Marriott Bonvoy is looking to make a couple of hires that suggest changes coming to the program.

Here’s a role for Senior Manager – CEC Strategic Initiatives – Loyalty handling Marriott’s customer service channels for Bonvoy. It suggests handling upcoming program changes (emphasis mine):

This position will be responsible for successful implementation of all Loyalty-impacting programs and processes within the CECs. These include changes to currency and earnings, changes to program benefits, changes to program branding or structures, implementation of new partnerships or partnership benefits, program promotions, and changes to CEC-specific processes or systems (particularly reservation booking platform) that specifically support Marriott’s Loyalty program.

This role will also support co-brand credit card initiatives, including business-as-usual (BAU) operations and new card launches. This role will provide feedback on systems enhancement and requirements to HQ team to ensure the reservation booking platform is fully optimized and is nimble to respond to loyalty marketing and operations for our members. Finally, this position will play a critical role in supporting the Loyalty Business Transformation (LBT) as the program transitions to a new technology platform.

St. Regis Bangkok

Recently Marriott posted new reduced points-earning rates for several brands to its website, and then said it was an error, removing the changes. It always seems odd when a devaluation gets posted and the program says ‘nothing to see here’ because someone mocked up those changes for a reason.

Some of the specific additional background on this job includes,

Partner with Loyalty organization and other CEC functions to develop and implement plans to support loyalty program changes related to currency, redemption and earnings structure and member benefits (e.g., Peak-Off-Peak).

Collaborate with CEC functions including Business Analytics, Operations, and Strategy to identify need areas for improvements in Loyalty related processes (e.g., use of certificates, visibility into member history).

W Doha

Some of this may be old, recycled language as peak and off-peak redemption pricing was ditched in favor of completely opaque, frequently changing redemption prices. So not everything in the descriptions may be indicating of changes still in the pipeline. They do seem to recognize need for improvements in how they help members understand and use their accounts.

Meanwhile the second role worth flagging is FLEX Senior Manager, Loyalty Product Team.

The Senior Manager, Loyalty Product Team is responsible for evaluating and leading successful integration of new and existing brands/assets into the Marriot Bonvoy ecosystem—thereby enhancing the value of the Program to its millions of members. This associate will lead cross-discipline teams to define and activate all key components of brand/asset integration, including program economics, member experience, marketing strategy, change management, and owner engagement strategies, etc.

Loyalty Brand/Asset Integration

• Support Marriott Bonvoy senior leadership to evaluate potential new products for integration into Marriott Bonvoy
  
• Support overall brand/asset integration strategy for Marriott Bonvoy, working with Marriott Bonvoy senior leadership to prioritize brands/assets for program integration.
  
• Collaborate with key discipline partners to develop approach for specific brand/asset integrations to include program economics, loyalty business processing, member experience, marketing strategy, change management, on- and-above property training development, etc.
  
• Engage with Continent Teams to ensure regional relevance, as needed.
  
• Manage activation of new brands/assets into the Marriott Bonvoy ecosystem, and support shift to sustainment phase.
  
• Communicate program results and key trends to senior management.

Westin Austin

This suggests a vision for bringing even more brands into Bonvoy, and a suggestion that each might fit in differently. When a new brand gets added, the ‘program economics’ may vary – whether the brand earns points, earns elite nights, whether one night stayed actually earns an elite night (or owner pays less, so the member gets less) and what benefits will apply. With Mariott Bonvoy and the chain’s question for net rooms growth, everything is up for grabs.

Bonvoy is clearly the most devalued hotel loyalty program since it launched seven years ago. Even that 2018 version involved devaluation of legacy Marriott points and requiring more elite nights (and spend) to earn Starwood’s elite status benefits, and they added resort fees (cash co-pay) onto free night awards.

W Times Square

At the time, the most expensive award cost 60,000 points per night. Now it’s a hundred thousand to hundreds of thousands. They introduced a higher redemption category, added peak night award pricing, and then eliminated award charts altogether with variable pricing that changes frequently for every property and date.

Al Maha Desert Resort

Most of all, hotels don’t even deliver promised benefits and customer service ignores or gaslights member complaints.

Elite breakfast

Hotel chains serve owners, and guests are the product not the customer. However, in the long-term, the company needs to protect its brand because that’s what guests buy into and is what allows the chain to sway their business – without it they have nothing of value as a company.

Each chain finds itself on a different part of the spectrum balancing satisfying current owners and depreciating the brand, or protecting the brand and risking chasing owners elsewhere. Marriott has seemed to be in the former camp.

These jobs suggest more changes to the program – hires at a time off $100 million in cost cuts that includes layoffs and a push to drive down program costs for owners.