Now before all the flaming about reading the points guy articles because he ....., I must say I read any and all articles I can find. What I did find interesting is these points:
1. As a hotel gets larger, it becomes more owner centric instead of customer centric. They feel that the wide choice of locations is more important to loyalty than the customer benefits of a program like SPG. Makes me think I would rather find smaller chains than bigger ones.
2. They use the multiple brand names to allow more penetration in markets where their contracts limit them to one X per so many miles. It's a work around for the developers.
3. The owners are fighting Marriott tooth and nail, resisting efforts to bring back services and benefits.
4. This string of comments, "Yes, Bonvoy isn’t as generous as SPG, he said, but its members now have access to a much larger pool of hotels with many more choices.“What some of those SPG loyalists may have lost, a bit, in terms of the richness of the program, we hope that breadth of choice, whether it be brands or geography, is a bit of a mitigating factor,” Capuano said." Just ugh!
5. Housekeeping is going to be on a request only basis for the foreseeable future.
There is a lot more, but you can read it for yourself at: https://thepointsguy.com/news/marrio...m_medium=email