To answer the OP's original question - there really isn't any point in chasing status now. Marriott is being very short sighted and going after the spike in leisure travel demand and providing minimal services and perks. They obviously are of the mindset that they're going to fill the room at an exorbitant rate anyway so don't care who is staying in there.

Perhaps we'll see them change their tune when leisure travel drops off in the fall and biz travel presumably picks up a little more but I wouldn't hold my breath. As others mentioned, you can often get better service at a best western for significantly lower price. Why stay at a supposed 'full service' marriott where the lounge and restaurant are closed and they give you nothing when you can go to a cheaper hotel down the street for much less.

Truthfully, I don't understand some of the sentiment in this thread. From a personal perspective, the idea that Titanium "means nothing" and that a Best Western is a better option seems far-fetched. After all, many Bonvoy properties are nice properties (much nicer than any Best Western/Choice Hotel/Holiday Inn I have ever stayed at) even when Elite benefits are not considered. Also, a vast majority of my stays at Bonvoy properties have seen significant room upgrades (not all, but a good chunk) and 4 PM late checkout (a benefit that matters to me a whole bunch). Yes, the lounge/breakfast situation can be annoying, and Hyatt definitely seems to be winning on this front (and other fronts).

Still, though, the idea that Titanium is worthless as a whole seems unrealistic (the marginal benefit between Titanium and Platinum is another story, but as already mentioned, the United status is definitely a plus for the Economy Plus seating and savings on baggage fees).

Experience lately at Marriott as Titanium.
1. On check in - they no longer mention - "thank you for being a Titanium member".
2. Have to ask for breakfast coupon, which is a credit not a free breakfast (that might have changed back - will find out soon).
3. Can't check in early, they say they will call - but come back three hours later and non-elites are being checked in, no call that rooms are available (did get 10,000 bonus points for that issue).
4. Late checkout not available - maybe 1pm or 2pm (no 4pm).
5. Trying to apply suite upgrade - only being offered high floor upgrade or better view - which you usually get at check in. What is the point - it is called "suite upgrade" - if it means "room upgrade" then change the name of the benefit.

Although I stay at the location I want to stay - regardless of hotel brand - but will stay at Marriott if close by location - say a few blocks away.

I think most Bonvoy properties are still nice hotels. (Where one is in need of maintenance/renovation, it's a slightly different topic than the one about services and benefits provided to guests.)

My main point is that they've removed everything that makes the hotels uniquely Marriott (or whatever specific brand they are).

So at this point, the inside of a Choice hotel room doesn't look a lot different than the inside of a Marriott hotel room. If both hotels no longer have lounges, restaurants, spas, room service, etc. - in part because the Choice hotel never did - then we're pretty much down to comparing who has better mattresses, working fixtures, good plumbing, fast wifi, etc. In many cases, the answer is "the newer hotel", regardless of the brand.

Understandable, while my Bonvoy experience has been less benefit-absent than others in this thread, I get that consumers who feel like Bonvoy isn't offering anything of value to them are free to explore other options for different value propositions. As someone who travels to and mostly stays in "city center" areas, my hotel choices pretty much come down to major chains that are all relatively the same price. Anything that is significantly cheaper often would not be somewhere that I would want to stay (I place much more emphasis on my hotel than many other people in my life when they travel). However, if a Bonvoy member was traveling to other areas where their choices are more limited (or there is a larger proportion of non-major properties - I'm thinking road trips, etc), I can definitely see the appeal of looking at other options (i.e. what is newest?) in the absence of benefits.

For me, it always comes down to Marriott vs. Hyatt (I don't stay at Hilton for several reasons - the largest is their lack of a set late check-out benefit), and then, it really comes down to which chain has the property that looks the most interesting to me.

Well the main difference between Choice and Marriott is that Choice doesn�t have luxury hotels in Maldives, Barcelona, Vail, Tokyo, South Beach, wherever, so Choice points I earn on paid stays get me less places. This is why the Starwood merger ultimately has/will work for Marriott - the loyalty programs are now almost all about earning and redeeming points, and Marriott has the most places to earn and a ton of interesting places to redeem. The other stuff is �noise around the edges� so to speak. Titanium in and of itself could earn you more points

Fair point, and for that reason I hope all of my future business stays remain with a big chain that has interesting places to spend points. (My first couple of post-pandemic trips have been selected from the same list of hotels as we had in 2019, so I'm not seeing any huge push from my current company to change our behavior.)

But for my personal stays, I'm much more conscious of how little difference there is between the brand levels and I'm much less willing to "buy up" to a higher level. The raw value of the points (and my hope to spend them later in Barcelona or Maldives) is worth something, but the intangible value of status and the soft value of staying at a more upscale hotel is now essentially zero.

I still cling to the hope that more hospitality-oriented cultures will retain some of that service and general soft value at their luxury brands. Can't have a staff member at the St. Regis in Maldives snarl at you to order Domino's if you get hungry.

Well summarized, but further modified to reflect my priorities.

Similar historic view of Hyatt and Marriott, but Hyatt isn't knocking it out of the park right now either.

In a stay of any duration, I value a hot breakfast and some form of evening service and it motivates the hotel to be booked. I'll be impressed if Marriott really does slap the North American hotels back into line. Hyatt isn't talking about it yet. In both cases I'll believe it when I see it.

The way I see it, there are a decent number of lower-tier Marriott-family properties that are faceplanting in various ways. I generally haven't had trouble getting a 2PM/4PM checkout upon request (getting housekeeping to observe it is another story...some days I think there's a risk housekeeping is going to come while I'm out at breakfast and then the next occupant is going to find an unmade bed because housekeeping got the order-of-operations hilariously wrong), but other things have been somewhat scattershot. Ceteris paribus I might choose a Marriott-family property at an equal price...but if I'm going to be told to change my own bed and set out my own trash at the Marriott (not far from what I've been told on a few occasions) but not at the Choice property, Marriott is going to lose that showdown. Similar issues arise if there's an utter lack of on-property food options aside from the pantry (this does happen), total lack of a passable breakfast, etc.

I think a good portion of the "Why do I bother?" sentiment comes from the fact that despite whatever bells and whistles we might get with status, a lot of what I think we've generally regarded as basic stuff is still not available...and at some point, there's not much logic behind driving business to hotels (if not wanting to outright punish the hoteliers who are to all appearances not even trying).

I have yet to stay at any hotel since January 2020. My last stay was at an Element in the Las Vegas area. I was at one Hilton property before that when they had a special study going on. They were offering $100 Amazon gift cards for the willingness to be videotaped and interviewed by an outside firm employed for market research. I think of that study every time I look at my Kindle.

A lot of the frustrations about top tier Bonvoy status come from former Starwood loyalists (like me). Pre-merger, both companies had lots of incredible properties (and some duds). The difference, IMO, is in how Marriott chooses to serve Titaniums and other top tier, frequent customers. With Marriott, there's a distinct lack of gratitude, of customer service, of recognition, and of support. It feels like my loyalty to them is meaningless. It's just a slightly different set of rules for Titaniums than other members, with some extra points doled out and the occasional free croissant for breakfast. Maybe access to an overcrowded lounge, back when those were operating. But - as a Titanium - Bonvoy gives me nothing that makes me really, truly want to choose a Marriott property over a competitor.

All of the former SPG loyalists that I know were absolute raving fans of Starwood, and would go out of their way to stay at a Starwood property. It wasn't that the hotels were any better. It's that loyal, top tier members were treated so well. And that special treatment was not necessarily about upgrades or gifts or other freebies. It was about being genuinely thanked for my loyalty whenever I checked in. About everyone from front desk to call center staff working hard to resolve a problem whenever one came up. It was about having a toll free number that was actually answered quickly, by a professional who knew their stuff, cared about what they did, and had a genuine desire to serve. As cheesy as it sounds, I felt like I belonged to something special at Starwood, and that sense of belonging came to me whenever I arrived at any Starwood property. It felt like I was valued, and like any SPG hotel - anywhere - was my second home. Like an exclusive club that I was lucky to be a part of. (Yes, like I said ... it sounds cheesy. But it's true.)

This all jogged my memory about a great quote that showed up in this forum about three years ago. This one stuck with me, because it was both funny and accurate. I had to search to dig it up from the past... September 2018, to be exact.

For me, it was Berluti or Brioni service with SPG and Marriott gave me K Mart.

Marriott treats me as if I am lucky to spend my money at Marriott and they simply don't care if I exist or not.

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"Titanium � Why do I bother?"

You love to get Bonv�yed! 😮

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Do yourself a favor and just buy what you want.

The idea that any company will give you something for nothing is insanity. Status is like a drug - have one good experience and spend the rest of your life chasing that experience. Sure, sometime you do get something but it is rarely worth it long term.

I stopped chasing marriott and started chasing suites. I just book the exact room I want regardless of chain. I have had some fantastic suites in different hotels and to be honest the hotels treat me a WHOLE lot better.

Sad thing is: if I go back about 15 years, Marriott was at least super-consistent and had well-trained staff and generally good service across their portfolio. The Marriott flag meant something in a world where the other mainline business hotels were much more variable. (Although I was SPG Plat as well, I somewhat avoided Sheratons for this reason.)

Marriott Rewards was never a big suite upgrade program like SPG was, mostly because the buildings often didn't have many suites to begin with, but you could absolutely count on a seamless check-in process, no hold times on the Gold/Platinum phone support, restaurants and bars that were open and delivering a decent product, adequate executive lounges at business hotels, generally nice rooms, and quick resolution if anything went wrong.

If SPG was Nordstrom, Marriott was at least a clean, well-run, properly-staffed Costco.

They took a thing that worked pretty well and broke it. Plain and simple.