somedudefromFLa

I'm probably gonna get swords & daggers for saying this but is it really Marriott lying to us or is it us not hearing what we want? OK yes yes yes, many things could've been communicated a lot better but I think this attack of lying is a bit to much.

For example, did Marriott ever say they were going to let us book a $1,000 hotel room in bora bora for 60k or did we just try to create a dream of that which was then shut down

Or, did Marriott ever assure that as an SPG transplant that I am now guaranteed upgrade to best suites at all top teir Marriott & Ritz if I book the cheapest rate, or was it always "some upgrade."

Now, I will say Marriott had been consistent on two things

1/ some upgrade everytime
2/ guaranteed 4pm checkout

And, when comparing to the other major players- IHG & Hilton - that is more than they guarntee to offer and also the Marriott bar is more reachable with fifty (75 night 75,000 points & 60 nights respectively). So I'm not only sticking to Marriott I'm actually planning to move IHG stays over, probably will let spire drop and just keep plat there as well neither really get me anything

IMHO, what really need to view is what hotels I really like, and Marriott has both a large footprint & quality brands! I personally stay mostly at westins and happy with those so that's where I'm planning stay. In addition now I have many options didn't have before in secondary markets, as it used to be a shearton & maybe aloft but now many options. I will say IHG is building a footprint with growing indigos and acquisition of kimptons, but still I just feel they don't view status...

So I'd say the only real choice is between:

Marriott if desire status- 4pm & some upgrade

OR

IHG if desire points free stays ( especially points breaks )

I just don't see hilton in the picture as they don't really give status and well there points just meh!


And, yes yes yes: it sucks we lost perks of spg but it is what it is - economy is up and late stage capitalism...

Pretzelsandpeanuts

Kacee

Curious how the integration is affecting others' views toward booking with Marriott/SPG vs. moving future stays elsewhere due to the various issues.

My two most recent bookings have gone to Hilton (one of which involved canceling a Westin reservation). Marriott/SPG still works best for me overall though, so I will probably book through 75 nights (at 66 right now) and stop there, with the remainder of my nights this year going to Hilton or Hyatt. I would like to see Marriott suffer some pain on the earnings side, as I feel their customer service and communication have been truly deplorable. And I'm hopeful that an earnings hit will send the message that they need to do better.

NJKen

Next week I’ll hit my 50 nights. Instead of finishing out the year with Marriott, I will move those 20 nights over to Hilton. I’m frustrated with the transition as are most. I tried last week to use my expiring megabonus free night and with the 1 disconnection, long hold time and lack of online redemption I gave up.

I know the programs are similar but one is in utter disarray while the other is well....Hilton. Like Sheratons you know what your getting with Hilton.

TerryK

Integration issues are to be expected albeit this is worse than expected. It has no effect on my stays as I expect all issues will be resolved eventually.

I am more concerned about planned November integration of property management systems. I am sure all stays/points will post, eventually, but I hope elite status can be reflected correctly. IMHO, upgrades, which cannot be corrected retroactively, are the most important benefit of SPG/MR program.

Nottingham Nick

There is already quite a long thread on this theme here - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...-marriott.html

Do we need another?

Nick

JBord

The communication around the issues has certainly not been good. Overall communication about the merger has been pretty good I think. Clearly they were caught off guard and couldn't figure out a communication plan to react to the problems. They should issue an apology for that. A generous promotion or handout for elites with any status wouldn't hurt either.

But I don't hope they lose money from bookings. Lose money on the apology, as I noted above, instead. Marriott getting hurt while customers get nothing doesn't help most people feel better.

To answer your original question, I'm not booking away. I've seen no difference at all in the experience or the customer service at the properties, and I book a hotel for my sake, not to "hurt" a company. Ok, so they didn't thank me for being a PPE at my last stay but I got the benefits...that's the only thing different I've noticed and it was never consistent anyway.

MSPeconomist

christianj

I think the lack of communication is the big sticking point for me! Stays and points not posting for over 20 days now is bad enough. Worst of all the new issue of Lifetime Elite Nights being adjusted down without any explanation at all. How in the hell is anyone supposed to figure out what is right and wrong with their account anymore? It's been said numerous times before but why in the world did this need to be done in August? Why not wait till Jan 2019 and take another four months to figure the crap out and do it right? It would have been so much more transparent for everyone!

I have to stay till years end because I need to finish my 10th year as platinum for Lifetime elite...hopefully Premier if they get the lifetime nights back to where they were. After that I plan to free agent hotel stays and look for other alternatives instead of automatically booking a property like I always did with SPG.

tfong007

I have started moving my business to Hyatt. Marriott wont even respond to emails. After sending two in two weeks I am just going to slowly start moving all future stays to Hyatt. I am a patient person but three weeks into this integration cock-up I am just tired of Marriott ignoring me.

NJKen

Jon Maiman

I am staying the course which for me is Starriott as my primary program and IHG as my secondary program. My MR activity detail for my stays in August finally posted last night. It took a little while but I am also able to use my SNA's whenever I would like. Yes the communication during the integration could have been much better. Yes it was annoying not being able to see my MR activity posting. For those who couldn't use an award or otherwise had booking problems, I fully understand your deeper frustration. Fortunately I didn't have those issues myself. The hard product is the same as before and I continue to be generally treated well by the properties. As a long term loyal Marriott person, I now have lots more SPG properties I can stay at including in my primary business destination Philadelphia, PA. After the MR property category adjustments, it was a mix for me. Overall I was pleasantly surprised that at a macro level it appears to be mainly a wash for me even though individual properties shifted up and down. E.g. my points still have approx. the same overall value for my stay patterns.. While Hilton properties are also generally nice and they also have good breadth of coverage, ROI for Hilton Hhonors awards versus spend still continues to be poor. While there are some nice IHG properties IHG's, (Kimptons, some CP's and HI's, HIX's outside of cities), I still generally prefer Starriott properties over IHG. Hyatt is too small and doesn't have the reach I need for my travel patterns.

So distilling it down, MR is still the best program for me in terms of experience on property, breadth of properties, ROI for rewards program, and fitting within my corporate expense guidelines. The problems experienced this year during the integration were annoying but should be totally behind us soon., Life moves on and Starriott still makes the most sense for me based on my requirements and preferences. Everyone should periodically reevaluate their travel requirements and adjust the loyalty programs they focus on if needed. In recent years my biggest adjustment has been for air travel. I no longer focus on United and now focus on Southwest. Even then I am mainly price driven since for my level of air travel, the loyalty program benefits are fairly modest. Prior to that my most recent adjustment was adding IHG as a secondary program to MR. Diversifying my hotel stays was a good move and came in especially handy this summer when I mainly used IHG award stays for my family vacation. YMMV....

--Jon

jr1202sr

I am feel everyone's pain. After getting locked out of transferring points prematurely, My lifetime totals are all wrong. I have been a SPG member since 2002. They only are giving me credit from 2017. I have email confirmations showing the status and nights and no help when I call, but a them creating a case # for someone "to review at some point".

I have 529 nights at Marriott (not counting SPG) and have been platinum every year since 2012 and they are showing me with 4 years of status and NONE of them platinum. I have about 12 years in total (over gold) dating back to when I started. Nobody can fix it, but they see it when reviewing my account on the phone. They don't have the "authority" to fix it but did create a CASE #.

So I have NO clue where I stand toward LTPP and nobody seems to care. I have about 20 hours on the phone with my problems with Marriott over the past month. I will never get that time back. The fact that they didn't prioritize merging accounts of their highest level clients first is plain stupid.
Forget the fact that my recents stays are still wrong and I am owed for 1 meeting still.

Oh and BTW while typing this I thought I would call and see if there were any updates to my cases. I just got hung up on after 16 minutes on hold.

jr1202sr

Marriott stock trailing the rest of the Market:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MAR/...FuZ2UiOm51bGx9

Antarius

I plan on staying mainly because this integration issue is more annoying than anything else while not being hugely detrimental. I can wait a while for the dust to settle for my Lifetime status.

That said, having initially been a "keep calm and carry on" poster on this board for the first week while there was teeth gnashing, at this point, it is getting ridiculous. I understand a week worth of issues and maybe some outstanding issues that are pushed down the list... but the fact that numbers are flying all over the place, stays show up and then vanish etc. means that there are a lot more problems that should have been tested before.