Hotel chains suffered during the pandemic to secure and maintain elites. With travel roaring back, Hyatt is back to pre-pandemic levels while Marriott appears to struggle.
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Marriott Elites Are Getting a Soft Landing
Good news for Marriott Bonvoy members came this week as the global hotel brand announced that it would not drop those holding its hotel status more than one level below what they held the prior year. This is welcome for business travelers who have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and may not have renewed at the level they typically do.
The move raises the question: Did Marriott experience a dramatic shortfall in expected elite members. This is not the first time Marriott has made such a move as nearly all travel providers (hotel/car rental/airline) extended during the pandemic. It’s also no secret that business travel has struggled and leisure travelers would face considerable challenges earning meaningful status levels without corporate travel.
Marriott Gives Credit Card Users A Huge Headstart
For those holding “the right” Marriott credit card combination, some Bonvoyers will begin the year with as many as 55 elite qualifying nights. That’s a strong headstart to Titanium status (75 nights) where the best Bonvoy benefits begin. While those who are solely seeking Marriott Gold status could simply carry the American Express Platinum card rather than a combination of Bonvoy cards (or earning the 50 elite status nights), those aiming higher start the year in a good position to achieve the upper echelons within the program.
As Delta famously said, when everyone’s elite, no one is.
Hyatt Globalists Returned?
One Hyatt elite group on social media had circulated the notion that Hyatt had 40% fewer Globalists this year than expected. It would make sense as securing the World of Hyatt Globalist status is one of the hardest given the limited footprint (about 1,100 properties, 1,500 through its SLH partnership) and high number of Hyatt stays (60 nights.)
I reached out to a Hyatt executive with knowledge of the World of Hyatt program participation this year who said,
“Globalist numbers are in fact in line with pre-pandemic requalification and World of Hyatt program membership has increased by 20% in the past 12 months alone.”
Naturally, adding 20% more World of Hyatt members while maintaining pre-pandemic requalification would mean that there was some drop in those who earn Globalist status (top tier status in the program) relative to its new larger size, but certainly nowhere near the 40% shortfall that some had suggested.
Some of the reasons why so many Globalists were able to requalify would be down to new business World of Hyatt credit card offers that granted double stay credit as well as new all-inclusive property promotions that also doubled stay credits.
Holders of the personal version of the World of Hyatt credit card earn 2 status nights for every $5,000 you spend on the card, further shortening the distance to the top tiers. Along the way, Hyatt members also receive milestone bonuses like bonus points or free night certificates as well as club lounge awards. Now that Hyatt allows award stays to count toward status, even Chase Ultimate Rewards members can use points earned in that program to redeem for nights that count toward status accrual as a way to back in to status.
For Globalists, that means a lower likelihood of securing an upgrade of Free Night Award at premium properties like Park Hyatts, and fewer that qualified by 60 nights or earning 100,000 base points.
Still, that’s good news for Hyatt generally speaking and relative to the industry. For what it’s worth, American Airlines and United Airlines are both running status matches out of the gate in 2023.
Yet Hyatt Appears To Target Elite Qualifiers
The one confusing data point that factors into this otherwise resounding affirmation for Hyatt and its most frequent guests is that some Hyatt concierges have already distributed a double status night promotion to Globalist members through the first quarter of the calendar year. That points to a softness that the Hyatt executive didn’t match in their statement.
Hilton Already Running Status Challenges
This week I called Hilton’s Diamond Desk to extend my status another year despite failing to requalify. It’s a great perk of the program and one I haven’t used before. I know I could just carry the Hilton Aspire card as it comes with the status and maybe I’ll add it this year, but I haven’t needed another $450 card in my wallet to this point.
The Diamond Desk was unhelpful in extending my status (I qualify, they simply didn’t know the answer and I didn’t have the time to go further) but instantly offered me a challenge. The challenge for Diamond (18 nights in 90 days) didn’t appear to be targeted in any way and I had to clarify a couple of times that I wasn’t looking for a challenge.
Add Hilton to the list of providers offering a status challenge before the end of the first week of 2023.
So What Is The State of Business Travel and Elite Status Qualifiers?
I have mixed opinions based on the limited data points I have received. The Hyatt executive I communicated with was quite pleasant and reflected that they really don’t have any issues with retaining Globalists at the moment. The speculation that the numbers of new members might not be trending toward that end of the status spectrum is my assumption based on the number of new members but the statement that they were maintaining elites where they were at.
The unannounced (and “leaked”) accelerated status earnings suggest that maybe there is a need for more elites to fill out the ranks than simply to requalify. Marriott, however, is showing a soft belly as are American, United, and Hilton. Without a pandemic, how do those brands roll back their requirements in a meaningful way? How do they drive the incremental revenue that elites and engaged program participants deliver?
I suspect we will see lots of promotions this year as providers grapple with fewer business travelers for the long haul and look to engage new customers as the brands expand to even more consumers traveling for personal reasons.
Conclusion
The rumors of the death of business travel may have been greatly exaggerated, but that conclusion is hard to draw conclusively at the moment. Hyatt has some great data points, but their new actions suggest there is still something afoot with elite qualifying for their status. Marriott, United, American, and Hilton are much clearer that they are not maintaining the ranks and that points to both problems (for the brands) and opportunities (for travelers.) It should be a very interesting year ahead.
What do you think? Do Hyatt’s data points suggest confidence? How important are credit cards in replacing lost corporate travel? Are the other travel providers simply being aggressive or revealing market concerns?
FYI- The caption under your Casa Marina photo is off. Casa Marina has not been a WA for some time and is now under the Curio collection.
Actually it still a Waldorf Astoria property.
No, it’s definitely not a WF anymore: https://casamarinaresort.com/
Did you get the globalist double elite night offered by concierge? Can you call and request it?
They went out to some, but weren’t supposed to and got stopped. I never got mine, just reporting what other sources have said and published.
“ Now that Hyatt allows award stays to count toward status” – you seem to be breaking news from 2018 here
It’s worth a mention that the Marriott website is terrible and inefficient to use. It’s unreasonably slow, and difficult to get comparisons of rates and availability in multiple hotels in a given destination. The old SPG site was great where you could get a table of rates (four rates across the top and all the hotels down the left).
But even if you have to look at a property at a time, it seems like it takes ten minutes on the Marriott site what I can do in 30 seconds at Hyatt. So I always go to Hyatt first, and usually book. I only put myself through the agony of researching Marriott if there are no suitable Hyatts.
You would think someone at Marriott would prioritize improving the online booking experience. Or do they only rely on corporate sites and third parties like Expedia? Seems like a dumb prioritization with the way travel has developed.
Also the fact that you never know what elite benefits will be delivered and that customer service won’t have your back also disincentivizes using Marriott.
This comment sounds like someone has never tried actually booking an award stay on Hyatt’s site. Hyatt literally will not show you how many points you need to book a multi night stay (instead only showing the points needed for the one cheapest night in the stay); you need to manually price every single night of the stay out by hand and then add the prices up yourself to find out how many points you’d need for a stay. It’s baffling. As slow as Marriott’s site is, as least it tells you how much a stay costs.
I can’t share the feeling Hyatt is having less Globalist – In fact, in a regional frequent traveller forum, only 30% percent said they failed to re-qualify Globalist in 2022.
Isn’t perhaps the 40% drop with respect to 2021? Qualification for 2021 was much easier with only 30 nights needed – and that likely increased number of Globalists significantly. So now it probably dropped down and is back to where it was 2019. This would make sense to me.
I stayed in Dublin at a Hyatt Centric end of October last year. It was a relatively small hotel – total of maybe 100-150 rooms. Well, when I checked in, mid week on q gloomy rainy off season day – no upgrade, nothing. OK, no problem as I was traveling alone. Next morning, I waited at the breakfast checkin and while I was waiting, I was able to see their list of VIP guests – it listed all globalists. I almost fell out of my chair as I counted over 20 in this small hotel in off season mid week. So I suspect with the 30-night promo, there have been ALOT of globalists and I sure hope that number has dropped now.
@TJ – From the way I asked the question and the way the response was worded, this is what I think:
2019 Globalist levels should have been the highest on record. If there were more Globalists in 2021 due to lower qualifications, I would be shocked, simply because of the drop in business travel that dogged that year. Further, they would have had to requalify at 60 nights this year, but the question was with regard to the rate of requalification. If you’re right about more top tier elites in 2021 then surely the double requirements in 2022 would have accounted for a 40% requalification drop, but the employee confirmed it was in line with normal 2019 levels. So I don’t think that’s the case. It would be great if the executive had just used raw figures for the base year and the current year but I can appreciate why they wouldn’t be able to share that.
I find it very difficult to believe that Hyatt Globalist numbers have reached the previous 2019 level. I own a retail international travel destination business in the central business district of downtown Denver Colorado right by the Colorado Convention center and the Hyatt Regency Colorado Convention Center. My young adult son (27), is a Globalist. On the times when I travel with him, I find there are two scenarios that occur. The first, is whoever’s checking him in literally doesn’t even know what a Globalist is! Next, on the flip side, who’s checking him can’t even believe that he is a Globalist! They are in shock, and fall all over themselves trying to make sure that they are greeting him properly, and providing the perks that he should receive. It is apparent to me that there are not as many Globalist as there were prior to the pandemic simply based upon the front desk agents behavior. I can’t tell you how many times after we’ve checked in his suite, someone from the front desk comes up with a note card with his name on it, and apologizes that they had not given him his card for the Globalist breakfast!
On a final note, I am less than two blocks from the Convention Center, the business traveler has not returned to the numbers prior to the Pandemic. All you have to do is look out the window up and down the street in the central business district, and you can clearly see that the suits, simply are not there. Also, the volume of male Knitters walking into my business has not reached pre-pandemic levels, yet. Therefore, I simply believe that Hyatt is presenting a positive spin on the Globalist status as opposed to the reality. CAB
In Japan now and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, no upgraded room as the hotel does not offer globalist upgrades to standard suites and only Deluxe rooms. All the Deluxe rooms were booked out at the time hence no room upgrade.
Globalists were given a house blend juice in a wine glass, half of the tables was given that so I assume there were a lot of Globalist in town.
And seriously the early milestone awards are absolutely stupid for current Glbalists, IHG Diamond still gets guaranteed suite upgrades at 20 nights, why can’t Hyatt do that.