Originally Posted by
smgainey
I'm so sick of hearing this crap about Marriott members being less sophisticated. I've been staying at Marriott's hotels for business trips during the last decade because those hotels are where my clients had special rates (and therefore would not reimburse stays at other hotels, even if the rates were lower). It was more sophisticated to make the most of the Marriott Rewards program than to stay at an SPG property and eat the cost. However it certainly isn't sophisticated to overspend and go into debt just to earn Starpoints. Nor is it sophisticated to think that Starpoints could possibly be of incredible value to someone who can't earn a decent amount of them.
With that said, I do agree that Marriott has done many things wrong with this merger that could have easily been done much better. I just wish people like you wouldn't demean other members to try to make this point.
I hear you and aplogize for framing my frustration in a way to demean original MR members. I now understand that not everyone has a choice to willingly select MR as their program.
I will say that most companies do keep a fair pulse of customer feedback, so I'm surprised that MR members have put up with a website that didn't display average rates, only discloses generic details of rates, doesn't allow for a search of up to 4 rate types at once and lacks property details such as public transportation options, property specific announcements and user-submitted photos. Perhaps there are other more important factors to the average MR member, but it does seem to me like MR members are less sophisticated to not demand or want those features. Clearly Starwood was smaller and more attuned to that kind of feedback, hence frustration from people like myself. Same for a very small amount of points for foregoing housekeeping, allowing pedestrian F&B options, etc.