You're comparing apples to oranges, my friend. Now we're in the Marriott/Starwood waters that I know all too well and much more intimately than our friends in the Luxury Hotels Forum.

The RC Reserve brand DOES NOT nor participate in the Marriott Bonvoy program, nor did it ever participate in the previous Marriott Rewards program. That is quite different than the Luxury Collection soft brand which always participated in the old SPG program and has always participated in the new Marriott Bonvoy program. There never has been a single exception in the Luxury Collection that didn't participate in the old SPG program or the new Marriott Bonvoy program.

If North Island is joining the Luxury Collection, then there is no reason to assume it will not participate in Marriott Bonvoy like every other Luxury Collection property. It's not like a RC Singapore issue where prior contracts precluded participation in the loyalty program. Heck, even the RC Montreal and RC Chicago now fully participate in the Bonvoy program, and the RC Singapore is rumored to be trying to do the same, as well.

If North Island is joining the Luxury Collection, it therefore will participate in Marriott Bonvoy--it otherwise would be quite the stupid exception to create for no contactual reason or obligation otherwise. That requires that at least 1 villa be available for award redemption to satisfy participation in Marriott Bonvoy. The interesting thing will be to see whether Marriott creates a new award category for such an all villa property, but it wouldn't allow North Island to join Luxury Collection unless North Island understands that the soft brand participates in Marriott Bonvoy.

If North Island didn't want to participate, it wouldn't have chosen the Luxury Collection soft brand. It could have joined the Marriott distribution system as a new brand not unlike Reserve or Bulgari. But it didn't.