Marriott Few Topic Forum's
 

I am amazed that Marriott is about twice the size of Hilton in member's and three times the size of Starwood, but they have a third of the postings on flyertalk as Hilton has 14,000 and Starwood has 11,000 but Marriott is 4,600. How come Marriott guest are not big posters here on FlyerTalk?

Because, not withstanding a few people who might disagree with me, Marriott gives us less to complain about.

[Ducking]

LOL http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Spose I'm a wuss, but I agree with sbrower. Most of us Marriott faithful have less to complain about. When I complain, it's to the hotel itself. They are VERY GOOD about responding, usually.

Marriott is not as great as, say, eight or ten years ago. But they are still very good.

Maybe there is some other independent variable that makes Marriott customers less likely to frequent, or comment on, FlyerTalk, although I can't think of it.

Every few years I retry Arby's, just to remind myself how awful they are.

Every few years I retry Sheraton, just to remind myself how awful they are.

I find it painful these days to try Westin, remembering how good they once were.

Hilton is better than it used to be, but still, on average, not as good as Marriott.

Just my n-s-h-o.

Lex Passenger, in response to you occasionaly trying Hilton, here our some ideas.I still keep my Platinum status at Marriott, but also have a diamond at Hilton now. The reason is point accumulation! Marriott makes it tougher and tougher to use awards by raising the amount and really holding you to the redemtion levels. Hilton has already had two different 50,000 award bonus for staying only four nights to get this promo. I have also found the Hampton Inn's tend to be much better than the Fairfield Inns. In addition Hilton is always having these huge sales at their hotels to use your points. My point, is I have stayed 40 nights at Hilton this year and picked up over 300,000 bonus points, my 52 Marriott nights is half that amount. Just a thought here if point accumulation is important.

I just thought that we Marriott folks were ho-hum. ;-) We lack that "gosh-wow" spirit that causes Hilton fans to post hundreds of posts about 1000 point profile bonuses. Not that I don't update my Hilton profile, but doing so doesn't cause me to swoon with joy.

And of course, the In Crowd on FT are primarily Starwood people.

Guess it takes all kinds.

milesrus: we have been in HHonors since 1987. It was about 2 years ago that we started noticing a substantial improvement in the HHonors program, both in terms of our treatment at hotels, and in their tracking of our stays (which used to be absolutely abominable!).

For '02, we expect to renew as Gold at Hilton, in addition to Marriott Platinum, but since we've cut back from being on the road over 150 nights a year to under 100, top tier in one program is about all we can manage.

Points are nice - and we've accumulated a lot of Hilton points in the last year, thanks to bonuses. Am not knocking it. OTOH, we've actually used Marriott points this year.

Marriott's new Awards redemption stuff last summer did make some awards a lot more expensive, but some useful (to us anyway) awards are either slightly cheaper or only slightly more expensive. But I don't see how Hilton can keep giving away points at the rate they have been without 1) some serious award inflation, or 2) a lot of frustrated people who can't find dates available at the hotels they want. So we are happy enough to get Hilton points, but our expectations of what we can do with them are fairly low.

Right now we are looking at point accumulation as important - but at Marriott, since we do want to lock in Plat. Emeritus as soon as we reasonably can. With the double point bonus, our upcoming 4 night stay in Athens will get us 10% of the points we need.

We've also accumulated 2 free weekend nights based on the stay-3-get-1-free promo. Will have our 3rd one momentarily. With the freebie sent in the Note from Bill, and the 2 EEO nights, that's 6 free nights we've racked up in the last 90 days or so from Marriott for no points spent at all. How much would those nights have cost us in Hilton points?

So yes, it's possible to get a lot of Hilton points these days, and that OK. But it isn't affecting our travel plans overmuch.

I do tend to agree that I like Hampton Inns better than Fairfields on the whole. But when we are in Boondocks, Midamerica, and the Fairfield is $20+ a night cheaper than the Hampton down the street, we're likely to stay at the Fairfield. I am also annoyed with Hampton that they will charge extra for a spouse even if you have HHonors status, although Hilton doesn't - and Fairfield doesn't either.



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The Delta Flyers' Guide

GG, excellent response with many valid points. Don't know how Hilton plans on covering all the points they give out, but that is why airlines also eliminated expiration dates because people were using them because they had to. Hilton has been a home run because of the addition of doubletree, Embassy and now Hampton's . just great. With kids I guess I'll just start getting two rooms. thanks for taking the time to write the good response. Also AMEX Hilton is better than the Marriott VISA> Diamond members have no blackout dates either.

GG --

Why are you not HHonors Gold thru 2003 via the EWRDC promo?

Doc2B - It was my understanding that Hilton would comp new Golds who signed up this year for status through '02 (or whenever the '02 year expires, actually sometime in '03) but that if you were already Gold, you just got the bonuses for stays.

Is it not the case?

No, that is not correct, although certain HH guest relations personnel may have told you that. My wife and I both have a Gold thru 4/2003 as a result of signing up for the promo. Moreover, if that were truly the way that the promo would work, it would discriminate against current Golds and that is probably the surest way to alienate your current customers.

Contact HHonors and advise that you have still not received your HHonors card with the amended expiration date. Ask them to expedite it, like I did, as I would be staying at a Hilton soon, and you want the front desk personnel know how good a patron you are that your status expires as of 4/2003.

Good Luck! Let me know how things shake out!

A good point, but your reasoning is only valid if there is a correlation between posts and complaints, i.e. most posts are because of problems. I don't think this is the case.

A few examples:

1. doc: He posts the most and much of his content is informational/news-related.
2. UA BAHT pass: More than 600 posts about an opportunity, not a problem.
3. Promos: The more promos a brand has, the more topics and posts that will occur. Just from NW: Fly Free Faster and 200% partner mileage match.

While I agree that some posters get overly excited over small items (e.g., HHonors update bonus), I don't think that lots of posts within a forum indicate negativity toward that brand.

It's been mentioned in this thread that Starwood posters are very active. How much of the forum is negative? Sure there are some complaints, but many posters are simply telling others where to stay in a certain city - precisely the purpose of the forum.

Family flyer: you're quite right (although some airline boards seem more critical than others -- and I do remember that critical also means evaluative, not just negatively so.)

We're left with the possibility that something about Marriott frequenters makes them less likely to (a) find & enjoy FT or (b) use it as much once found.

I'd guess (b). I can't find a thread here on the M-series discounts from the newsletter, for example, or the $109 rate later this winter at San Diego Marina (noteworthy, I suppose, but it never occurred to me to tell other folks). Also, there is no official Marriott presence here, as there has been on Hilton & Starwood, to answer questions and deal with problems; that might stimulate more postings there. FWIW.

I think you've nailed it. In some forums posters are inclined to pass on every bit of info to others, no matter how newsworthy.

As an aside, Marriott has not had some of the problems other brands have (e.g., $0 Hilton rates).

I think whether you like the policies or not, for the most part Marriott is pretty consistant in what you get at each of the particular brands. There are exceptions to every rule but over all that is my opinion. I think consistancy is what we all seek so we know what to expect at each brand of any chain. When you get consistency, you don't get as many posts, complaints or kudos... you get what you expect and that is what I like about Marriott.... they don't make life miserable or too complicated..

TrojanHorse hit the nail on the head. That is the main reason I have been loyal to Marriott for over 15 years. I always feel like I know what I am going to get. I can hardly think of times when I was disappointed. Add to that some wonderful free stays and Marriott remains my first choice. I just haven't found a lot to complain about, yet there is much I could praise.

Perhaps Starwood gets more posts because of the participation of a Starwood representative.

I do agree however that Marriott, if they are anything, they are consistant.

You always know you're in a Marriott wherever you are in the world.

Doc2B - Well, it turns out it's a moot point. Received an e-mail from Hilton yesterday saying that everybody's status has been extended through until 2003. But I do appreciate your info, and would have called as soon as we got home from this trip.

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The Delta Flyers' Guide

Also, i think Marriott runns less promotions than say Hilton or Starwood.



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Albert

I think whether you like the policies or not, for the most part Marriott is pretty consistant in what you get at each of the particular brands

I just moved from RI Charlotte Uptown to RI Charlotte PiperGlen (spelling)

I have to say that the breakfast at the Piperglen is strange and awful for they do not make hot breakfast anymore, when asked why, she just shook her head and said that don't know.

Also half of the ppl there barely speak English!


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Albert