cruisin82

Me Too

bk3day

Given Ed French's recent comments, it seems that the dream of an EEO/BOGO revival is dead.

http://fieldofburch.com/2012/09/27/t...ith-ed-french/

8. What is the deal with BOGOs. Why are they gone and will they return?
Ed: Buy-One, Get-Ones, or BOGOs, were an offer where one could buy a meal or even a night, and get another for free. We never promoted or promised them to customers, but we did include them in our elite member kits for a number of years in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Frankly, most elites did not even know about them.

In the end, it’s awfully hard to justify a 50% discount, especially when most elites did not know about them. And, of those that did, only a very small number redeemed them. At the same time, it became really hard to convince our hotels to do them, and more and more they refused to accept them, so we stopped.

Unfortunately, we handled the communication poorly and our members were upset that we abruptly stopped. We continue to evaluate what we might offer along these lines, but we don’t have anything at this point that we are ready to talk about.

CJKatl

It also appears that BOGO was "stopped" and not temporarily pulled while being reviewed. These comments indicate we - and the Marriott people who posted here - were being dragged along and lied to when we were told that something else was going to replace BOGO. Stopped means discontinued, not temporarily pulled.

Once again, I can understand why business decisions were made. What I cannot understand is Marriott's willingness to mislead customers. Once you lie to your customers, it becomes hard to rebuild a reputation for honesty and integrity. Do they really expect us to believe the next thing they tell us?

mooper

I don't recall them promising that anything would be replacing it by a certain deadline. Didn't they just say they were reviewing options and that eventually something would take its place? For all we know, they might announce a more comprehensive free breakfast or suite upgrade policy by the end of the year.

CJKatl

You are still under the impression that the lie is true. You state "they are reviewing the options and eventually something will take its place" when, in fact, the decision was made to STOP the BOGO offer: period; end of story.

They are not announcing any more comprehensive replacement, nor any enhanced upgrade policy, as many had hoped and had been made to believe. Ed French makes it clear that a decision was made to STOP offering BOGOs. All other statements made were apparently meant to string us along, rather than telling us the truth, which Ed French states in the interview.

MaineFlyer16

While there was never a specific deadline, the woman (Michele I think?) on insiders repeatedly told us to expect something soon, and made it seem that BOGO's replacement was imminent. Sounds like corporate changed its mind, and now we get nothing but more false hope.

plagwate

Michele not only told us to expect something soon, but that it would be well worth the wait. This was a blatant lie by Marriott (and they used Michele as their mouthpiece, unwittingly or not). I don't like doing business with liars so it has prompted me to take a hard look at Hilton Honors as a replacement program.

mooper

I read the interview, I followed this thread and Insiders. While I agree they communicated poorly and are taking a long time, I haven't seen anything that qualifies as a lie, nor any statement that they won't be announcing an enhancement. Can you please cite where the confirmed that no enhancement/replacement is forthcoming?

I agree that it sounded like it was coming sooner than later, but can you cite where they actually used that terminology in a way that would make a lack of improvement within a year qualify as a "lie"?

I liked BOGOs too, but I can't fathom how they'd be profitable for Marriott and I'm not surprised no other major peers offer them. It was just one benefit of many, and while I agree that they should have communicated better and are overdue for improving their elite perks to catch up to the rest of the crowd, the removal of the BOGO per se is not a huge deal to me. If it is to you, you would logically seek another program that offers one and move your business there immediately.

plagwate

I would counter that the BOGO discussion over on the Marriott Rewards Insiders discussion board has plenty of deceptive promises. Read through the locked BOGO Offers thread. Even the new thread that calls out Ed French on this was promptly locked and dismissed as repetitive. Marriott has been completely shady with regards to the BOGOs.

CJKatl

He indicated the program was stopped. Not suspended. Not replaced. Stopped. That seems very, very clear.

Additionally, it's been more than a year. Anything announced would be considered a new program. They've exceeded what anyone would count as a timespan indicating replacement, even the timeframes Marriott indicated when they were still fibbing about the program being changed.

You can, if you would like, continue to believe that "stopped" means still trying to think of an awesome update, but I believe the program being stopped indicates the program was stopped. Not suspended. Not to-be-updated. Stopped.

I just can't live in a world of sparkly unicorns, Loch Ness monsters, travel back in time, cutting edge Blackberries or Marriott still working on a program Ed French says has been stopped. I live in the real world.

mooper

I saw continual wording that suggested a replacement perk might be coming sooner than it has, but no "deceptive promises". Could you cite a couple specifically?

The BOGO offer, yes. EEOs have continued all along and the cessation of the BOGO offer doesn't mean that nothing can be added.


I agree that a year+ is a long time and that they would have been wise to have something lined up soon after, if not before, yanking the BOGO EEO, but your determination that a year+ qualifies as a "new program" is rather subjective. They pulled a single perk - one EEO of many (albeit the most valuable and well-liked by the hardcore members). If they add vastly improved and broader breakfast and upgrade policies late this year, I'm not so sure you could argue that they broke promises or lied. They just did what they said very slowly and with poor communication.

CJKatl

Silly me - believing Ed French when he says the program has been stopped when there might be something that they haven't announced over the past year that isn't even on the table and has nothing to do with BOGOs that might possibly someday be announced. How many times do we have to hear that Marriott has no interest in replacing BOGO before we accept that Marriott has no interest in replacing BOGO? Personally, I've reached that limit, but if you want to continue to believe, despite all evidence, that Marriott, in stating BOGOs were stopped, really meant that there is super secret replacement coming any day, enjoy the wait. Just don't expect me to drink that Kool-Aid anymore. After a year of drinking it, I recognize it's bitter.

On another note, might you be interesting in purchasing a bridge I'm interested in selling? For you, it will be cheap. It connects Manhattan with one of the other boroughs...

bigguyinpasadena

Lying to customers-"It's the Marriott way"
Ed French should be fired.

mooper

Huh? They've stopped the BOGO EEO; all the rest of the EEOs and other perks remain intact. They've said they'd be adding or improving some perks to make up for what was taken away, but gave no deadline. I still don't understand how, for example, broader breakfast or suite upgrade policies would equate to "lies" just because they took over a year to implement. Poor communication and implications that improvements would be coming sooner than later? Sure. Lies? Not at all. I asked if you could cite some of the false promises, but you haven't. Would you kindly share a couple of specific (quoted) examples?

CJKatl

First - I don't find a promise that something might be done sometime to be sufficient. After a year, it is obvious there is no replacement. A year. Not to mention that Ed French has clearly said the program has been stopped. Not replaced. Not temporary halted. Not even to be tweaked into something unrecognizable. Stopped. What more do you need?

Second - See post 392, where Michelle indicates there is a potential solution on the horizon. We now know, from Ed French, that the program was stopped. There was no potential solution. We were being strung along.

See post 868, where, again, we were being led to believe something else was being considered. Again, we now know the program was stopped last year, not suspended. The tall tales of work being done behind the scene are now obvious. If a program has been stopped - not suspended - it's been stopped.

There are many, many other examples. You may choose to believe that each of these statements isn't a lie because something may still happen, but it's been a year and there is nothing. A year. That's long enough.