Clients this week shared some information from a Marriott employee that suggested the brand had a significant drop off in Bonvoy elite status holders.
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Note: Information overheard should always be taken with a grain of salt. There’s no way to corroborate the truth of these statements so it could be useful insight into the inner workings of Marriott or it could be a mistaken employee. It’s also cursory but there’s no way to verify with Marriott Bonvoy their current renewal rate. If conjecture and hearsay aren’t for you, this post probably isn’t either.
Overheard From A Marriott Employee
Clients this week were staying in a Marriott business hotel in Houston, Texas. One of them visits the hotel every single week (but only started in earnest middle of the first quarter of this year) and the other is less frequent with the brand, spreading out their stays amongst a few brands but is Lifetime Gold with Marriott.
At check-in, the regular client was treated to an upgrade to the lounge floor where both clients had become familiar with staff and used to the evening treatment before or in lieu of dinner. The other was not to which the staff member checking them in mentioned (paraphrased):
“You dropped down a tier it looks like. I’ll upgrade you because you’re here all the time. Marriott sent us a note saying a lot of Bonvoy elites had dropped.”
Corroboration Of Lower Than Normal Elite Numbers
There are lots and lots of examples of other brands struggling to achieve elite status level targets. This is evident by the vast number of status match/challenges. Just last week, I covered three status matches or challenges (two of them Hilton.) Marriott has a challenge of (8) or (16) nights in 60-90 days (depending on when a guest signs up.) United is still starting some elites with a head start on 2024 requirements. Spirit announced a very unique status match that included hotels and a paid component. American Airlines has hosted a progressive rolling status challenge, no match from an equivalent level required.
Status challenges are not unique but they often require a match to an existing elite status level that has been achieved elsehwere in an attempt to win their business. We aren’t seeing that at the moment.
What Marriott (And Others) Will Do About It
Confirmation bias is a problem when reaching a meaningful conclusion. Those that read this blog know that business travel has not and will not return to 2019 prior peak levels any time soon. Some could blame a potential financial downturn and that’s probably going to contribute to it for the next couple of years. Others would point to video conference calling due to COVID that showed many meetings could be a phone call and businesses wouldn’t fall apart. Cynics might point to ever inflating requirements for ever fewer benefits that has made many frequent travelers “free agents” rather than captured revenue.
A hopeful part of me would hope that many may have a revised view of home life too and have realized that they don’t need to concern themselves with room upgrades, life on the road forming a stronger bond with family.
The broader picture, it appears to me, is that business travel is not going to recover to where it once was. Perhaps nominally, as travel continues to grow and with blended trips that go by the annoying term, “bleisure” business travel numbers may return to previous heights. But it won’t happen fast enough if it happens at all.
The reality for airlines and hotel chains is that they will have to lower requirements and/or add back benefits. Some of this is already happening. United seems to be reading the tea leaves and has chosen to essentially walk back some of its elite status requirements by providing an annual bonus that reduces requirements. American has added milestone benefits for those that don’t fully reach the status level they choose. I don’t think any of the brands will lead the march backward to reduce requirements outright, but I think they are already finding ways to try to lower the bar.
Conclusion
The world has changed and the reality for travel providers has begun to set in that business travel will not return to the level it once reached. Either the parameters have to change to achieve the same elite levels, or providrs will have to change their elite targets. While room rates remain high and airplanes remain full for the moment, elite members that carry providers through difficult times (like recessions) may not be there in the future in the same capacity. The question that remains is what airlines, hotel chains, and car rental companies will do about it.
What do you think? Are hotels and airlines struggling to maintain elite levels? Will they lower the bar (reduction of requirements or accelerated earnings) to return to normal levels or will they revise expectations?
Agree with you 100% Kyle. I was 1K with United for years and have had status on several other airlines and hotels going back 2 decades. Every year, I add personal travel/spend to business travel to reach status. The proportion of personal travel/spend has increased in the past few years as business travel falls.
Also, I was not amazed by the recognition or benefits. Too many interactions with rude FAs, gate agents etc. Further, I have a young family that needs my time. So it’s quite difficult to jet around the world alone anymore.
I fell to Gold with United last year. And this year, I’m not even sure I’m going to try for any status. Instead, I will pay or use miles for business class travel. According to my calculations, that will be cheaper and more convenient since I can choose any airline or hotel.
It’s not just business travel not returning. It’s also that Marriott elite status isn’t worth very much. There is no enforcement of Marriott standards. The confusing and inconsistent breakfast benefit, which some properties water down to be worthless. Lack of upgrades and lack of transparency about it. Resort fees charged to elites with no meaningful benefit provided.
Compared to how Starwood treated elites, elite with Marriott is worth far less, so why go out of your way?
He nails it. Marriott is no longer my first choice. I have status with another brand who provides better perks and doesn’t try to screw me every step of the way.
Well said. While I’ve been treated well internationally, not so much in the US, as a Marriott elite. A couple of months ago – my $10 CY F&B credit bought two bags of snack size potato chips and that was the best use of the $10 as the property did not have its bistro and had no plans to reopen its bistro. Last month, I got upgraded to a suite as a lowly IHG Platinum, on FNCs to boot, at a big city Indigo, without asking!
I’d argue that I’ve found Marriott Platinum to be significantly more worthwhile than Gold, while Titanium over Platinum is more lackluster. 4 pm checkout is supremely useful ~10 times a year, breakfast is helpful when provided, and I could care less about room upgrades unless they move the capacity of the room from 2 to 3 for family trips with 3 members.
Extremely glad everyone with 2019-era status was finally retired so these businesses can focus on the future or hotel & airline loyalty!
Free agency has been a glorious option for this Austin-based traveler. Covid aside, I’ve found that the devaluations across the frequent travel programs in the last 10 years have made status chasing an unnecessary distraction. Despite having lifetime platinum on AA and lifetime titanium at Marriott, the benefits / hassle trade-off hasn’t been worthwhile for some time. I’ve cleared my balances, and what little I earn, I burn quickly.
Hundreds of thousands of points for a RT Biz ticket to Europe … no thanks. 30K/night for a Courtyard … not worth the hassle.
For nonstop travel, I’ve found myself on alot of other carriers. For hotels, I’ve done pretty well with Hyatt and independent properties. I book on simplicity and convenience and don’t miss the status hamster wheel. Most of my travel is business and I don’t need the free stuff when I can just charge breakfast or extra legroom seats. (For the full service Marriotts where I have stayed in the last 12 months….NONE of the exec lounges were operating.)
Done and done.
What will be interesting to see is how the hotels re-align their marketing, given the drop in business travel. With less status loyalists, I see the marketing costs going higher. Hotels and airlines will need to work harder for price premiums, and that will cost more. Where’s the popcorn.
COULD NOT AGREE MORE!!!
I am in the exact same situation — down to the programs and levels — and have come to the exact same conclusion over the last 6-12 months.
I agree that all of the causes Kyle suggests are factors, but I think that in Marriotts case the lack of benefit is a more significant factor than others. I’ve stopped trying to get missing stays credited with them, it’s not worth it.
Flying BA two weeks ago, I heard the same from the FA serving me – thanks for reaching Gold again because a lot of people did not.
Is another factor consolidation? With fewer places to turn now, it’s easy for Marriott and airlines to think they can devalue points and offer less in consistent benefits to elites. People used to love Starwood. Were they unprofitable?
1) All the time, people complain that there are too many elites. Now that we actually are seeing fewer elites (and there is just anecdotal evidence – we are not actually sure if it is true), people now expect airlines and hotels to lower requirements? Why not just see how fewer elites actually impact the customer experience?’
2) Instead of lowering absolute requirements, what brands can do is add more tiers at the lower levels. Clearly some people are still reaching top status through organic travel. Keep rewarding them at higher k levels. Those who aren’t traveling as much due to changes in business travel probably don’t merit top level status anymore.
3) Starwood provided fewer customers to hotels at a higher cost, and therefore were not growing as fast as Marriott, which is why it ultimately had to sell. Elite benefits have a cost; if you are forcing hotel owners to provide them, and not generating a higher room rate or revenue, then the elite benefits serve no purpose.
@kyle : i do appreciate your posts and insights and such
But have a look at Loyaltylobby:
Whom actually experienced/observed the following :
https://loyaltylobby.com/2023/01/22/marriott-hotels-now-sharing-elite-check-in-numbers-at-front-desk/
And
https://loyaltylobby.com/2023/02/21/marriott-bonvoy-program-platinum-titanium-ambassador-member-glut/
@Kyle
I have absolutely no clue one way or the other, but a client of my wife is a large Bonvoy franchisee.
Her contact at the company said that it does seem on average that there are less Elites, but at the same time they have also said that bookings are still strong.
In fact, he said that since much of the bookings are not corporate rates, each booking is more profitable than corporate negotiated rate.
Also he said that while minor, as there are more non-Bonvoy elites than elites and as such the hotel doesn’t have to spend money on elite benefits.
He did not mention any sort of email from Marriott corporate, but her conversation happened a few weeks ago and I have no idea when your client heard this info from the hotel directly.
One factor that was not included is that I realized the ease and pleasure of being a free agent. Once you realize that the status doesn’t mean much and you can do everything without status but paying more, it changed the game. Before, I was worried about losing status like a plague but now I know I can just survive fine, I don’t really feel the urge of retaining it anymore. If it works out, I will get it, if not, there is always a way to do better by choosing what is the best for me and paying extra, which costs less than retaining the status.
Interested Traveler brings up a key point. The most profitable customer is not a Marriott Ambassador, Hyatt Globalisr, Hilton Diamond. It is not a business traveler. It is a member of the loyalty program that books directly with the hotel program, doesn’t hold elite status, and pays the market rate during a time of high demand. High room rate, low acquisition cost (no corporate negotiated rate, no commission to a corporate or online travel agent), low operating costs (no free breakfast, etc).
I would posit this customer doesn’t actually exist – they are booking via Expedia or the like, not direct
Tons of them exist. I understand your assumption, but those of us with travel needs and insight know your comment to be ridiculous.
If you are booking directly with a hotel program and bypassing Expedia or the like, and doing it with any regularity, you likely have a hotel credit card and ergo, you have at least some minimal status with them.
You’re joking, right? Nobody can be this bad at making assumptions.
I find this comment to be pretty out of touch… There are 160 million Marriott Bonvoy members. These are people that cared enough to sign up for a loyalty program. What percentage of them do you think have status of any kind? What percentage of them do you think hold a Marriott Bonvoy card? I would guess both percentages are in the teens at most.
You DO realize that the percentage of people enrolled in any loyalty program who actually engage with a program in a given year is quite low, right?
Oh, you’re trolling. Sorry I took you seriously.
Yes I do… which means the number that engage enough to be elites is much lower!
All of us have aunts, parents, cousins, friends, that are members of loyalty programs that stay in hotels a few times a year. They are far from elites, but they are booking on the hotel apps, redeeming points, etc.
“they don’t need to concern themselves with room upgrades” … one of the obsessions of your fellow blogger Matthew. He could do to follow your advice.
I’m middle age now with grandfathered Lifetime Titanium with Marriott. Yet when I travel now Marriott is typically my last choice. The lifetime status literally never got me upgraded. There was zero value to it. Now I book the nicest hotel that is located conveniently near my work or pleasure when in any given city. This approach had allowed me to discover the Kimpton brand which is great and boutique hotels as well. I do the same thing with air travel now as well and seek out foreign flag carriers when going international. The customer service of US carriers are so bad as if they aren’t even trying.
I’m a business traveler who works for a small company with price limits. Since the COVID “recovery” I have not been able to afford Marriott properties and have been having to jump around to competitors to find places to stay. I honestly do not really care much about the perks themselves, I just want to consolidate all my points in one place. But this year my Platinum dropped back to Gold because I have spent half my hotel time spread amongst competitors.
The fact that Marriott is offering a DEQN promo right now (during ongoing high travel demand) suggests the Bonvoy elite rolls have dropped.
Not surprising given the anti-consumer attitude coming from the rotted CEO fish at the top
On top of business travel being down, colleagues I’ve talked to (consultant road warriors) are just sick of Marriott. I am Titanium elite with Marriott and have been for about 5 years. I’m a relatively new Globalist with Hyatt and once I re-quality for Titanium again this year (need 5 more years of 50 nights to hit LT Platinum), I’m switching to Hyatt for the rest of the year.
Who knows what 5 years from now will hold, but from where I sit now, once I get LT Plat with Marriott, I’ll switch all of my spend to Hyatt. I get treated better, the properties are better, the redemptions are better, and the customer service is better. Marriott knows they’re the biggest game in town, so they don’t value their elites very highly. That’s fine, but it’s just not worth the chase anymore. If I were starting from scratch, I’d go Hyatt all the way.
Also, there are just too many junk Marriott properties with crappy beds, worn out carpet, and front desk agents who just don’t care about customer service. Save for Sheraton, I’ll take a legacy SPG property over a legacy Marriott 8 days a week.
Brand loyalty is a two way street. Gaslighting customers by giving an elite status name and not delivering anything of useful value has been noticed. And delivery of a substandard product is an insult from both airlines and hotels. Previously folks have given the benefit of doubt their loyalty would be returned, but no, now we see only pathetic excuses to enhance corporate profit. The travel industry has been changed by these turbulent times and we need to move with it.
Comments
Since Starwoods went away everything sucks, Marriott does not care about anything, good luck with them. I was platinum elite with Starwood for years. But Marriott is not customer, traveler focused.
I’m lifetime Platinum with Marriott and hardly stay at Marriott here anymore. These are my reasons:
1. Massive points devaluations to the point that it requires way too many points to get any meaningful redemptions
2. Competitors give me a better deal. Generally it takes me 1/3 Hyatt points or even IHG to get a similar room
3. Inconsistent / non-existant breakfast benefits and the rules are too complicated
4. Nobody at Marriott cares anymore about enforcing standards or setting standards that make sense to a frequent guest.
If I stay at a Marriott I’ll collect the points but I think of Marriott points as Skypesos or similar funny money currency. It might come in handy but using it for actual vacations? Those days are long over. It takes way too many Marriott points to redeem for several days at a hotel that interests me. And if that’s not a reason to stay at Marriott then why not book directly with a cool independent hotel or stay at a chain like Hyatt or IHG where I get better benefits?
It’s pretty obvious that nobody at Marriott cares and the analysts covering Marriott stock aren’t doing their job asking why so many people don’t care about Marriott status anymore. I’m sure Hyatt’s Elite numbers are much better.
I’m lifetime Gold with both AA and Marriott. I literally NEVER fly AA because they really don’t fly anywhere but their hubs from where I am (DEN), so that’s worthless to me. As for Marriott, I was pretty loyal in the before times, splitting my travel pretty evenly between Marriott and Hilton (where I’m a Platinum, but not lifetime). Since the pandemic, I’ve very much changed to a free agent because prices are absurd and I’m not paying extra on top of already absurd prices to be brand loyal. When I’m alone and in for a quick overnight, a suite has zero appeal. Hell, I’ve actually taken to requesting downgrades at my most frequent property, a Hampton in the middle of nowhere, because the suites are so poorly laid out that they’re inferior to the regular rooms in almost every practical way.
American may have added bonus levels between tiers but it was to disguise the fact that it requires more miles now to hit the levels that count. For instance, you still make Executive Platinum at 200k miles, but now you have to hit 250k to earn the bonuses that you would have earned the previous year when you hit EP at 200k miles.