Is Hotel Loyalty Worth It? Thoughts On The Marriott CEO Interview
By now, many of you have read the Marriott CEO interview and have your own thoughts on whether hotel loyalty is worth it—with them or with anyone else. I’ll be honest that I intentionally avoided the interview and anything people said about it for a while. Why? I wanted to read it with my own eyes and develop my own thoughts on it—not just what others have said or shared. Now that some dust has settled, it’s worth looking at “is hotel loyalty worth it?” and other key elements of the Marriott CEO interview originally published here at The Points Guy.
Is Hotel Loyalty Worth It?
This is a fair question, even without the recent interview we’ll discuss in this article. Benjy previously called loyalty programs one of the great cons of travel, more or less. In many ways, I agree with him. Mark constantly goes back and forth on whether it’s worth it. People make irrational decisions, just because of loyalty programs. Have you ever picked a hotel that wasn’t perfect, just because it was with a chain where you’d earn points? Stayed farther away from your ideal neighborhood, just because you’d get some extra perks? Gasp, some people even spend more (higher price per night) to stay at a hotel where they could earn points toward future travel.
Are these decisions rational? It depends.
Are you getting more out of it than the “extra” that you spend? If you stay at a hotel that costs $210 instead of another that costs $200, but you’re earning free breakfast that saves $20, it’s worth it. Maybe you stay at a hotel that costs $210 instead of $200 but you earn points and doing this 5 times gives you a free night, so you more than make up for the difference.
Many times, though, we may not get those kinds of returns. Think about how many people go to Starbucks, instead of some other chain, because you can earn rewards for free drinks (guilty!). This, despite the fact Starbucks typically costs more.
We make irrational decisions based on loyalty programs. Is hotel loyalty worth it? It is ONLY worth it so long as you are coming out ahead. If you earn more in free breakfasts and other real, cost-saving perks, it’s worth it. Note that I want us to specifically ignore non-tangibles in this discussion. Would you pay for a suite upgrade? Not likely. You get that from your loyalty program status, so you may like it, but you didn’t ACTUALLY save $400 by having X hotel status.
For a fair discussion of whether hotel loyalty is worth it, consider actual savings of what you would really spend in a day.
Basic hotel room most likely, meals, if you need a rental car then factor in parking for the night. How much money on daily needs did you save through your status, and how much extra did you pay to stay at a hotel giving you those status perks? Do the math to see if you’re coming out ahead—on all trips and also each individual trip.
For each person, the answer on whether hotel loyalty is worth it will be different. For the business traveler, it’s an easy “yes”, because your work likely pays for it, and you earn the status for free. Winning!
For the rest of us, though, we need to do the cold, objective math to see what we’re spending and what we’re getting for it. Put it on paper. Take the emotions out of it. Then, you can make the right decision for what makes sense financially. Also, look at the “return on investment” we calculated with various hotel loyalty programs. It may surprise you as you calculate the “worth it?” factor for yourself.
Applying This To The Marriott CEO Interview
To get this out of the way up front: people love to trash on Marriott Bonvoy. In many ways, I get it. At the same time, I have Marriott status. It’s almost a “necessary evil” for me, because of my travel plans and travel goals. They simply have hotels where Hyatt and Hilton don’t.
Despite the fact I spend a lot of nights in Marriott hotels each year, that doesn’t blind me to the shortcomings of their loyalty program. I get why people use “Bonvoyed” as a pejorative.
With that in mind, I still found some of the things Anthony Capuano (the Marriott CEO) said in his recent interview…odd. Even as a top-tier elite in his company’s loyalty program, I wasn’t sure whether to be incredulous or just laugh at some of his statements.
He admits there was a devaluation, but now you have more hotels
One of the more…strange…things Capuano said was that he readily admits SPG loyalists suffered in the merger with Marriott. He describes the old SPG program as very customer-friendly. He admits the Marriott Bonvoy program isn’t as generous to them now, but he hopes having more hotels to choose from makes up for it.
“What some of those SPG loyalists may have lost, a bit, in terms of the richness of the program, we hope that breadth of choice, whether it be brands or geography, is a bit of a mitigating factor.”
I’m not sure that ‘more choices’ is really an offsetting factor when it’s ‘more choices but we admit they aren’t as rewarding’. More types of bicycles doesn’t help me when I want to go mountain biking. I need a mountain bike, so 20 types of bicycles but no mountain bikes doesn’t really do much for me. I find this concept anti-consumer. In essence: “We hope you won’t notice things are lower quality because you’re inundated with volume.”
He admits the new program is less valuable to consumers
To me, this is absolutely the weirdest part of the interview. I get that some of our readers take a more positive view of businesses and their bottom lines than I do. To be clear up front, I have absolutely 0 concern for multi-national businesses that rake in billions each year and dole out million-dollar CEO paychecks. I can’t be bothered to care about a loss of a quarter point on their stocks. Why? Because those businesses always write into their award programs that they can close the program and confiscate my points, leaving me with nothing.
If a business doesn’t care about me—and at the same they devalue the program to increase their profits—why should I care about them in return?
“We get a bit of an incomplete,” he said. “I think we’ve made terrific progress. The integration of Marriott Rewards and SPG was a monumental task. And it’s quite interesting. You hear SPG loyalists say, ‘My goodness, what have you done to our program?’ The program was very guest-friendly. It was less owner-friendly.”
I just can’t fathom how the average customer is supposed to care about this. If it’s a “customer loyalty program” isn’t the focus supposed to be…the customer? Last I checked, it’s not an “owner loyalty program”. The owners get the millions in profits at the end of the year. They’re not supposed to also get the rewards (or take away our rewards).
Devaluing a loyalty program to increase the bottom line isn’t unique to Marriott, though
I don’t want to come off like I’m beating up on them unfairly, since United and Delta have definitely done this recently. Those are 2 glaring examples.
That being said, I don’t see United’s or Delta’s CEO telling me I should feel sorry for the bottom line of multi-billion, multi-national companies. I’ll never make that kind of money in my whole life, so I guess I can’t be bothered here. Maybe others feel differently if they come from a different economic / business-consumer viewpoint than I do. For me, telling me I should feel bad for this massive company and accept their devaluations without complaint, all so they can make more money while I lose benefits is… I don’t know what word to use.
Return to travel will be bumpy, we need realistic expectations
Capuano also discussed the fact more people are traveling again. In this section I totally agree with his view that you can’t expect everything to be the way it was immediately. Not everyone is traveling, and the numbers of those traveling (while increasing) aren’t what they used to be. Plus, hotels lost revenue and are trying to cut costs. In this regard, I get it. They don’t want to spend a ton of money and post a loss this quarter.
Breakfast services may be reduced, because you have to pay staff and turn on the lights and make the pancake batter etc. etc. etc… even if no one comes downstairs to eat breakfast. Those things cost money, and businesses have overhead costs, some of which don’t go down even with fewer guests. So I get this.
Plus, he pointed out that some people still don’t feel comfortable with hotel staff in their rooms (room service / house cleaning)
I get it and totally agree here. As we return to travel, we should have realistic expectations. Things aren’t going to return to “how they used to be” overnight. Staff at hotels (and hotel management) are still navigating ever-changing rules and regulations on occupancy limits, mask requirements, whether they can/can’t have indoor dining, and more.
Plus, the people we interact with at the hotel (front desk staff, breakfast staff) don’t make these decisions. They just implement the instructions they are giving. It really bothers me when I see people taking out their frustrations on the employee who just wants to put pancakes on your plate and then serve the next person. She has nothing to do with the fact the tables are all occupied or food options are reduced. The hotel employees can only follow the laws (whether or not they agree with them), so let’s cut them some slack when services aren’t what we consider “ideal” during our upcoming travels.
Final Thoughts – Is Hotel Loyalty Worth It?
Much of what I said could also apply to airline loyalty programs, but today we specifically looked at whether hotel loyalty is worth it – in general and in light of the recent interview with Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano. Do the math for your situation, then see if what you’re getting out of your chosen loyalty program(s) is more than what you’re putting in. If it’s not, you should probably reconsider. Hotel loyalty is only worth it if you come out ahead. I read the Marriott CEO interview like he thinks consumers shouldn’t expect to come out ahead—just “even” with the shareholder profits. To me, that’s not at all what the concept of a loyalty program is.
If you’ve read the original interview, what are your thoughts on it? Do you agree or disagree with some of the key points?
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I totally agreed with the author of the article… I was amazed at what the CEO said in his speech! I give him credit for honesty but he basically said “like it or lump it” to all his loyal customers – especially the SPG crowd! Marriott has had a lot of recent problems and will lose loyalists with this attitude. I find it sad that the pandemic has given many hotels an excuse to give minimal customer service instead of a reason to do as much as they can to make it all better for their guests. A recent experience with a lower end Marriott hotel was case in point… stayed there in April and it was fine considering the overall cuts of service and breakfast options, went back in August and everything looked/was worse – dirty, ratty decor, plumbing issues deferred, terrible breakfast to go options…even the manager looked “beaten up”. It did not make me want to return again. Marriott will lose business over these issues and should do extra to support their hotels and their customers. They need to value both.
Ryan I have to call you or a little on this. So you say you don’t care about the bottom line of the Glen beans as a whole but you think folks should adjust their expectations at the actual hotel because they’re hurting due to loss from the pandemic?
It’s like you’re strattling the fence. If the hotel is going to charge me the same price as pre-pandemic then I expect the same level of treatment, service, and amenities. You can’t charge me the same (or more) and then tell me that I need to adjust my expectations. Call me crazy but I do expect to get what I paid for.
Most folks took a loss of some sort during this pandemic, why should I value the struggle is a hotel more than the struggle any of us were (or still are) facing.
Stupid auto correct “… bottom line of the hotel brand..”
No, I disagree. I don’t care about their bottom line, but I’m realistic enough to know they’re not going to start spending “pre-2020” money on things right away. We should know that and not expect everything to be the way it was. While I don’t care about their billion-dollar budgets, I said we should be realistic enough to know that they will increase spending slowly and have realistic expectations during our travels. Those are not incompatible ideas.
My experience with multiple hotel loyalty programs has been disappointing, to say the least. I now focus my points on air travel and choose my hotel by location and price, mostly avoiding the chains, specially in Europe. I got off the Merry go round.
Loyalty is by definition a sentiment and the entire premise of loyalty programs is to get people to make irrational decisions based on that loyalty. I’m to some degree guilty of this myself, having in my day been intensely loyal to Delta (hey don’t laugh, it was a decade ago), SPG, and now Hyatt. I think that these have been mutually beneficial relationships so this isn’t simply a use-or-be-used situation. That said, I found Sorenson before and Capuano now to be gigantic pieces of shit as CEO’s. They care neither about their own people nor the customers who hand their company money every day. Instead, engaged loyalty members are noise around the edges with short memories while long time loyal employees are simply cogs in the machine to be ignored or disposed of when convenient. I have seven out of ten years toward lifetime Platinum but now I’m pretty inclined to return the big middle finger Marriott is giving me and my ilk and take my business elsewhere for the most part. Marriott has gone downhill considerably in the past several years and that momentum seems to be accelerating. Maybe when Marriott chooses a CEO who isn’t out to lunch I’ll revise my decision but that seems pretty unlikely for quite some time to come.
As a side note, the interview was a puff piece by TPG even though my expectations for them dropped enormously when they disabled comments because they couldn’t handle any criticism of their practices.
My wife and I are in a different camp than most. Our hotel needs are rather utilitarian. It’s just a place to sleep and take a shower. We don’t have kids, so the need to feed a bunch of kids for free at a hotel breakfast doesn’t apply. We don’t hang out at pools either. We frequent major metropolitan cities that are walkable, and have a robust transit system. We stay at a lot of Choice Hotels properties and similar. I travel a lot for work. I use my own cards, and book directly, and get reimbursed. No corporate travel portal shenanigans. Points earned is what funds our hotel stays during vacations.
– Tier benefits have become devalued, unavailable, or elusive. So, it becomes a points game.
– But, some properties seem to have more high season nights that standard and low season combined.
– And, award night availability has become problematic at some properties.
– So, even the points game is uncertain.
– The ONLY thing individual hotel property owners care about is loyalty to their own hotel — they do not give a poop about loyalty to the hotel network (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, etc.).
In the end, it’s a mug’s game . . . it’s their game and we are the mugs.
A number of articles have discussed hotel reservation programs — such as Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts, etc. — that provide tier-type benefits. My experience with FHR bookings has been uniformly superior than being a multi-year top-tier member in one hotel loyalty program.
We now have many more properties at which to get poor redemptions with limited perks.
Sure having more choice is great but I’d rather have quality over quantity. One of the reasons I book with Marriott beyond being a loyalty member, is the expectation service standards and brand consistancy. Right now it’s the wild wild west when you stay with Marriott. Properties are not being held accountable.
‘It is ONLY worth it so long as you are coming out ahead. If you earn more in free breakfasts and other real, cost-saving perks, it’s worth it. Note that I want us to specifically ignore non-tangibles in this discussion. Would you pay for a suite upgrade? Not likely. You get that from your loyalty program status, so you may like it, but you didn’t ACTUALLY save $400 by having X hotel status.’
if you are a non-business traveler, and don’t value the intangibles, then of course it is not worth it!
20$ breakfast? step out of the hotel and you can grab a nice one for 5-10 bucks in pretty much any city in the world. it is only worth it if you have some value for the better treatment, faster lines, and suite upgrades or generally nicer rooms. If you just want to maximize every last cent, just randomly choose your hotel!
– As a multi-year top-tier member, I would offer that one does not even receive the better treatment or the room upgrades.
– I have had a hotel manager actually say that he would not give me an upgrade simply because I was staying seven days — it was too long of a stay. But, if it is available / not already occupied for my entire stay, what harm would it be? We’re just not going to do it. Then, don’t list it as a benefit and then say in the terms and conditions that upgrades are at the sole discretion of the property — knowing this happens.
– I have had a top-tier CSR actually say that the properties resist giving suite upgraded (a stated benefit) and they want you to pay for it.
– One person (top-tier in his program) who commented to a different article said that a suite was available for his entire weekend stay at check-in. The front desk offered it to him as a paid upgrade. As it was in fact available, he said that the upgrade was a top-tier benefit. They replied that the only way he would get it is by paying.
Fundamentally, the intangibles are not there. Or, at best, they are table scraps.
A person taking a lie-detector test does not need to be told the results — the person already knows whether they were telling the truth or lying. The same goes with hotel loyalty programs. They already know what’s going on and yet they continue the practices.
I love Westins and Wyndham Grands independently of loyalty, so now of course I’m going to try to maximize those programs. Since I would pay to stay in these hotels even considering all other choices and I have, I don’t have to worry about being rational or not since I would stay there anyway. I only get elite status from the credit cards which also have good signup bonuses, so fortunately I am not trying to stay extra nights to get the status. I actually like the CEO’s honesty because I think credibility improves when you are willing to admit the shortcomings.