Collierkr

You might as well ask us if we think it will rain tomorrow... a complete guess and a complete waste of our time. Seems like you answered your own question anyway.

sdsearch

Up to now they haven't done what they've done for years before, so I see no reason to expect that the next promo will be based on long-term Marriott history either.

Just the very recent history. It'll probably expect a promo (based on the last 2 public promos) where the first stay counts for nothing and you only start earning whatever with your second stay.

And it's hard to tell whether they'll even focus on public promos, or shift more to targeted promos like the diverse batch in February.

Remember, this is a new program, so it's not necessarily gong to anything quite like the two or three programs (Marriott, Ritz,and SPG) that preceded it. They may have gotten a big head about being a big program and decided they want to do promos differently than when they were a smaller (set of) program(s).

C17PSGR

I think the fall promotion was exceptionally poorly designed and poorly received.

The current one seems to be more rewarding with double points and targeted incentives. That seems to be a recognition that the incentive is to make members happy, as opposed to driving behavior.

I'd guess he next one will be more focused on trying to drive some behavior. Hopefully, it won't be based on something Arne heard from hanging around people in Davos or from someone telling him they heard something on a blog ....

RoxyMountain

I expect there will be an announcement of a promo.......but the link will not work and nobody will be able to sign up

RollAnotherFatOne

it's all downhill. latest offering for purchasing points is absurd. don't really see what they're doing other than cheapening the brand. spg was miles ahead...

mahasamatman

The days of lucrative promos are long gone. Expect next to nothing and take what you get.

freed0m

SPG routinely sold points for 35% discount, max 30K(equals 90K Marriott points). How could the way SPG sold point be better than Marriott without cheapening the brand? This is the first time I can remember that Marriott sold points at discount and with max 50K.

RollAnotherFatOne

Because by selling points at a ridiculously poor rate, it's utterly pointless and alienating it's loyal customers.
This is a 50% mark up when you consider the 1:3 ratio between spg and marriott.
It would be stretching things a little bit to call this a betrayal but sneaking in such mark up wouldn't make me want to trust this brand - which is what quality branding is about.

admittedly there's more to it than that, but rises in everything doesn't make things more premium when you're looking at hitting loyal members. rises have been seen across all of the rewards catalogue, from event redemptions, to travel certificates, to rooms etc. while you get devaluations all the time, and they have provided notice about the some of these, it's still an across the board increase without any quality improvement. for me that pushing the price up in an 'apple-style way' is not making it more premium. it's making it less desirable and i'd be more concerned about what undesirable cost cutting measures will be put in place.

freed0m

help me understand that Marriott sells points cheaply does not cheapen the brands. Maybe Marriott should try to give every member 1 million points for free and let everyone redeem whatever hotels they want. Yeah, that will not cheapen the brands.

Loyal customers earn their points, not purchase points. Only cheap customers purchase large amount of points because they can't earn enough.

RollAnotherFatOne

because there's a long and short game. you're looking at a limited short game. that's like saying airlines that honour error fares go bust.. never seen that contribute. in fact, honouring error fares is a great way to market their product and get people interacting and experiencing the product.
selling points cheaply and often, regularly would cheapen the brand to some extent, depending on how often this happened and how aggressively they sold them. however, the price is so inflated (to start off with) vs their true value that rarely does it make sense to buy the points at such prices. simply making them more expensive cuts off a revenue stream, increases the need to find profitability elsewhere and results in further cost cutting, higher marketing budgets etc. it's nonsense to suggest that cheap rather than loyal customers buy points because points can only be redeemed with that brand. in other words, as soon as the points are bought, there is instant profit, which may or may not be cashed in. do you think shops would offer giftcards for sale if it there wasn't opportunity in there, and why would they be discounted? loyalty does matter.

freed0m

The airlines that honor error fares alienate their loyal paying customers. If it helps, every airline should honor them. There are more airlines which don't give a .... about error fare.

Just ask those loyal Cathay paying customers. How many have left Cathay because there aren't enough "cheaper" seats? Cathay gains more customers who will not ever pay for another premium seats, by losing some who will pay for premium seats. Yeah. great strategy.

As a loyal paying customer, why would I ever want to compete with anyone who does not pay cash, but simply purchasing points cheaply? I can always give my business to whoever values my business and stay in Marriott with points purchased cheaply. Marriott certainly does not value my loyalty by selling points cheaply to anyone with money.

MSPeconomist

AbuCordoba

The thing that gripes me is not the value of the points, its the limit of 50K, why impose the limit? or at least such a low one, why not offer something that people can really utilise such as 250K even if it costs thousands of dollars at least offer an increased cap.

Many people will purchase not to redeem in hotels but to transfer for airlines or use for marriott moments (at least I will)!

freed0m

Let me explain this way.

Marriott rewards loyalty in two ways: 1. Elite benefit 2. Marriott points. The value of Marriott points depends on how much per point you can acquire large amount of points. If Marriott sells points at 0.5 cents in large quantity, the most value you can get out of Marriott point is 0.5 cents per point. Any higher value than that will be driven down by people keeping purchasing points. So when Marriott sells points at a lower price, it screws its loyal paying customers with reduced point value.

I, as a loyal paying customer, will take my business elsewhere my loyalty is valued.

freed0m

The only reason that people purchase points to redeem anything is that it is cheaper through points.

The value of points depends on how much per point you can acquire a large amount of points. If Marriott sells points in large enough quantity, it indirectly sets the max value of its points. Why would Marriott want to do that? Screwing its loyal paying customers by reducing point value?

That Marriott only sells one member max 50K points, in a way, tells that Marriott sees its point can be redeemed at more than 1 cent per point.