UKTraveller4Fun

I should have been more specific as in when Ambassador was a non official program within SPG and the first year or two after it became the 100 night qualification! It was on a general downhill slope before Marriott became involved as they expanded to much to quickly and many hotels didn't care anymore!

kaizen7

I tink the number works against ambassador programs for Marriott.

More member .... overload the ambassador team until they hire new one .. but then again the new one maybe not as experience as the current amb .. they need time to learn and it leads to
More ambassador to cope with the extra member .... make the hotels receive more amb requests and it become less personal.
More hotels .... higher chance that ambassador never contacted the hotel before and make the ambassador pretty much "just another stranger"

C17PSGR

Personally, I'd be happy if the program simply forced hotels to follow the intent of the existing rules, which means that the Schaumburg Renn doesn't leave 9 suites empty.

acrophobia

CPRich

I think it's reasonable to receive:

- Personalized Ambassador service for interaction with the Bonvoy program
- The ability to check-in/out at any 24-hour time period with a 1 night reservation
- 75% points bonus on stays
- 500 points or welcome gift for just showing up
- Guaranteed room availability with 48 hours notice
- Suite upgrades at checking, regardless of room booked/rate paid
- Lounge access
- 4pm late checkout
- Free fastest internet
- Free United elite status

itsaboutthejourney

* No resort/destination/location fee nonsense for all revenue and award stays
* Hot breakfast at all locations with no excluded properties
* Something similar to Suite Nights for RC lounge access (i.e. certificates for 4 stays per year for RC Lounge access)
* Actual Ambassador check-in line at all full-service properties whether there is a dedicated line or have flag down a concierge person and say you are an Ambassador member without looking like you are "cutting the queue."
* Guarantee on delivering a set of reasonable pre-determined Ambassador profile preferences: i.e. extra bottled water, shaving kit, mouthwash, bowl of fruit, favorite soda, favorite snack, etc.

The above would give some value or teeth to a program that has lost its way. For $20K spend per year, I don't think the above is unreasonable, in fact I'd say you'd be foolish to give Marriott $20K in spend without some serious perks above Titanium or whatever metal.

troyintn

Points taken at all hotels period. AKA no black out dates. It has been very tough to use Marriott Points, Even my weekend family trips are usually booked only a few weeks to a month out and then I see rooms for sale, but not on points.
The other is guarantee the current benefits, IE MY 24, late check out etc. As most of the benefits seems to be on paper, but not practiced in reality.

C17PSGR

+1 But is 1000 points.

I haven't used the Y24 benefit yet. And, except for the suite benefit, I get those other benefits reliably.

The reality is that Marriott could enhance the ambassador benefit for free ... just by demanding hotels provide the suite benefit.

Dumping resort/amenity fees and parking outside of NYC might be another easy enhancement.
Although its 1000 points.

hockeyinsider

At the minimum, refunding the portion of a resort fee that covers internet access and other amenities that are supposed to be complimentary by virtue of elite status should be a policy for all elite statuses.

Room service breakfast is reasonable, but not all brands offer room service anymore. For example, many of the renovated and new-build Marriott hotels have replaced room service with the quick bites menu.

I think it's also reasonable to give additional suite night award certificates or free night certificates at intervals above 100 nights. So, maybe 125 nights, 150 nights, 175 nights, 200 nights, etc. With no rollover of nights, there's no incentive to keep staying at Marriott after 100 nights and $20,000 in spend.

I don't think complimentary Ritz-Carlton club lounge access is an unreasonable expectation.

myperks

itsaboutthejourney

SPG used to do this, making hotels offer an "alternative amenity" if internet or other parts of a resort fee were defined platinum benefits.

hockeyinsider

This was in one of the earliest leaked terms and conditions for the post-8/18 Marriott–Ritz-Carlton–SPG loyalty program but it subsequently disappeared.

porciuscato

Let's try this benefit: maybe my ambassador could call me and introduce him/herself, given that I qualified a couple of months ago.

yeunganson

When we enhanced the SPG program to add Lifetime status , Suite Night awards, and Your24, the original discussion in the advisory committee was to get the best customer service staff to be placed in the Platinum Concierge and maybe get the same staff to help the same high level Plat member. So SPG marketing came out with the term Ambassador and Suite Night Awards (instead of my cheezy "upgrade Ace cards" or the more technical System-Wide-Upgrade). Anyhow, the Ambassador program did staff the best Customer Service Rep. They are empowered to do wide range of things like credit a few thousand SPG points and adjust reservations and can send gifts if needed without complex approval procedures. Like a number of SPG members when crossed over to Lifetime Platinum got some surprise gift, surprise upgrade at hotel or some ceremonial thing. It works best when you are not (and should not) expecting anything and got something. The cool thing is there are only guidelines and not strict rules so the range of things that can happen varies. Those really happy moments get posted on flyertalk and then many members were anticipating something grand and were let down when they cross-over and then nothing happened. I myself unexpectedly got a specially made St Regis robe with my intiial on it after I crossed.

The SPG Ambassador work the best that you just have to deal something pretty nice once a while when the Platinum Ambassador member never ask for much - those are the lower hanging fruit the easiest to make the deepest impact. Those keep calling for upgrades for future reservations have a higher difficulty to be impressed. So pick the low-hanging fruits and something nice and they remember. A SPG Platinum Ambassador member stays over 100 nights a year. Likely majority of them are ordinary and nothing to post about and talk about. Some of those stays may even be somewhat bad (but not terrible enough that you remember for years to come). So hit those special gifts on key dates have a deeper impact.

When our years pass by, those ordinary stays and bad stays fade but we remember the terrible ones, or the extraordinary ones that the Ambassador help make happen.

The current Marriott Ambassador System is really to get it working so it's not "just in name only". Training takes time and the Ambassadors need smaller group of handle. A teacher can handle a class of around 30 so probably that is how many Marriott Elite members an Ambassador can handle. Marriott need to resist their own tendencies to make the system predictable and entrust their ambassadors especially the most competent ones to make magic happen.

hockeyinsider

I don't think I've read many, if any, reports of any gifts for ambassadors since the 8/18 integration. I certainly haven't received anything.