Originally Posted by lost_in_translation

I have posted here several times in recent years about the deliberate 'Hiltonification' of Marriott Bonvoy, i.e. inflation of elite member numbers, which is ongoing - Marriott is consciously increasing the number of Bonvoy members overall and the percentage of elites within that as far as they can for their own financial benefit, which will clearly be to the detriment of previous elite members. The holy grail for hotel chains is to provide members with 'elite' status which locks them in to the chain through the perception they might get a benefit and improves RevPAR / makes them spend more, but doesn't really actually cost much to provide. Marriott's explicit target per earnings calls is for as many guests as possible to be Bonvoy members and presumably also for the highest percentage of those to be elites as possible.

This chart from Marriott's IR day last year in terms of the number of guests with elite status is particularly fascinating...