Make A Green Choice (MAGC) discontinued by Marriott
 

Just read through this article from LoyaltyLobby where it seems that Marriott has not only reduced housekeeping to on-demand, but has now completely killed off MAGC. According to a spokesperson's comment, the "overwhelming majority" of members don't opt into the program anyway so away it goes.

Gotta love Marriott and its incredible ability to take take take away. Looking forward to seeing what other loyalty perks will inevitably be stripped away from us in the days ahead.

khabah

It was so inconsistently applied that I'd pretty much given up anyway (many times I tried to take the green choice but didn't see the points afterwards. I won't miss it. Housekeeping on demand as a long term concept is interesting, kinda removes a differentiation from airbnb, I will be demanding it, but I am sure it would be popular amongst hotels looking to cut costs. On my most recent stays the hotels were reducing housekeeping to every other day blaming COVID (in Greece), and right now I can understand that. I would however rather that they made housekeeping wear PPE (ala Qatar Airways staff) and paid them a bit better.

I consider anything at the moment fairly temporary and won't get too "outraged" until we are back to normal (whatever that normal is), in 6 to 12 months.

I’ll continue to put out my Do Not Disturb sign. I won’t miss the 500 Marriott pts/night. Very few properties offered it anyhow, at least where I stayed.

Ultimately less housekeeping during a multi night stay will become more of an industry standard, so no sense in giving members points for it. However if you want housekeeping during your stay I am sure some brands will let you pay for it via cash or points.

It was worth it when it was 500 Starwood points, so worth (to me) $7-10/night. When it became 500 Bonvoy points, and barely worth $3, if that, I stopped caring about the "benefit"

Yes-- I've had four US hotel stays in the past two months across Marriott, Hilton and IHG, and every single property, from select service to full service, was not offering housekeeping during the stay-- was told to go to the front desk if I needed extra towels, bathroom amenities, etc. The property owners are already cost cutting as much as possible so I'm sure they realized there was no point in offering points for MAGC since for most properties, it's not even an option for people to opt out now.

And of course there's the obligatory lie by Marriott about the reason for the change:

Quote:

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The global pandemic is affecting the preferences of all guests staying in our hotels who are increasingly choosing to forego daily housekeeping to limit contact during their stay.

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I suspect that McMarriott will not miss this opportunity to pare back amenities. Post 9/11, airlines stripped away all manner of services and today one often pays extra for anything beyond a basic seat.

Will the Walmart of Hospitality soon offer a la carte pricing for daily housekeeping or in-room coffee machines? At this juncture, the difference between the brands is blurring as cutbacks appear everywhere.

Translation: "People never used to opt for the program, so we didn't really care, but now with COVID, most people don't want housekeepers in their rooms during their stay, and thus we've actually had to give out a lot more points than we ever wanted to."

Next step will be an added junk fee for housekeeping.

You probably said this tongue in cheek, but I could totally see it, especially for limited service properties. "Base rates include housekeeping every 4 days, additional servicing is $15/night".

So stupid to kill MAGC - it is such an obvious opportunity for a win-win: hotels saves on housekeeping costs and passes a share of savings to willing customers.

The point is that “saving on housekeeping” will become an industry standard - meaning that in 2021 and beyond, many brands will no longer offer daily housekeeping as a standard amenity. Maybe Ritz Carlton, Waldorf, Park Hyatt, etc, but many others won’t. So Make a Green Choice is irrelevant in that environment

I could also see Marriott justifying the "overwhelming majority" of people staying at the hotel don't ask for a 4pm checkout, so might as well get rid of that too

That would be a major devaluation of benefits for Platinum and above...

Pre-Covid, I used to make good use of MAGC even at the devalued levels but it was nice to have the extra points in my account.

I have a feeling an 'overwhelming majority' don't ask for resort fees. Perhaps those can be removed as well.