Originally Posted by
whimsey21
I have a friend who works for Marriott Corporate, and she's told me that they are not allowed to participate in the Bonvoy status program. I've always thought that was very short sighted on Marriott's part-- their employees have no particular incentive to stay at Marriott properties (other than the employee rate, when available) and have little to no idea about the loyalty program and its benefit (or lack thereof). I'm very glad to hear that Hilton lets employees participate, and that the terms of their participation are the same as for non-employees; I'd suspect that their employees who do travel probably have a better appreciation of what it takes to become a HHonors elite member, and of the value of the various benefits thereof than do employees at Marriott.
I worked for Marriott for over a decade. The incentive for employees to stay at other properties was the employee rate. It used to be as low as $29 per night. And I made very good use of it. As did a lot of my co-workers. Not being able to earn Marriott Rewrds credit for those satys was not a deterrent at all for me. But if we had been able to participate, I definitely would be Lifetime Platinum (or whatever it is now called, Titanium?).
As for Hilton properties not being able to differentiate employee elites from non-employees. Are the employees booking a specific rate code (like we did at Marriott) for their stays? Because to me, that is the easiest way to distinguish between the two groups.