Originally Posted by
Antarius
I disagree. I was spg before Marriott.
Spg is like being a Virgin America loyalist. It works great, until it doesn't because they don't fly there. There is a limited audience that traveled to the major cities exclusively that spg worked great for, and that seems to be the vocal group with the pitchforks.
Simply put, if spg was so awesome and so sustainable, why did they get swallowed up? This is not to absolve Marriott of some of their slip ups and discourage them from trying to emulate aspects of spg that made their customers so loyal, but spg wasn't this omnipotent entity that it is purveyed to be.
SPG and Starwood Hotels were 2 different things. Starwood (the hotels) was making money but not enough compared to competitors as it didnt have much of the "select" service properties and that is where growth was.
SPG was the loyalty program and let's face it, the vast majority knows it was much better than MReward or else Bonvoy wouldnt be almost the exact copy as SPG. Noboby is saying it is perfect.
The intent is there, but the problem with Bonvoy is the execution. It really makes me wonder how 8:1 prefers Bonvoy when CS and corporate culture now is absolutely dismal compared to SPG.
Anyways people were with MR mainly because of the footprint. SPG members were with Starwood for whole different reasons.
And i really wonder why people get offended when we criticize the program or MR, as if it is a reflection of themselves?