climbermom

Has anyone gotten Ambassador with 100+ nights but not the qualifying $20,000 spend? With Covid pricing, the spend will be about $12,000. I am already Gold for life; just made platinum, and have another 56+ nights booked at the hotel.

DELee

Not sure why you want/need Ambassador if you're not going to spend $20K this year - or next. What Marriott wants is the spend.

Here's another way to word my question: Why do you want/need Ambassador status?

If you're exclusively staying at one hotel, I would think that they would be the ones who'd want you for your business - irrespective of your Marriott status.

David

DJ_Iceman

It's possible they would grant it with $20k spend and fewer than 100 nights; impossible, I would think, the other way around.

myperks

Ambassador without spend requirement is called Titanium with Bonvoy.

Safti

I have never dealt with Marriott on this particular issue. But...... Marriott is not the most flexible in general.

BRITINJAPAN4

To answer the question, I am LT and have many times met the nights requirement, never the spend. Never been offered Ambassador and from what I here, do not feel any loss.

Radiation Station

A) the experiences of some of the Ambassadors on this forum implies you are not missing out on much if you don’t become Ambassador.
B) I get the impression that Marriott is pitching Ambassador at high spend customers rather than customers who do a lot of nights. Presumably they feel that the kind of traveller who spends large sums on stays at higher end hotels is more potentially lucrative for them than customers who do a lot of cheap stays at 3 star properties.

UKTraveller4Fun

While I agree overall with this, the Ambassador program when running properly definitely has Benifits even if they are not what they used to be.

In regards the target of the program, I think it is maybe more a case of those that spend higher sums and thus at higher end hotels have higher expectations of what to expect. If you arrive at a St.Regis you don't expect the check-in process or breakfast to be the same as the local FourPoints or Aloft and nor should the process of arranging it and dealing with Marriott in general. On this I think Marriott have it correct, my complaint would be it is still to low a threshold and thus hotels still feel like there are to many ambassador guests and thus leads to dilution in the experience.

Radiation Station

Good points, I agree.

There are certainly benefits on paper and I have heard of positive experiences. I have no personal experience of how Ambassadors are treated but anecdotes in this forum seem to indicate that the experience is not well standardised, with some elites receiving excellent treatment and others feeling ignored or undervalued.

Fair point about the spend, I guess. 20,000$ works out to a minimum of $200 a night which isn’t massively extravagant by European standards. I can see how some relatively big spenders in certain parts of Asia might not hit 20k though, due to cheap hotel prices even at the top end.

jrich7970

No. I have had over 100 nights for the last seven years, and have never spent over $20K. And they have never just given me Ambassador (however long that's existed...2 years maybe?). Why would they?

I don't think I'm missing much.

Ryno1234

In 2018 i had a spend of apprx $28,000 but only finished the year with 89 nights. Most of my travel is in the Boston/NYC/Los Angeles area so my spend per night it usually pretty high. They did re qualify me for Ambassador based on the spend and the nights being close enough. I have hit both every other year it has been offered and was a charter member/former platinum premier member so that may have played in my favor.

so i assume that does mean that the spend is what matters to them. I was grateful.

Kacee

I've not heard of that happening without a history of making Ambassador in the past.

I had well over $20k but only seventy-some nights in 2018 and remained Titanium.

I cleared both thresholds in 2019 and the experience has been shall we say underwhelming.

MSPeconomist

This sounds similar to how the old Marriott would reportedly continue someone as Plat if they had had several years of Plat and were close. I never experienced this, but I was dropped from PP after I had a lower year after several years of very high nights and spend.

In the OP's case, spend is not much over half of the requirement, so I wouldn't expect that AMB status would be granted. If it were done, AMB status would be entirely too easy with the 50% nights credit from last year's status. For example, a Titanium could get AMB with only 63 nights (minus some from credit cards) and minimal spend for the required actual nights.

Herb687

And most lucrative of all would be the kind of traveler who spends large sums at 3 star or lower properties!

bgasser

The bulk of Marriott properties are 3 star hotels (Courtyards, Residence Inn, and Springhill Suites) compared to the far small number of JWs, RC, and St. Regis. Marriott needs to attract high volume guests in the 3 star properties also.