ijgordon

I imagine that for the foreseeable future, I'll still be referring to my "Marriott points" and my "Marriott Elite" status. I'm still kind of 50/50 on "Delta miles" vs. "Skymiles" and "Medallion" vs. "Elite."

It's never caused a problem. If you hate the name Bonvoy, don't use it.

That said, good luck asking someone at Penn Station for a ticket on the Metroliner. Certainly "Acela" sounded pretty dumb when that was launched.

Keyser

i'm not crazy about the name & i was hoping they didn't use it but i guess it is what it is....lets get used to it now....

all their it issues aside, i'm happy with the program....as long as they don't change that i guess i am ok with bonvoy....

Dav77

xzh445

As Mrs XZH445 just said.... "Dunkin' was taken already"

damon88

Not at the hotel level. I had over 150 bib nights last year and never once was my Ambassador status acknowledged at a hotel (One hotel recognized me as Plat Premier). (Not complaining about the treatment I received- wonderful upgrades, welcome gifts, etc) But after repeatedly being welcomed as a "valued Platinum guest" I began prompting out of curiosity if it showed that I was Platinum Premier or Ambassador and was uniformly met with confused looks and keyboard activity before acknowledging that "Platinum" was all they could see. (All but one of these hotels was Legacy SPG)

I am a leisure traveler, not business paying for my own stays. It takes significantly more effort to reach 75 or 100 nights and it feels correct for those to my separate status levels.

hawaiiansports

Bonvoy almost as bad as Tronc

TerryK

It is great to have a fresh name for combined program and new five tier system is an improvement over confusing PE/PPE/PPEA.^

Tanic

Yes, but where have the Marriott Concierges gone? It was never really the same after giving "Baghdad Bob" answers to questions about when EEOs would return. Still waiting...

C17PSGR

Here's hoping for Bonvoy Lurkers!

Considering the investment in Twitter to communicate with guests who stay a couple of times a year, this is a far better investment of resources.

itsaboutthejourney

St. Regis Dubai
W Dubai Habtoor City
Westin Dubai Al Habtoor City
Parker Palm Springs
Hotel Des Indes
St. Regis Princeville
The Principal Madrid
Westin Sydney
The Westin-Vendome Paris
Prague Sheraton
W Las Vegas & SLS Las Vegas
W St. Petersburg
Edition Bangkok
Ritz-Carlton Battery Park

Sure you can spin that a bunch of tacky Courtyards, Moxy and Springhills are boosting Marriott's overall numbers, but the loss of the above higher profile properties is significant and not to be dismissed.

kaizen7

C17PSGR

Hotels reflag all the time. There's nothing unusual about it and Marriott continues to sign agreements for the development of premium and luxury properties under all its brands.

There is plenty in the news about the Dubai properties. That obviously has nothing to do with the integration. A lot of ME properties (and airlines) are loosing millions and they wanted to avoid the franchise fees.

The St. Regis Princeville was bought by a different REIT and is shutting for several months while it is renovated.

The W/SLS Vegas has sold to different owners at least three times since it was built and has tried to do business under multiple names.

The RC Battery Park chose not to renovate to meet brand standards.

In the meantime, Marriott has opened dozens of new RC, St. Regis, Luxury Collection, W's alone all over the Middle East and China, as well as in Asia, Spain, Panama, Italy, France, and India. The JW Panama, the Solaz in Cabo, the Barcelona Edition ... and the list goes on.

I don't like the inconsistency and I realize some here have had problems in the integration but there is no objective basis to suggest that Marriott is (a) losing hotels at an unusual rate, (b) losing market share, or (c) facing an unusual drop in reservations. Frankly -- I'm a little surprised they didn't have a drop in reservations but the percentage of direct bookings from Marriott.com is actually up, compared to before the merger -- go figure.

shoodawg

I believe it's obvious that whoever is running the loyalty show at marriott couldn't care much less about legacy / long term starwood members. it's sort of like they've given us the finger. fortunately, we have other options.

itsaboutthejourney

The irony is that the person running loyalty for Marriott was the #2 guy at SPG. He's a good guy, but I have a feeling he doesn't have control over things like IT and communication with members as part of Marriott's massive corporate structure. I put blame on the CEO Sorenson who clearly hasn't backed up his own words that loyalty is key to this merger. He miscalculated that retaining SPG members is as simple as restructuring the program to being closer to the SPG model, not taking into account the customer experience Starwood worked so hard to align between loyalty, IT/mobile, customer care, loyalty point persons at each property, etc.

stimpy

Knowing how companies work at that level and having had pretty much the same experience, this is probably the correct explanation. And the blame does fall on the CEO. It leads to a lot of stress for the executives in charge, which may make them want to quit.