Rumor: The End of LNF?
 

A friend of mine who works at Marriott told me that they are considering eliminating the program. When I asked why, he said that no one uses it. My friend had never heard of it until about a year ago when I told him about and he has been at Marriott for 5 years. He said no one at Marriott even knows anything about it.

Well we know it's not true that no one uses it. It's probably the reverse. Used too often.

Marriott used the 'no one uses it' excuse to get rid of BOGOs, when they said previously that GMs didn't like the BOGOs because they were used too much ;)

Methinks the latter was more accurate & if LNF goes away, it will go away for the same reason.

Cheers.

And as LNF goes away, so do many of my personal stays.

since Marriott tends to be a follower, vrs a leader, until the other major brands discontinue their BRG programs I wouldn't put much value in this rumor, but then again stranger things can happen...........

agreed.

Not sure LNF costs Marriott that much and it is good PR for them. Folks are essentially getting a better price and Marriott get's the 3rd party price less the commission the 3rd part vendor would keep.
I can't believe they would eliminate the program when others keep it.

the LNFs are basically a guarantee (of best price) which is backed by a financial incentive...........if Marriott CXLs this guarantee, whats next, all their other guarantees (with damage provisions)????

I think your friend is misinformed.....this is so central to the way MI (and other hotel companies) do business today I can't see it going anywhere....

I don't know if you want to explain what aspect of Marriott's operation your friend works in, but it seems to me that LNF is only related to the online booking part of the operation, and there's no need for most people in other aspects of Marriott's operation to know "anything" about it. No one handling housekeeping, restaurants, lounges, etc, needs to a bit about it, and all the front desk people need to know about it is that it's a valid rate, period.

Do you frequent any airline forums enough to know that the least relaible sources of information about changes coming to the airline program are pilots and flight attendants? So why would "random" people working for a hotel program be any more reliable?

Then there's word "consider". UA has "considered" getting rid of Economy Plus an innumerable number of times. (It reportedly got very close once or twice.) Yet here it still is, and now copied by its two biggest competitors.

Many companies constantly re-evaluate all sorts of things on a recurring basis. This periodic routine re-evaluation can be misinterpreted by people not familar with it.

Claiming nobody uses it is flat out wrong. A quick review of the boards demonstrates just how wrong that statement is.

there are many uses for MI in keeping LNF around....the guest facing one is huge but there are other reasons too (it can and does get to be used as a big stick with hotels at times that aren't following the SOP's)

If nobody used it, keeping it would make sense. The goal is to get people to book on the Marriott site, where Marriott doesn't have to pay commission to a third party for the booking. By guaranteeing the lowest price on their site, they convince people to visit their site to book nights. If nobody used the benefit, Marriott would essentially have a free incentive. It would make no sense to get rid of the benefit in that case.

Their occupancy rates are up this year and they may see LNF claims as a drag on room rates?

That may be, and that would be a reason to discontinue the program. The OP indicated this exchange with his source, "When I asked why, he said that no one uses it." That makes no sense, which makes me question the trustworthiness of the statement. How can we rely on his source for the program being discontinued when the source offers a reason that makes no sense? If nobody used the program, Marriott would be able to brag that its site offers the best rates, thus drive business to its site, at no cost.

What if a friend told you the Moon was about to start to smell because the cheese it's made of is going bad? We know the Moon isn't made of cheese, but should we still believe the Moon is going to smell soon?

please socrates tell the story. I am sooo bored this week. I want to hear what happens to hotels who are naughty. I asked you last time to tell a story and never heard back. Plzz tell the story

Only reason I could see it going away is if its one of those blind MBA decisions where they just look at one aspect of the dollars and don't take into account the additional goodwill and extra revenue driven towards Marriott because of the LNF stays.

For example, I've booked stays at Marriott where I would've gone to another chain because the LNF made the hotel in line with the competition rates. I've also had others stay at a Marriott using LNF and because of their experience, now frequent the hotel chain. I wouldn't have directed them to Marriott if the program wasn't in place to get a better deal.