Marriott keeps slashing away at their program, to make it where , the small guy is ran out of town! And if you ask me, is contributing to the “wealth GAP” by valuing money, corporations, and big spenders OVER LOYALTY! I have already written about how the non business traveler gets the shaft here , but it keeps getting worse and worse! During all the PRE-merger talks about how merging this hotel company with that, or this airline with that will actually benefit us, we always find out how it NEVER DOES!
Marriott already makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to reach “Ambassador” level , for the SELF-PAY person because of their $20,000 spend requirement. Now they are making it even harder to reach Titanium level by removing the ability to get 10 elite qualifying nights by booking a meeting! This was a way that us “self-pays” used to bump up our nights, and it was a way for hotels to get some easy money! It was a Win-Win for everyone!
I did this exact thing this year to get 10 nights! I paid $150 dollars to hold a “meeting” that did not have to be set up, did not require cleanup, and was over in 10 minutes. You had to show up, and be there, but thats it. It was an easy $150 for the courtyard that I held it at. Now Marriott is taking this away! This will also hurt hotels, because not only will the people like me stop booking these “meetings” to get our nights, but meeting planners will probably go elsewhere because if other hotel chains are offering perks to bring meetings, then…
With all this said, if you need 10 elite nights before the end of the year, BOOK A MEETING HERE! This change does not take effect until January. Its a very cheap way to BOOST yourself to the next level for CHEAP!
Wrap-Up
I will be writing more about this topic in the next few days. I truly feel that Hotel, Airline companies are really UNDER-appriciating us TRULY LOYAL “self-pay” patrons, and OVER-appriciating those patrons that stay or fly on the companies dime, and don’t really have to put much effort into being loyal (Its always easier to spend someone else’s money !)
So, STAY TUNED, and thanks for reading and PLEASE TRAVEL MORE!
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