pinniped

I honestly think the concept of "loyalty" is mostly dead with these mass-market hotel programs. They're transactional: spend X get a rebate of Y. Real on-property elite recognition is fading or completely gone. We even have brands (like Courtyard) and other subsets of properties (Marriott's resorts) where they actively discourage elites from staying there because it's more profitable for the hotel to get non-elites into the rooms.

The hotel rooms themselves are commodities so long as the hotel is managed well, which is driven much more by local ownership than by the rewards program.

If real loyalty - an emotional connection between the brand and the guest - still exists, it's in the boutique brands. In the bigger programs, perhaps the higher-end of the Hyatt and Starwood portfolio...although SPG/Hyatt members haven't exactly been thrilled in 2017.