In a no-notice update to its terms and conditions, Marriott has ended its “best room” guarantee for Bonvoy elites, effectively giving each hotel the option of whether to offer suite upgrades (or upgrades at all).
The Implications Of Marriott Removing “Best Room” Promise For Bonvoy Elites
View From The Wing first flagged that Marriott quietly updated the terms and conditions of its “best room” guarantee for Bonvoy Platinum and Titanium members.
Here’s the old language:
Platinum Elite Members and above receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, subject to availability upon arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors.
And here’s the updated language:
Platinum Elite Members and above receive a complimentary upgrade, subject to availability upon arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors.
Note the subtle difference. A complimentary upgrade is 1.) subject to availability and 2.) no longer includes a guarantee of the “best available” room, but may include suites. In other words: it’s now up to the discretion of the hotel.
The updated language effectively ends your ability to hold hotels accountable for still selling suites or deluxe room but telling you that there are no suites available. You can count on hotels using this wiggle room to deny upgrades, even when they are available for the length of the stay.
Sadly, Marriott has caved into the demands of what it views as its true customers: its hotels and franchises. This comes as these properties have pushed back against benefits ranging from upgrades to breakfast to late checkout for Bonvoy elites, even as they continue to bank on the Marriott brand for business in the first place.
But Marriott has now shown us that it believes it is big enough and powerful enough to get away this. Will you vote you wallets? If not, Marriott’s strategic move to court favor with its hotels seems like a winner for the company and for its stockholders.
View From The Wing asks, “It seems to me that when a loyalty program changes its terms they should (1) tell members, (2) including what specifically has changed, and (3) why they’ve done it. Is that so much to ask?” He’s right…and no, it is not too much to ask?
One Mile At A Time correctly states, “The truth is that even under the old policy, elite members didn’t necessarily receive upgrades subject to availability at check-in.” He expects that most elites will not notice a change in policy since Bonvoy already “suggests” which members to upgrade each day (a technological advantage that aims to make the upgrade process easier for hotels, but ultimately is just a suggestion).
CONCLUSION
Marriott has removed language guaranteeing Bonvoy top-tier elites the “best room” available, including suites. The language is now much vaguer.
Is this the effective end of Marriott’s suite upgrade benefit? Strictly speaking, yes. As for how this looks for you, only time will tell. I imagine the “good” holds (mostly the ex-Starwood properties) will continue to be kinder than other Marriott properties.
But this move makes hotel free agency all the more attractive, especially when can book nicer hotels via programs like American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and enjoy the benefits of Bonvoy status without needing status.
Do you think Marriott’s clandestine removal of a “Best Room” guarantee for Bonvoy elites will adversely impact you?
image: The St. Regis Bal Harbor Resort
“ The updated language effectively ends your ability to hold hotels accountable for still selling suites or deluxe room but telling you that there are no suites available. ”
THIS is why it was changed and I don’t blame them. A few a##holes making threats ruined it. And since most elites at these levels are business travelers it’s easy to see who to blame.
It was a simple business decision by Marriott to avoid issues. Once again a few ruined it for everyone.
No, that’s not true at all. It was changed because Marriott doesn’t even manage 30% of its owners. The 70% of properties that are franchised/licensed have significant influence. Marriott’s real customer are the people who own the 70% of hotels that Marriott doesn’t operate. Marriott only gets money from them through fees and small slice of revenue. Marriott doesn’t want to lose properties, which is also why it doesn’t define and enforce a breakfast benefit like Hyatt and IHG.
Yeah asking for something that you earned ruined it if travelers didn’t feel like they were getting screwed at check in they wouldn’t have asked. When the program allows the front desk to do whatever the flip they want this is how it devolves. It’s not like Hyatt where if there’s a standard Suite available you get it. They set the expectations clearly so when I check in and I don’t see any standard suites available I know I’m not getting upgraded unless I get lucky like I did at the Grand Hyatt Guangzhou last month. I booked 2 weeks in advance on points and no suites were available to book. Checked a few days before and the day of and nothing popped up. I was pleasantly surprised at check in that I got upgraded to a suite due to being a Globalists without even using a suite upgrade award. I’m pretty sure they held a suite for me in inventory and just didn’t let anyone book it. Not gonna happen at a Marriott or Hilton.
I think it all depends on supply and demand and luck. It happened to me twice with St Regis properties in Europe where I had booked two standard rooms using points and when checking in the person offered me to get a Royal Suite to fit my family of four vs staying at the two standard doubles. At the time I had simple Gold status from my Amex card so I was nothing special. So, why did they offer me the most expensive suite at the hotel for nothing extra? At that time, a standard room was going for EUR1,500 each while the Royal Suite was EUR15,000 per day. It was peak of summer but clearly the hotel had no expectations to sell their ultra expensive suite but they would easily sell two standard double rooms. Thus, it was a win win situation where I happily got the most fantastic room at the hotel and they easily sold the two standard rooms I was going to stay with my family.
HH is that you?
“But this move makes hotel free agency all the more attractive”. I have mentioned here before that I gave up on hotel loyalty a few years ago and could not be happier. I still have tons of points (both from hotels and credit cards) but it has made my life so much easier to not chase points any more. I used to go out of my way to find a Hyatt property to keep my Globalist status but quickly realized it was not worth it. I since have been using Tablet, Amex Fine Hotels, LHW, SLH and due to a special corporate discount in some properties, Four Seasons hotels. It is amazing to find some small properties that treat you like a king including some family owned properties where the owner is the one welcoming you. The service is at an absolute different level and you don’t need to watch out for hidden fees, extra BS, etc…. Interesting also that small properties really care about TripAdvisor reviews and they usually go the extra mile to make sure you leave a positive impression of your stay in the platform. The more I travel and chose these type of properties, the more I regret chasing hotel loyalty in the past.
Marriott never had the best hotels, but Marriott used to be consistently good. They didn’t promise much, but they delivered on what they promised. When there was a significant issue you knew that Mr. Marriott would make things right.
Then, everything started to change when Mr. Marriott retired and his replacement as CEO, Arne Sorenson, wasn’t a hotelier but a corporate lawyer. Marriott shifted big time under Sorenson. No longer was the customer the guest. The customer became the owners, who are primarily franchisees and licensees since Marriott now operates less than 30% of its properties across all brands.
Under Sorenson is when customer service stopped serving guests. They found every excuse in the book to defend bad properties. Customer service became about serving the owners. If you had an issue, it was just kicked back to the property and not resolved by corporate. Gone were the days when you could get a hold of Mr. Marriott’s office to make things right.
Then after Sorenson died, his replacement accelerated the shift. He only cares about adding “keys” (rooms). Who cares about guests or even current properties — lots of longtime owners are mad as new brands are acquired and old brands are neglected. I remember when someone pulled up his Instagram and Facebook before it was scrubbed. The Marriott CEO didn’t even stay at Marriott hotels. When he traveled with his family he went to Four Seasons and other non-Marriott hotels.
The problem with AmEx FHR is that many properties — the same properties who cheat Marriott elites on breakfast — are also cheating AmEx FHR customers. They’re only giving a credit, like $30, that doesn’t cover the actual cost of breakfast.
It amazes me that people still think loyalty programmes be it airline, car hire or hotel have any loyalty back.
You pay your money, they provide a service and occasionally you will be offered a crumb but you might not be and even if you are, it’s probably stale.
Loyalty programmes are for fools. Buy the best bargain that suits you from the cheapest provider and you won’t be disappointed.
I think loyalty programs started to die during the pandemic with a huge change in business travel. While I partially agree with your comment, I think you missed a point that most loyalty programs were tailored for business travelers. I also put airline loyalty in a different bucket than hotels and car and I will explain the reason. When you travel a lot for business, you usually have to follow a travel policy which “limits” you in term of what you can choose from. If you work for a US based company, usually you will end up with a choice between the big brands like Marriot, Hilton, Hyatt and or IHG. Thus, if those are your choices, you may actually pick a favorite one and get points from that brand so you can use while traveling with your family. Same goes for cars. Now, airlines in my view is a different type of loyalty. I am personally loyal to Delta but not because I think Delta is the best airline in the world but because it is the most convenient for me. I live in a Delta hub and thus having access to more non stop flights to my destinations comes at a much higher priority than the quality of the airline. I would rather fly Delta business class non stop to Europe or Asia vs connecting at JFK, ORD, LAX or SFO to get a nicer Asian airline. Why? Because I want to spend most of my time at home with my family. Thus, the loyalty here comes from the convenience vs service or even price. If my company allows me to pay for a Delta flight I will pick it all the time vs a cheaper or nicer airline.
Now, after the pandemic, I rarely travel for business anymore so when I travel the “loyalty” to Delta continues but for hotels and cars I pick my quality/convenience vs loyalty/points.
I just landed on a journey home from halfway across the world, almost 20 hours in flat seats with impressive catering, using miles which I had acquired for less than €500. In a way, it’s good that the appeal of miles to the masses has been dwindling over the past couple of years or so, as I don’t want to be competing with scores of families and once a year flyers for my intercontinental redemptions.
“Subject to availability” is open to interpretation, and it’s up to the hotels to decide what rooms they make available for upgrades. Arguing about “entitlements” with front desk staff is beyond tacky. If Marriott isn’t working for you anymore, take your business elsewhere. Redeem your points, cancel the co-branded credit card, vote with your feet – and don’t forget to tell head office exactly why.
I’ve had elite status at IGH and Hilton through around 2021 (and Choice but I won’t admit to that one). I found the whole thing to be a big joke and always cringed a little when the poor guy behind the desk had to pretend to be so happy for my status. I’m not loyal. I book a room I want at a hotel I want to stay at, move on, and enjoy my travels. The true loyalty customer is the extremely frequent business traveler. There may be a few on this comment section, but most died off with the “pandemic” [read government forced shutdown] and loyalty has morphed into a leisure-class status game.
Moves like this are exactly why I’ve been moving away from Marriott despite being a Lifetime Platinum. If hotels.com actually does return to offering 10% back then outside of Hyatt I’m looking at disengaging from hotel loyalty programs.
Marriott has been showing contempt to its members for years on end, but people just can’t stop going back to them. I’m sorry, but we’re talking grown adults, most of whom are also reasons well-off. Assuming they’re not suffering from mental health issues, my verdict is they deserve all the abuse they get in return for their loyalty.
It’s particularly interesting to see that Accor consistently gets scorned across the blogosphere, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time they made a negative change to their programme, and the value of their points hasn’t been touched in over a decade. A gold card gets you upgraded 80% of the time and you won’t have to pay an inflated price for the basic room in the first place. Marriott customers, please stay away from ALL and leave the upgrade availability to us.