Originally Posted by
SHLTP
We have to remember for all the rhetoric that Marriott considers property owners, not us, its clients. My guess is Marriott will realize/ think the costs of maintaining a loyalty program at the high end is too high and will start keeping the current terrible service and rollback benefits.
Yes, Marriott International receives its revenue from hotel owners — primarily in the form of franchise/marketing/loyalty fees from all hotels, and also through management fees from some hotels.
But Marriott has big role in delivering us — the hotel guests and our wallets — to those hotels. That works best when all systems (including online reservations and the loyalty system) work well, when guests are happy, and when frequent guests remain loyal to Marriott brands.
Nobody is benefitting from the spate of IT problems associated with combining the loyalty programs and moving to single reservation platform. And who knows how many backend problems there have been that we hotel guests haven't seen directly?
Nobody wins from what SHLTP calls "the current terrible service."
The loyalty program drives guests to the hotels, and it drives revenue to Marriott International. It's why independent hotel are affiliating with Autograph Collection; why full-service hotels of lesser brands are raising the Delta Hotels flag; why developers around the world are eagerly developing hotels of Marriott's many select-service, full-service, luxury, and extended-stay brands; and why Marriott will have 7,000+ hotels instead of 6,700+ hotels before we know it.
The loyalty program isn't going away.