That is some serious overentitled attitude there. Even juvenile in approach I dare say. A pity housekeeping can't be held back from such ways of thinking, even if just to teach a lesson on being greener.

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Hey @moderator, can we please remind people to stay on topic and to not attack people for their opinions. Thanks!

I brought up the downside of the somewhat unexpected and very generous 1:3 exchange rate a few months ago, and pointed out that MAGC and Plat bonus earnings would take a serious hit.

Absolutely. I wouldn't get housekeeping out of spite for the low MAGC earnings, but I've certainly had the occasional day where housekeeping would have been "nice to have" (but not quite "must have") and I opted for MAGC. For the equivalent of 166 Starpoints, there's no way I'd put out the MAGC card in that scenario. I've been to hotels that have their own decline housekeeping programs -- Sheraton Yokohama, for instance, doesn't participate in MAGC, but has designed its own program ("join us in protecting our earth"). If you decline housekeeping, you get -wait for it!- an additional bottle of water (a plastic bottle, naturally). That would not incent me to change my behavior.

As for whether the earnings are insignificant, I have somewhere around 100 SPG nights a year, plus many more at Hyatt/IHG/others. The ability to earn a few thousand MAGC points on a stay certainly has caused me to pick a SPG property over a competitor (other things equal). I suspect that many high-stay guests take MAGC into consideration, especially in this current promo-poor environment.

I can't believe some of the childish and spiteful posts on this thread regarding MAGC. It (the 500 SPG points) was great while it lasted but some people really need to get over it.

+1

I'll still opt for it when it's available. More points is more points, and I don't mind hanging up my towel and keeping my hotel room tidy and organized.
I am curious if Make a Green Choice will be more wide-spread now. Hopefully so.

Personally, I've stopped thinking about Starpoints 1:3 conversion to Marriott. Making that mental calculation on valuation and devaluation is not helpful for me.
SPG is gone. I've moved over to the "New" Marriott.
If I wanted more out of a hotel chain, I would certainly move to another.
As I'm still content with how it's going (and how I'm still being treated), I'm staying with them.

Good luck to everyone as the program continues its journey to delight and to depress. :)

So guys, was are your plans, strategy for the next months (I mean till end of the year) based on those various changes?

My personal view :

I have renewed Ambassador (140 something nights already with SPG and 20 with MR). So till end of the year, based on the metrics and incentive I got right now from MR :

- no promotion
- cut on points
- tons of marriott gold became plat so upgrade will be a pain
- I already have missing points and don't know when they will be posted, don't want to run after my points

I will :
- I really think to renew Hilton Diamond (missing 9 nights)
- As a back up I think I will try to come back to Hyatt globalist (ex diamond) in case benefits in SPG properties becomes "marriott style".
- Continue to book at SPG in hotels I love and I'm returning + some stays in sweet (not sweet as they used to be) like JW Baku for exemple with points. But nothing more, I don't see any incentive in doing more.

I think you are going to find that PLT will no longer enjoy upgrades and that they will go to PLT+ and PLT++.

Thank you, I could not have written it better myself. I am in hotels 300 nights per year. I like a clean room but I also I like points. It was a balancing act but no more. Going forward I will be poorer but cleaner LOL

Would you say the same thing if Marriott decided to cut award points earned on dollars spent by 30%? Because for many people that is the impact here. This is a huge earnings hit if you stayed at mid-range SPG properties (e.g., your $130/night Sheraton).

Between the reduction in the Platinum welcome points and the MAGC program, you're talking about $20 less a week in point earnings (partially balanced by the increase in points per dollar spent - but again that requires more expensive properties).

I think Marriott should increase the MAGC points on the second night. So 500 for the first night and 750 for the second. I can easily go without housekeeping for 2 days.

I was referring to those who were planning to exact some kind of petty revenge by throwing the daily toiletry replenishment into their suitacase or maximising the work of housekeeping purely out of spite. You call it an earnings hit but others may call it a correction of a generous element of the program (and I'm Plat Prem).

Well, just using the housekeeping at its best : full cleaning and linen change.
Talion law. Less benefits, deliver more service. Simple.

This reduction in benefits is not in isolation. If Marriott senses they will get away with a reduction, they will take it. This has felt for some time like a Democrat/Republican thing where even obvious facts are skewed by one's bias based on which legacy loyalty program you came from. This was a fair deal at SPG between the guest and the hotel. If it wasn't, then each hotel could have chosen to not do it. It undoubtedly saved hotels a great deal of expense as much of the cleaning staff is 'on call'. Now to offer a third of what was once offered changes the dynamic to the point of 'why bother'. So, to call it spiteful to rebel a bit and begin to cost the hotels money where they would have saved it before is the only way to have things like this revert to a fairer system. Even to have the cleaning staff enter and straighten up (without changing sheets and towels) costs the hotel some incremental amount.

For those saying, 'you should do it for the environment': Not traveling would be the best thing.

One other thing: What about the incremental cost of leaving a gratuity for having your room cleaned each day? This assumes of course that those suggesting a daily clean do such things.