Originally Posted by
Surge2009
Disagree wholeheartedly. Considering most work trips/conventions are booking through other channels than Marriott's site (whether it through MGM directly or even through Concur), none of these work people will be earning points. Concur bookings will most likely show up as if they were booked directly through MGM, so they'll earn MGM tier points but not Marriott Bonvoy points.
The ONLY Marriott customers that are going to come out ahead are those that participate in the MMP rates (Employees/Family Members of Employees). They'll get a heavily discounted rate that will make stomaching the fees more palatable, while earning elite credit. That's it. Everybody else is losing out
I disagree with almost your entire post, but I will focus on two points here 1) Marriott always says that only “direct bookings” earn points and nights, but this almost always
includes Concur and convention sites. The whole point of this agreement was to drive more convention and group bookings to MGM. I would bet a good amount of money that convention site and Concur bookings at MGM do earn points and elite nights - I have not seen anything that explicitly exclude those bookings. If you are right - then a lot of your post will be right. But my assumption is that Concur and convention negotiated room blocks
will earn Marriott points and elite nights.
2) Frame of reference matters here. Marriott elites don’t “lose out” - because most of them never had any benefits at MGM properties to begin with. They also never had resort fees waived at Vegas properties. This is all new to them. Of course there is overlap between Hyatt and Marriott elites, but probably less than people think. Any benefits are all incremental to Marriott and its elites. The only “change” is for MGM and Hyatt - and MGM seemed eager to switch, likely based on how costly Hyatt customers were