Marriott is out with its first major promotion of 2020 (Registration required by May 31).
They call it ‘accelerated earning’ and offer 2000 bonus points per stay starting with your second stay. A large number of customers stay only once and waiting until the second stay to award points is a big savings, plus they’re looking to shift business from customers with the potential to offer.. more business.
- For stays March 17 – June 14
- All hotels participate
I value Marriott points at 7/10ths of a cent apiece making 2000 points worth $14. The ‘break even’ with a double points promotion is $200 in spend on a stay. On a cheap one night stay 2000 points is alright (and better than double points). On a long or expensive stay it’s paltry.
Regardless you should always register for promotions right away otherwise you will forget to do it. You may not think you’ll have paid Marriott stays during the promotion period, then one pops up unexpectedly. Almost no one goes back and checks available promotions. Register now and knock it out just in case.
The question is whether Marriott is making a big mistake with such a modest promotion as hotel occupancy and rates begin to fall. This was happening even before coronavirus. The argument in favor of spending very little on promotion marketing is that bonus points aren’t going to move the needle when people are scared to travel (it’s why airfares went up after 9/11, only those who absolutely had to travel were taking to the skies).
(HT: One Mile at a Time)
Maybe you used to value Marriott points at 7/10th of a cent. Starting tomorrow they’re basically Hilton points. 50k for a hotel that’s charging $140. No thanks.
I value Marriott points at nothing and when I use them I’m happy I didn’t have to pay. Complete trash. Won’t need to register. Would rather stay at holiday inn express than courtyard and that’s what I do.
That’s a meager 667 points in SPG currency. (MR valued SPG points at 3:1 prior to merger.)
Bonfire Pesos points ? no thanks
same for stingy promotions
Some hotels are rude uncaring and take us for granted
I just canceled a reservation at a Marriott that was a former Sheraton
Despite the lipstick on a pig makeover the staff are simply uncaring clueless and unhelpful
I’ll suppose another franchise that’s simply overpriced and serving guests poorly
Most of my stays are one night at Fairfield Inns off the interstate in the middle of nowhere. To me, this is a great promotion
I think Marriott is doing just fine. Their occupancy levels are high so they currently don’t need to offer much in the way of a promotion. Their recent shift in award categories VS price have moved my valuation to about 0.5 cents per Marriott point. At that rate, it is like $10 off which is better then nothing. I am burning points and holding off on new bookings at present until we get a little more information on the safety and risks of traveling in this Covid 19 era.
But just like you say, register now before you forget…
Really simple. After 4 devaluations in 3 years, I can now confidently value Bonvoy points below IHG points. Now IHG is offering 4x earning while Bonvoy is offering 2k points _per stay_. Pretty easy to see who to choose, and it isn’t Bonvoy
Having said that, Marriott does not give a hoot about fleeing elites. That is not the metric they look at. I caught this paragraph on Skift last week. They think Bonvoy is “performing well”:
“…the company’s Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program is performing well. Marriott had 141 million Bonvoy members at the end of January and paid room revenue from members increased 11 percent in 2019. “
Pathetic, as is almost all of Bonvoy.
In the wreckage on Wall Street today, Marriott had the largest decline of any NASDAQ company, over 7%.
That will teach them to release a super weak promotion like this….
Wow marriott haters here’s my view as platinum lifetimer….in the near full employment, you need to remember, their not exactly hiring rocket scientists to work at hotel jobs…those gigs have low pay, almost no benefits and are pretty mindless. It’s a “passing through” gig not a “destination” job. As for the corporate product people planning these promotions, their balancing the fact that most properties are not corporate owned and giving away free nights is a loss to the hotel owner, not Marriott corporate. It was great when we had real competition with SPG…but now play the game with the players out there and maybe look at switching over to H or IHG for a while and using Marriott when it makes sense.
Marriott isn’t offering this promotion to everyone…it is a selective offering. I am a Titanium member…here is there response when questioned why I wasn’t able to register “I would like to inform you that Marriott Bonvoy member accounts were targeted with promotions. Promotions are not a global and therefore, promotion is available only for those members whose accounts were targeted. Unfortunately, because these promotions are so carefully targeted, members who did not receive this offer are not eligible to participate”