golfhan1

What do you think will be Marriott's action regarding status re-qualification for next year?

1. All members to be given status extension until Feb 2022 based on their current status
2. All members to be given 'Double Nights' promo in order to reach the required status quicker
3. All members to be deposited with 'XX' number of nights in their account depending on their current status ie. xx nights for Gold, xx nights for Platinum, xx nights for Titanium and so on.....
4 ????
5 ?????
6 ??????
7???????

Obviously an ideal scenario, in the case, would be 1 without doubt but being Marriott I, personally, think they would be this generous? As the situation is still evolving and will be very hard to predict what will happen to the rest of the world in few weeks or months time.

What are your thoughts?

God bless everyone and stay safe!

jxd

All members should get their status extended. It's not fair that members in China do and the rest of the world don't. I know China was the first country to get hit by the virus but the whole world is suffering from it now as well.

pentiumvi

I think that depending on duration of this situation, it would be fair to reduce status qualification by X%.

Ie. If the current situation affects travel for 3 months, reduce elite tier qualification night requirement by 25%.

Flying for Fun

I think there is more important things to be concerned about. One poster was "bummed" because her trip to Bora Bora will likely not happen. I am sure those that have lost loved ones are "bummed" too. Lets put it into perspective. If anything good comes out of this, perhaps some people will lose the "me" mentality.

James

freed0m

I have a double elite nights promo, but It is unlikely that I travel to anywhere and stay in hotels...

Fims

Indeed, they should have a common policy globally. If they extended for the Greater China region, they should extend also to other areas. Radisson, for example, extended it automatically to members globally. Even if travel restrictions are lifted, it will take time when travel is getting back to levels, it does not happen overnight.

JBord

I think if travel is down long enough, this makes the most sense for Marriott and for customers. Contrary to what many people seem to post about on FT, giving someone status doesn't cost Marriott anything. It's only when people use the benefits that there's a cost. If no one is using benefits during most of 2020, there's no cost (but of course probably tremendous revenue loss). To simply extend the status for another year means they incur the expected cost just a year later when revenue picks back up. And doing this ensures that customers go back to Marriott when normal travel resumes.

I do think that timing matters here. If travel is magically back to normal in the first half of the year, this would be quite generous of Marriott. If it's not until the second half of the year, it makes a lot of sense. The fact that they haven't updated 2020 status yet (at least for me), is a piece of evidence that they may be considering this and not pulling any levers too soon.

theOtherHolmes

Marriott extended elite status for all in Asia (more or less). We have a similar situation now in US in terms of spreading of the virus. There is no reason why Marriott wouldn’t extend the elite status to the rest of the world, at least US Canada and Europe

craigthemif

Well, there's actually the very simple reason that if they extend status for everybody, then nobody will feel any particular need to stay at Marriott for the rest of 2020.

The question is whether the revenue they might get during the rest of 2020 is more important than the risk of annoying elite members and chasing them away to chains showing more generosity. Which is why they are all waiting to see what the other major chains do.

tarheelnj

It would be fair to extend everyone's status for a year, but that alone won't get people back into their hotels quickly.

What might work better is Status+1 promo, where if you stay xx nights within xx days, you get bumped up a level. If I know I'm keeping Titanium another year, I'll be happy and will eventually start booking again. If I have a shot at a short cut to Ambassador, I'll be motivated to start booking faster and add a night to two to some trips. Same deal all the way through Silver. You'd have to come up with something else for current Ambassadors, of course.

GoldenItalianBoy

Italy here, obviously at home
Hope for my Titanium to be extended till 2022, this situation is not going to stop in just a month....

escapefromphl

Extend status from 2019 and fit 2020 status to a curve to maintain elite numbers. If folks are still staying in 2020 they deserve the recognition for contribution to the bottom line.

kaizen7

This.
Currently, pretty much whole world affected by the virus and have very restricted travel options.
Even if some crazy people did desperately want to travel, more and more countries close their borders and make the travel impossible.

JBord

That's one way to look at it, but I think the number of people who chase multiple statuses just for the purpose of having multiple statuses is fairly small. Most people want to enjoy the benefits of the status not try to build up a second one. Others will see their "favorite" hotel being generous in extending the status and will reward that by continuing to stay at Marriotts. I'm not saying you're incorrect, just that I think it's a not a high number of customers who think that way...certainly much higher here on FT though!

Hmmm...I can't figure out how I feel about this statement. Logically, I completely agree. But emotionally, I'm wondering why these people are out staying at hotels when most businesses have suspended travel and we are told to "stay at home". No question there are always people who need a hotel, especially those whose jobs require them to travel in order to keep us safe during this time. Yet, I kind of feel like it's a grocery store rewarding someone for hoarding 200 rolls of toilet paper.

If status is extended for everyone, that does NOT mean additional SNA's or similar benefits. The people who are actually staying would still earn those. Maybe there's another way to reward them without penalizing everyone else for contributing to the world's overall well-being.

anteater

Whatever is done, I hope Marriott doesn’t dilute the Ambassador Elite tier with members who didn’t meet the standard qualifications. For example, if someone was Silver and met some form of 2020 COVID promo qualification (eg stay X nights to reach Y tier), AE should be excluded.