How to dump Marriott
 

I keep on reading fatalism in this forum: e.g. "for a business traveler, there's no choice other than Marriott."

I couldn't disagree more.

I was an Ambassador member for 4 years (and current Titanium and lifetime Platinum). Because of Marriott's guest unfriendly policies, my total spend on Marriott this year is down to less than $500. Here's how I've switched:

1) Stay at Hyatt, wherever possible. I have shifted about $10k of spend to them and will qualify for Globalist this year. They are soooo nice! If you don't have status, remember you can get status-like benefits through Hyatt Prive-- or see #3 below.

2) IHG in cheaper locations (e.g. smaller towns). The free breakfast at HI Express is often better than Courtyard or Sheraton in these locations. The whole property often is as well. The Chase IHG card gets you easy status.

3) Amex FHR for overseas and luxury locations. The benefits (free breakfast, dining credit, etc) are often better than what Titanium gets you at Marriott. Plus you get to stay at some really top-notch places -- e.g. Four Season and Mandarin, that make Marriott properties look like puke.

4) Hilton where none of the above is available. Hilton's top Diamond status is easily available with a CC, which pays for itself easily.

This is a nice write-up and largely mirrors where I have landed. Thanks.

Hyatt right now is the same size as Starwood pre-merger. Quite the easy choice if you don’t need 5,000 roadside limited service hotels and general crappy service at your fingertips.

This is not aimed at the OP in particular but I've come to the conclusion that some of those complaining are or where "over engaged" in the program and perhaps even "over entitled". (Partly Marriott's fault, this is what happens when you call your top tier Ambassador) The hard truth is you're just not as important to them as you think you are. I've stayed in many Hilton and IHG properties, the grass is definitely not greener. Hyatt just doesn't have the footprint, this has been discussed many times.

I actually don't think I'm important to Marriott at all. But the recent self-sabotaging statement by the CEO merely confirmed what many of us already knew: that Marriott isn't that important to us either.

Once you free yourself from the "gotta get status" thinking, you realize there are lots of options that are far better than Marriott in almost every location, even if you're a Marriott Titanium. Would you rather stay at the London W (Tripadvisor #471) for $350 a night or Hyatt's Great Scotland Yard (#5) for $295 (+ free breakfast and 4pm checkout if you book through Prive)? For a bit more you could stay at the Langham (#37) or the Savoy (#27) and get breakfast and a $100 credit through FHR. These all blow past any of Marriott's properties.

OP, thanks for a great exit strategy. I think transitioning is a 2-year process. Unfortunately I went Hilton->SPG. I need to time my escape to align with anticipated travel increases.

I think the bigger issue is that the program isn't really delivering on promised benefits. For example, I am regularly denied a 4PM check-out unless I go through the whole "I'm guaranteed this benefit" song and dance. To me, "over entitled" mean asking for more than you're supposed to get, i.e. free breakfast for Golds or RC suite upgrades for Plats. If Marriott thinks its footprint is all people care about, why bother guaranteeing benefits they aren't going to deliver?

I'm a Lifetime Titanium and Ambassador member and although I have had mostly solid experiences I was shocked and dismayed by the Marriott CEO's comments. He all but admitted he only cares about the owners not us. When the SPG merger was announced Arne and company all claimed how great it would be for the guests/customers. I knew though it would eventually get worse and worse for us. These mergers do only 1 thing well - make a lot more money for the executives and ownership and screws the little guy. Look at airline mergers as a prime example.

Bottom line for me I will always be a Lifetime Titanium because I earned the status but those comments by the CEO really really offended me. And because of that I see my Ambassador status purposely coming to an end soon. Marriott doesn't deserve my $60,000 a year I spend with them if the CEO only wants to look out for the billionaire management companies. I've just about had enough.

I’m not entirely escaping. But, I am shifting to Hyatt whenever and wherever possible. The Hyatt people are competent. Simply put, my Marriott experiences have been dismal lately, across the board. If it were simply devalued elite benefits, I could probably live with that. (I’m a DL flyer afterall). But where Marriott has failed, is unlike Delta, they have coupled massive elite devaluations with devaluations to the hard and soft product as well.

Same size if you include SLH (design hotels had 287 in SPG days). But SLH bookings through WOH are pretty bad IMO, especially if your goal is to drop Marriott for elite benefits.

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Hyatt is fine for what it is but, at least for my travel, doesn’t hold a candle to SPG’s portfolio. It’s hard for me to tell which SPG branded hotels are legacy and which are new but almost 75% of my Bonvoy stays are with SPG brands. Best example: south Florida. What Hyatt options are people choosing there? I had so much fun hotel hopping from Bal Harbour to Brickell to South beach and finally to Coconut Grove to chill. For me, this loyalty status convo is largely about the US. Unfortunately, Hyatt is just not competitive in major US markets (NYC, Miami/South Florida, Boston, San Francisco, etc). With my travel patterns, Marriott is unavoidable. I hate the program and love the hotels. At least I’m earning some extra points back on each stay. In this way, I guess I’m a captive elite (like an Atlanta Delta “loyalist”).

In Asia and the Middle East, the difference IME is negligible. May friend checked into the Abu Dhabi EDITION for me without any status and got a suite upgrade during EID.

Not sure about Europe. Hopefully other ppl can fill in there.

I just don’t understand why anyone would choose Hilton over Marriott. At least IHG has Six Senses and the super small Regent portfolio. Hilton has like 20 hotels in its entire portfolio that I find moderately compelling. A chain with 6000+ properties has… 2 Forbes 5 star hotels (to be fair it should be 4 IMO). Nah, I’ll pass.

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Also, can I be honest? I think people REALLY overhype the difference in elite treatment between Hyatt Globalist and Marriott Titanium/Ambassador. I chased Globalist based off of what people said here and on Reddit and came in with huge expectations. At the end of the day, the most compelling benefits in the Hyatt program for me are the waived resort fees, the suite upgrade instruments, and the easy points for business owners. I don’t find Hyatt elite treatment to be particularly special compared to Marriott, Hilton, or even IHG. Maybe it’s better on average but it’s not the huge step up I thought it would be (my fault for the unreasonable expectations). It is what it is. That’s just IME.

When I was a Globalist, I got great treatment at several hotels. One time, someone used my suite upgrade certificates when I had no reservations. I had a Hyatt rep assigned to me for part of the time when I was Globalist, and he deposited 25000 points in my account for that issue. The best Hyatt properties are just as good as any Marriott property, and I have had top 50 by nights spent status at some Marriott hotels before when I was traveling more. When you hit top 50, they give you more welcome gifts and generally make sure you get what you want within reason. I have gone back to places where I used to be top 50, and I always got an extra upgrade if I hadn't been there a while for a short stay. The Marriott properties with the old school customer service that Bill Marriott had enforced as a brand standard are still places I will stay at, but it is clear that Marriott does not exist anymore as a whole. Time will tell if customers leave, but I know Home Depot took a hit when Bob Nardelli came in, fired all the experienced workers and hired cheaper part time workers. A lot of customers said that was not the Home Depot they loved, and they left. If Marriott flagged hotels start to lose their REVPAR advantage over their competitors, that will be the strongest sign that there are more customers with good memories than Marriott's management expected.

I actually went the same HHonors->SPG route. I got Diamond status through stays and only realized that when greeted by the hotel front desk upon check-in. Got a status match to SPG PLT, liked it, and switched a large portion of my stays to SPG. Would easily make 100 nigh Ambassador but valued kids-stay-free benefits abroad offered by Hhonors abroad (Hhonors would uniformly consider kids till 18 years old while SPG sets the limit to 12). So I was re-qualifying to Diamond every year for the last 12+ (?) years without CC. I was very close to trying Hyatt ca. 15 years ago but switched some reservations at the last moment. I am now 4 nights away from Globalist. Lifetime Titanium and HHonors Aspire let me easily focus on Hyatt.

Do hotels status match like airlines? I had already started to move some of my stays to Hyatt, but this interview makes me want to accelerate the shift.

This might help.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyat...-everyone.html

Unfortunately for those of us in Europe the properties are pretty heavily skewed to the US in a way Starwood wasn’t so it’s not so easy, otherwise I would be jumping ship to Hyatt too right now like many here. The total lack of promotions from Marriott in Europe is pretty damning too, for the first time in years I’ve spent more at Hilton/IHG than Marriott so far this year. Question is whether I try for Royal Ambassador now and just forget about Marriott Ambassador.