I can promise you that what is said here on flyer talk is read at many levels throughout Marriott. It has and continues to be a valuable resource for customer feedback. Over the years I have seen several positive changes occur because of comments made by the flyertalk community.

With that said I do not want to give anybody the impression that we are currently considering repealing these program changes. In looking at last years hotel redemption activity, 57% of hotel redemptions were for a single night, 22% were for two night stays, 10% were for 3 nights stays, adding up to a total 89% of all hotel redemptions occurring for stay that were 3 nights or shorter. Fewer than 3% of hotel redemptions were for seven night stays. In light of this information as well as other indicators we felt that our program needed to be friendlier to members who enjoyed redeeming hotel rewards for the spur of the moment weekend getaway or last minute emergency trips. These were the travelers who had the most trouble with black out dates and capacity controls. To this end the benefit of this program is that inventory will be wide open for reward redemption.

Your comments, positive or negative, on these threads are extremely valuable and ultimately will help create an even better rewards program. I can not promise you 5 night travel packages for non-MVCI owners, or more points for exchanging your timeshare week. I can promise you that these, as well as the many other suggestions voiced on this thread have been heard and are being taken seriously. I encourage all of you to continue expressing you concerns and ideas.

Ira

Ira-thank you for the feed back
It would seem that some tweaks are being made-and I know you have been integeral to getting our comments to the MR folks-thanks for that

I would be interested in seeing statistics on the Elite(or not)levels of those redeeming the short award nights that Marriott is using to determine this new structure.

My guess is that those of us who are higher revenue customers are not redeeming these shorter stays as a rule.
I think that Marriott as managed to alienate their best customers in favor of the casual traveler.Perhaps that is their ultimate goal,but I can't see that it will be in Marriott's favor in the long run.

My personal plan from here forward is to finish my Megabonus then use Marriott only when I cannot do better elsewhere and I will direct my employees to do the same.

Cost nothing more to Marriott? Maybe I misread your post.



*I don't disagree that it would be nice but to say giving an extra night in cat 5-8 on 4 night awards would cost marriott nothing isn't accurate.

This is a new one on me. I don't remember reading anything that the 5th night free award was limited to certain categories. Also, the graphic Marriott shows listing their new free night awards shows all 8 levels receiving the 5th night free.

Where is mentioned that only category 1-4 hotels will get the 5th night free?

Ok-that has been changed since the new program was introduced.
The fifth night free WAS only available for catagory-1-4.And I remember that I was really bothered by that.
This is a good change and shows that MR is listening and tweaking the program where it can(up to a point)

I thank those flyertalkers who have spoken up so loudly that Marriott has listened-again up to a point.

Hmm. I spent two years ago 2 single nights on points, but next year I already booked 14 nights for a nice holiday... luckily in time.

So one could say that 66% of my point stays are 1 night stays...but you could also argue that only 6% of my points is spent on single nights...

"Justifing the changes"
 

Having just read the Marriott Concierge posting today about the usage % for stays using points. While this may cover more users --it does NOT seem like a good decision. What Marriott has done in readjusting the points along with NO ADJUSTMENT TO MCVI TIME-SHARES is re-balance the New Schedule on the backs of it's BEST CUSTOMERS. That is why all the complaints about the 7-Night Travel Package and Time-share points. It is clearly a SOAK the best customers! If as the Marriott Concierge says they are reading these posts --it is a real surprise that with the LEVEL of OUTRAGE that something is not done.

The people moving to other programs, canceling Marriott credit Cards, telling all their friends, seeking out potential Time-share purchasers to NOT BUY is not something that was contemplated when these changes were thought-up. Fine--now that the facts are out--MAKE THE CHANGES !

Marriott Concierge-

Regarding point redemptions in the past, I wonder if the Marriott VISA free night stays are a factor in the percentage of redemptions (57%) for a single night?

I think many MR members use that free VISA stay certificate but save points for those big awards (travel packages, Hoppers & 7 night stays) and use those only when they have enough points.

Also, I imagine many MR members never accumulate many points, but rack up enough here & there for a free night stay every so often. So they book single night redemptions because they know they realistically won't get to 150,000+ in a long, long time. However, these aren't Marriott's best customers.

Those MR members who have made a decision to stay with Marriott use a Marriott VISA, purchase timeshares & always try to book a Marriott when looking for accommodations. These MR members would be inclined to save the points for the big awards because they know they will have enough points on a regular basis. These are the customers Marriott wants to keep!

Exactly!But apparently Marriott does not see it that way

Thanks Ira - this is good to hear even if we end up with no positive tweaking of the program from all of this feedback.

That being said, the stats you cite would seem to support an argument for going the 5-night travel package route. Don't know what the process is at Marriott for getting customer input before making major changes, but we do feel a significant segment of the customer base was overlooked with respect to the package changes. And with 5-night packages you might even attract / retain enough business (at least from higher volume customers) from such a change that it truly would be a win / win change. Hopefully the number crunchers at Marriott will so conclude. ;)

I think Marriott needs a new focus group. The one they used threw this program under the bus.

Of course Marriott loves these "spur" of the moment redemptions where people redeem 30K points for a FI.

:eek:
Not I, no thank you. What a waste of points.

I don't agree with that. If MR says 89% of the redemptions are for 3 nights or less, giving the 5th night free on 4 nights redeemed is ridiculous. I don't understand the logic of that "enhancement" when MR is saying all the changes are based on prior redemption history for the betterment of the overall program. I call: Shenanigans!

I agree with that completely. If I had to bet money, the focus group probably did mention that they would like the idea of no blackout dates, a higher PLAT bonus, and a free night when redeeming points, HOWEVER, I seriously doubt the focus group was presented or asked about the point changes. And if they did, any GLD or PLT with a high balance would not have signed off on the increases for 6+ night redemptions.

But you know what? A focus group 10 years ago could have come up with the same "enhancements." So why now? Well, MR is basically using a focus group and the claim of "enhancements" to hide the devaluation changes they want implemented.

Its not as if in 2008, everyone just thought: "hey, PLTs should really get a higher % and no blackdates!!!!" It's more Marriott corporate thinking: "how can we better manage the MR points liability on our books while making the average Marriott Rewards member think they are getting benefits equal to the point changes."