most certainly don’t work in hospitality or anything connected.

I get your point, and it won’t work for everyone. Yet, If people were only booking Marriott for the sake of free nights and easy status, Marriott will know who to target (and not) in the future with targeted promotions.

Generous double night promos are for attracting people to join, but it can’t become the status quo that you need to keep lowering the bar to keep people in. That’s bad business and I wouldn’t want to build my own client base on people who only buy when the price is cheap.

At some point you will want people earning status the normal way. Marriott will know that quite a few people over the last 5 years have got well into LT status thanks to the double nights and many of them will likely stick with Marriott (despite the weaker promo) to get over that 10 year line with 600 nights. They just have to earn Plat or above by getting 50 nights or 35 if they have a credit card.

If they lose some people along the way who are low spending plats or titanium, I’m sure they’ll be fine with that. It’s a free market and we can choose the best offer. Each to their own and this offer will indeed be one that puts many off. But it will likely be pleasing for many others.