philipthechen

I am confused about the partnership between Marriot and The Ritz Carlton. When I asked a "Internet Correspondence Specialist Marriott Rewards Guest Services" thru email whether my marriot elite status will be honor when staying at a Ritz Carlton property, she mentioned that "the Ritz Carlton will not honor any elite Marriott benefits". However, below is a statement I found on Marriot Rewards' website and I have found similar statement on The Ritz-Carlton website. Can anyone help verify which is true? Thank you

Join The Ritz-Carlton Rewards
Your Marriott Rewards membership is always honored at The Ritz-Carlton hotels worldwide. Should you wish to transfer your account to The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, please provide the information requested below.

While you may only belong to one program, you can enjoy your member benefits and earn points or miles at both
The Ritz-Carlton and participating Marriott brand hotels worldwide.

Marriott Rewards and The Ritz‐Carlton
How does The Ritz-Carlton participate?
Marriott Rewards members can earn points, elite night credits, and receive elite benefits at The Ritz-Carlton. In addition, members can earn points and elite night credits for meetings booked at The Ritz-Carlton through Rewarding Events. Members can also redeem points for free nights at The Ritz-Carlton.

Big4Flyer

You're both right, you'll earn points based on your stay and can redeem at both Marriott and RC properties, however don't count on getting upgrades, lounge access, etc. at a Ritz because of your elite status. To be fair, this doesn't matter whether you're a Marriott gold or RC gold, they simply offer fewer benefits for elites. The one exception I've found is late checkout, which you should be able to get (unless its a resort property, which many RCs are).

MSPeconomist

OP doesn't say which elite level, but some of them get free internet at RCs.

philipthechen

Marriot Gold Level

Horace

Were you asking about a particular Ritz property?

Marriott International owns The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. But there are properties that had the right to the Ritz name before Marriott bought and expanded the brand. That's why the Hotel Ritz London and the Hotel Ritz Madrid don't participate in Rewards.

The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore doesn't participate either. Perhaps someone else knows the reason why.

The Ritz-Carlton Destination Clubs, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, and Ritz-Carlton Reserve properties do not participate either.

That leaves a bunch of Ritz-Carlton properties that do participate.

Even then, elite benefits vary by brand. For example, only five of Marriott's 19 Marriott-legacy brands provide the lounge/breakfast benefit. Ritz-Carlton is not one of them.

MSPeconomist

.....but most of the nineteen Marriott brands don't have lounges (as a brand standard).

SkiAdcock

Horace didn't say they did. Horace said 5 of the Marriott brands have a guaranteed breakfast benefit, re: if there is a lounge or not. JW Marriott, Renaissance, Autograph Collection, Marriott, Delta.

BTW - of those 5 Marriott brands, the majority do have executive lounges.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13849211-post1.html

SPG doesn't really have many brands that offer an exec lounge as a brand standard, and of the one(s) that do still less than Marriott properties w/ lounges.

Horace pretty much covered the RC situation.

Cheers.

HookEm

Aren't Sheraton hotels the only SPG hotels with lounges?

hhoope01

I think Sheraton is the only brand with a lounge as its brand standard (SkiAdcock's point), but their other FS hotels brands can still have lounges (and outside NA lounges seem to be more common.)

SkiAdcock

And in Asia Courtyards often have lounges & if not, still offer free brekkie.

AFAIK Sheratons are the only brand that have lounges as a standard. Some other SPG brands might have a few but it's much more sporadic than it is w/ Marriott, and as hoope01 says, more int'l than domestic.

On a dif note (and I really don't want to take this too far away from the Ritz question), but I've started updating domestic properties in the exec lounge sticky by state again. It takes a while. Some that used to have lounges closed have them open, some are opening up for brekkie only on the weekends, and a lot that used to offer continental only have switched to full buffet breakfast in the restaurant, which is above the standard cont'l brekkie policy. Was pleasantly surprised to see the switch. It's going to take me about a month to update all of the US, as I call each property individually.

Cheers.

pinniped

I generally think of Ritz as merely a place to earn points. I stay there on business from time to time, but it's not really my style for redemption. I've never received, nor expected, any recognition of Marriott Gold or Platinum status.

I've heard some of the Ritz lounges are fantastic, and I totally get why they aren't given away freely to elites. If I knew I planned to book these hotels for leisure stays, it might be tempting to flip over to the Ritz credit card that includes a couple confirmed upgrades per year.

NWAsilvELITE

I'm an SPG LT Gold and have been PLT for the last 8 yrs or so. There are many SPG properties that have lounges but it is hit and miss. Some Sheratons don't, but many Westins, LeMerids, and Lux Col. (informally) do.

uncommonsensical

i'll respectfully disagree. most business travelers (obviously) use their points for their holiday with loved ones. if you earn the points and status, i feel the lounge access and recognition were earned JUST FOR THOSE STAYS. they're much more meaningful when on holiday. except for the contractually excluded properties, i see the ROI to MAR/RC being quite good to reward Platinums in this way.

if they need another tier to give such benefits, then they should have it and generously reward those who achieve it with perks such as this. everyone wins... set it @ 100 nights and people who now stop @ 75 to also qualify elsewhere will generate considerable extra revenue. many of us work to hit 50 nights @ SPG even though we hit 25 stays @ 38 nights or whatever to get the 50 night perks. 75 @ SPG is definitely worth shifting stays to achieve for many; more so than 100 imo. my point, of course, added incentive incentivizes more nights/loyalty= greater profitability.

if not, it's better to book your holidays via FHR and stay at 4 Seasons or the like. loyalty isn't for the 'thank you for being a valued platinum member' nod at check-in. it's got to be tangible.

hhoope01

I wouldn't get my hopes up too much on any elites automatically getting access to RC clubs. My understanding is that RC management really didn't want any involvement with Marriott Rewards. Their view was that it actually hurts their brand marketing, not help it (with their primary target market.) I think Marriott management sees RCs as a carrot to dangle to the wider Marriott markets. Thus they came to the current compromise where RCs are a limited partner with Marriott Rewards (MR). And they further limited the detrimental affects of being within MR by creating a different "marketing" front-end to the program, RC Rewards.

Maybe with the Starwood merger which includes St. Regis which probably services a similar market to RCs, things might change some as St. Regis is fully integrated into the SPG program. And yet, as far as I can tell without any detrimental affects. But I'm not on the inside to really know. It is also just as possible that St. Regis could be pulled into the "RC" program and move to a more limited involvement with the wider MR frequent stay program.

pinniped

I agree with your general premise that lounge access and elite recognition are MOST important on holidays. That's why I think Marriott's policy of no elite recognition at their "regular" resorts (not Ritz) is stupid. That policy has also been the single biggest driver of dozens of my business trips to Hilton over the years: solely to get the points/status needed to do Hilton resort stays once a year or so, even though I'd prefer to stay at Marriott in general.

My only point was about the Ritz lounges. Very different animal from a simple comped breakfast or a standard Marriott lounge. If they gave that away to every Marriott Gold in the hotel, they'd quickly have to devalue what's offered in the lounges, and we'd end up with...well...Ritz lounges that look like Marriott lounges.

I mean, I'd love it to be otherwise...but I don't really expect it. Plus there's still the credit card certificates if you really do like to take vacations at Ritz and want the lounge upgrade.