe the third booking, how about;

• Being able to prebook restaurants for every night of your stay (if not staying deluxe)– this costs Ikos nothing, makes it easier for them to manage capacity in restaurants and doesn’t dilute the deluxe offering.
• Loyalty dinner – similar principle to dinner on the beach or like the captains dinners on cruises, maybe with the General Manager of the hotel. It’s low cost to Ikos and gives an air of exclusivity.
• Priority for upgrades – based on my own experience, Ikos certainly do give upgrades but I know plenty of regular guests that have never had an upgrade, and I appreciate it’s difficult to manage during high season. 
• Spa credit – deluxe obviously get the free massage, so it could be similar to this for none deluxe guests or an enhanced experience for deluxers. A credit or discount could get bigger depending on how many stays you’ve done. 
• Exclusive activities – along the lines of wine tasting, but something different or maybe offsite at a local point of interest. 

I did a quick poll on the Ikos Facebook groups and the most popular option for recognition would be prebooking restaurants, followed closely by being priority for upgrades. 

Ikos resorts are special slices of paradise and with so much already included in the price, it’s not easy to differentiate. But…it would be nice to see some recognition of loyalty, whatever form it takes.