8 ms·

I travel 80% of the year and before the merger, I was splitting my stays between Starwood and Hyatt. Occasionally I would be forced to stay at a Hilton or Marri

I travel 80% of the year and before the merger, I was splitting my stays between Starwood and Hyatt. Occasionally I would be forced to stay at a Hilton or Marriott because of smaller market coverage. Since the merger, I have barely stayed at Starwood/Marriott and don't plan on giving much business to them next year. I typically stay at hotels 150-200 nights a year and with Starwood's upper tier, I was being treated very well and never had issues getting an agent on the phone for changes. Now, at the same level (Platinum Premier w/Ambassador), I have found myself spending more time waiting to talk to an agent and basic requests going unfulfilled. Add to this that Marriott's website is one of the worst I have ever used and I just don't see much reason to stick around.

flying_dutchman 8y ago
This. In a few years there will be an HBS study about how they killed one of the most most loyal brand followings. I predict it will take a bit to show up in the numbers but over time alienating your vote customer base will absolutely have an outsized business impact.
ryanmarsh 8y ago
Spent the last few years maxed out platinum with Marriot. Aside from the snacks I felt like I was treated the same as those with less “status”. If you’re going to have a rewards program with levels of patronage... The airlines, as much as I hate them, have this much more cut and dry. With United I know exactly what I can get at each tier and what I can ask for “just this one time”. With Marriot it’s like, “fuck you have a candy bar and bottle of water”. So I fly United and stay with AirBnb[0]... who I get United miles from. Cha-ching! 0: Get the MilagePlus X app
- gammateam 8y ago
  Just downloaded MileagePlus X, how do you use your united miles to book airbnb? not seeing it
  - vinay427 8y ago
    They're saying you earn United miles by booking Airbnb stays through the portal in the app. It's essentially another cashback website that provides miles instead of cash. It probably isn't worth it unless you can easily use United miles.
    - ryanmarsh 8y ago
      You don’t have to use the portal on the web. You can get a gift card from the app
      - vinay427 8y ago
        Thanks, I didn't realize, though I can't edit my initial post anymore.
  - ryanmarsh 8y ago
    Buy and AirBnb gift card in the app for the amount you need. Redeem the gift card in your AirBnb account BEFORE YOU BOOK. Get 2 miles per dollar (or whatever, they all fluctuate). For a while Amazon was two miles per dollar. We shifted all our household shopping into Amazon LOL. They got hip to it and now Amazon is like half a mile per dollar.
    - nataz 8y ago
      You used to be able to get Amazon gift cards directly with miles, but it was dropped as a partner a few months ago...
    - gammateam 8y ago
      That sucks You can get 2 Chase points for booking travel w/ their Sapphire cards already, and they convert 1:1 to United miles if you want, but are much more fungible too.
      - 2arrs2ells 8y ago
        3 UR points per $ with the sapphire reserve
chrisseaton 8y ago
> with Starwood's upper tier, I was being treated very well What do you get out of hotel rewards? With airline rewards I can upgrade to first, which is a pretty big deal to be able to do and makes a massive difference to my comfort. What do you get with hotels? A suite instead of a room? Doesn't seem worth it? Free hotel stays for personal use? Do you want to stay in a same corporate business hotels that you are doing a lot for business in your free time as well? Hilton give me a free bottle of water when I stay. It's not very inspiring.
- pdx_flyer 8y ago
  The suites are nice, especially when my stays were 3+ days. The biggest benefits for me when it comes to hotel status are: 1) lounge access / free breakfast 2) points for personal hotel stays (though I typically spend my hotel points on flights). I basically pay for my vacations in points. 3) The ambassador with Starwood would basically handle all of my bookings and make sure if there were any issues I was taken care of. Anytime I had a flight cancellation or change of plans, I could shoot them an e-mail or call and know it would get handled.
- gammateam 8y ago
  Hotel rewards are often a little different than airline rewards because they transfer out of the brand's portal. So the main utility is fungibility. Sure your credit card might let you transfer to a bunch of Star Alliance brands, but once it is in that one brand or you earned that one brands airline points, its stuck there. Secondly, yes upgrades are possible. It is very random but more frequent with being in certain tiers. Late checkouts, early checkins perhaps. Free stays just because you have points, and earning free stays that don't require the points. Earning points faster because you have a certain level. The amenities are negligible. Definitely not the point. And finally, Marriot/Starwood is now a HUUUUUGE portfolio. You wouldn't have to stay in the corporate business hotels. The redemption rates are also pretty nice and easy. There are still lots of boutiques, AirBnBs and interesting hotel tonight options, but Marriott/Starwood has a compelling portfolio.
- cthalupa 8y ago
  >A suite instead of a room? Sometimes. Room upgrades in general are a thing. I like it, especially when traveling with my SO - the extra space is nice! >Do you want to stay in a same corporate business hotels that you are doing a lot for business in your free time as well? Sure. Starwood and Marriott have a lot of nice hotels. W's are pretty ubiquitous and don't feel very corporate. The Luxury Collection is a bit mixed on whether or not they participate in the rewards program, but enough do that they've got some really cool spots that do, and the LC stuff is all unique. Even for chains that are more corporate feeling, like the Ritz Carlton/JW Marriott/etc, they're frequently very nice. The Westin in Tokyo is convenient for the city-loop JR green line, has a fantastic breakfast buffet and lounge with free drinks and an amazing view, etc. Generally when I'm traveling personally I don't spend much time in my room. I want something that is conveniently located, has good breakfast, is clean, and spacious enough that I can keep all of my crap out of the way with room to spare. Getting all the points (and multipliers from having status) makes getting free hotel stays a lot easier, and means I can afford to travel more frequently. >Hilton give me a free bottle of water when I stay. Same with Starwood/Marriott, but, considering what some hotels charge for water bottles, free bottles being replenished every time housekeeping comes through is great. Especially if I've had a long night out drinking. There's other perks, too. Early/late checkin - I don't have to worry about if I arrive at the airport at 8am or if my flight is at 7pm. I don't need to rush out of the hotel at 11am, or drop my bags and then have to go kill time if I get in early. Conversely, I care much less about my Platinum airline status. I only get upgrades to first class on short flights automatically, and I mostly take long ones. Upgrades on long flights consume my upgrade awards. I get free "premium" seats in economy, but they're not huge upgrades and are pretty cheap upgrades in general. Priority boarding is nice, but I see people slip into that line all of the time without status and it's usually more trouble than it's worth for the attendant to kick them to the back of the line. Priority luggage actually getting it to me faster has been very hit or miss. I don't lose any sleep over my airline status looking like it might drop a level. I make sure I never have to worry about that with my hotel status.
warrenm 8y ago
On top of their website being horrid, it also routinely says it can't complete a booking
alasdair_ 8y ago
>Add to this that Marriott's website is one of the worst I have ever used and I just don't see much reason to stick around. It really is terrible. I tried to book the Mariott in Oakland last night for a conference and it took six attempts to get it working. There was some code on the page for Visa Checkout that didn't seem to have been tested well at all. I ended up having to alter the javascript and delete an element on the page in order to bypass the client-side validation and get the submit button to work correctly.
- rolandog 8y ago
  Just be careful that their marketing guys don't get wind of that, or they'll rebrand as "Marriott: the choice hotel for true hackers".
- hyperpallium 8y ago
  1337 hacker conference check-in.
metafizikal 8y ago
Welcome to Marriott.com! Would you like to share your GPS coordinates with us?
Aloha 8y ago
Why are you not going thru your ambassador for these issues?
Aloha 8y ago
I also really like Hyatt Place as a mid market property - I just wish there were more of them.
jandrewrogers 8y ago
Even for people who have earned lifetime Platinum Premier status, the suckage of the Marriott takeover is materially encroaching on their experience. The benefits are rapidly being destroyed. For Starwood members, it has not been a positive experience.
imroot 8y ago
As much as I want to hate this, I was part of this marriott.com fiasco -- Marriott switched from a monolithic, huge, J2EE stack and moved to openshift for container management. The problem? the development teams didn't really and fully understand the concepts behind containers...and internal Marriott staff had limited knowledge of Openshift or how it ran. They brought in RedHat ProServ to manage the Openshift stuff, my former employer to lead the DevOps group in assisting the dev teams to containerize, and then when I left that team to go somewhere else, tried bringing in a devops shop in Bethesda (and then tried to hire everyone in the company to come work for them).

flying_dutchman 8y ago

This. In a few years there will be an HBS study about how they killed one of the most most loyal brand followings. I predict it will take a bit to show up in the numbers but over time alienating your vote customer base will absolutely have an outsized business impact.

ryanmarsh 8y ago

Spent the last few years maxed out platinum with Marriot. Aside from the snacks I felt like I was treated the same as those with less “status”. If you’re going to have a rewards program with levels of patronage... The airlines, as much as I hate them, have this much more cut and dry. With United I know exactly what I can get at each tier and what I can ask for “just this one time”. With Marriot it’s like, “fuck you have a candy bar and bottle of water”. So I fly United and stay with AirBnb[0]... who I get United miles from. Cha-ching! 0: Get the MilagePlus X app

gammateam 8y ago
Just downloaded MileagePlus X, how do you use your united miles to book airbnb? not seeing it
- vinay427 8y ago
  They're saying you earn United miles by booking Airbnb stays through the portal in the app. It's essentially another cashback website that provides miles instead of cash. It probably isn't worth it unless you can easily use United miles.
  - ryanmarsh 8y ago
    You don’t have to use the portal on the web. You can get a gift card from the app
    - vinay427 8y ago
      Thanks, I didn't realize, though I can't edit my initial post anymore.
- ryanmarsh 8y ago
  Buy and AirBnb gift card in the app for the amount you need. Redeem the gift card in your AirBnb account BEFORE YOU BOOK. Get 2 miles per dollar (or whatever, they all fluctuate). For a while Amazon was two miles per dollar. We shifted all our household shopping into Amazon LOL. They got hip to it and now Amazon is like half a mile per dollar.
  - nataz 8y ago
    You used to be able to get Amazon gift cards directly with miles, but it was dropped as a partner a few months ago...
  - gammateam 8y ago
    That sucks You can get 2 Chase points for booking travel w/ their Sapphire cards already, and they convert 1:1 to United miles if you want, but are much more fungible too.
    - 2arrs2ells 8y ago
      3 UR points per $ with the sapphire reserve

chrisseaton 8y ago

> with Starwood's upper tier, I was being treated very well What do you get out of hotel rewards? With airline rewards I can upgrade to first, which is a pretty big deal to be able to do and makes a massive difference to my comfort. What do you get with hotels? A suite instead of a room? Doesn't seem worth it? Free hotel stays for personal use? Do you want to stay in a same corporate business hotels that you are doing a lot for business in your free time as well? Hilton give me a free bottle of water when I stay. It's not very inspiring.

pdx_flyer 8y ago
The suites are nice, especially when my stays were 3+ days. The biggest benefits for me when it comes to hotel status are: 1) lounge access / free breakfast 2) points for personal hotel stays (though I typically spend my hotel points on flights). I basically pay for my vacations in points. 3) The ambassador with Starwood would basically handle all of my bookings and make sure if there were any issues I was taken care of. Anytime I had a flight cancellation or change of plans, I could shoot them an e-mail or call and know it would get handled.
gammateam 8y ago
Hotel rewards are often a little different than airline rewards because they transfer out of the brand's portal. So the main utility is fungibility. Sure your credit card might let you transfer to a bunch of Star Alliance brands, but once it is in that one brand or you earned that one brands airline points, its stuck there. Secondly, yes upgrades are possible. It is very random but more frequent with being in certain tiers. Late checkouts, early checkins perhaps. Free stays just because you have points, and earning free stays that don't require the points. Earning points faster because you have a certain level. The amenities are negligible. Definitely not the point. And finally, Marriot/Starwood is now a HUUUUUGE portfolio. You wouldn't have to stay in the corporate business hotels. The redemption rates are also pretty nice and easy. There are still lots of boutiques, AirBnBs and interesting hotel tonight options, but Marriott/Starwood has a compelling portfolio.
cthalupa 8y ago
>A suite instead of a room? Sometimes. Room upgrades in general are a thing. I like it, especially when traveling with my SO - the extra space is nice! >Do you want to stay in a same corporate business hotels that you are doing a lot for business in your free time as well? Sure. Starwood and Marriott have a lot of nice hotels. W's are pretty ubiquitous and don't feel very corporate. The Luxury Collection is a bit mixed on whether or not they participate in the rewards program, but enough do that they've got some really cool spots that do, and the LC stuff is all unique. Even for chains that are more corporate feeling, like the Ritz Carlton/JW Marriott/etc, they're frequently very nice. The Westin in Tokyo is convenient for the city-loop JR green line, has a fantastic breakfast buffet and lounge with free drinks and an amazing view, etc. Generally when I'm traveling personally I don't spend much time in my room. I want something that is conveniently located, has good breakfast, is clean, and spacious enough that I can keep all of my crap out of the way with room to spare. Getting all the points (and multipliers from having status) makes getting free hotel stays a lot easier, and means I can afford to travel more frequently. >Hilton give me a free bottle of water when I stay. Same with Starwood/Marriott, but, considering what some hotels charge for water bottles, free bottles being replenished every time housekeeping comes through is great. Especially if I've had a long night out drinking. There's other perks, too. Early/late checkin - I don't have to worry about if I arrive at the airport at 8am or if my flight is at 7pm. I don't need to rush out of the hotel at 11am, or drop my bags and then have to go kill time if I get in early. Conversely, I care much less about my Platinum airline status. I only get upgrades to first class on short flights automatically, and I mostly take long ones. Upgrades on long flights consume my upgrade awards. I get free "premium" seats in economy, but they're not huge upgrades and are pretty cheap upgrades in general. Priority boarding is nice, but I see people slip into that line all of the time without status and it's usually more trouble than it's worth for the attendant to kick them to the back of the line. Priority luggage actually getting it to me faster has been very hit or miss. I don't lose any sleep over my airline status looking like it might drop a level. I make sure I never have to worry about that with my hotel status.

warrenm 8y ago

On top of their website being horrid, it also routinely says it can't complete a booking

alasdair_ 8y ago

>Add to this that Marriott's website is one of the worst I have ever used and I just don't see much reason to stick around. It really is terrible. I tried to book the Mariott in Oakland last night for a conference and it took six attempts to get it working. There was some code on the page for Visa Checkout that didn't seem to have been tested well at all. I ended up having to alter the javascript and delete an element on the page in order to bypass the client-side validation and get the submit button to work correctly.

rolandog 8y ago
Just be careful that their marketing guys don't get wind of that, or they'll rebrand as "Marriott: the choice hotel for true hackers".
hyperpallium 8y ago
1337 hacker conference check-in.

metafizikal 8y ago

Welcome to Marriott.com! Would you like to share your GPS coordinates with us?

Aloha 8y ago

Why are you not going thru your ambassador for these issues?

Aloha 8y ago

I also really like Hyatt Place as a mid market property - I just wish there were more of them.

jandrewrogers 8y ago

Even for people who have earned lifetime Platinum Premier status, the suckage of the Marriott takeover is materially encroaching on their experience. The benefits are rapidly being destroyed. For Starwood members, it has not been a positive experience.

imroot 8y ago

As much as I want to hate this, I was part of this marriott.com fiasco -- Marriott switched from a monolithic, huge, J2EE stack and moved to openshift for container management. The problem? the development teams didn't really and fully understand the concepts behind containers...and internal Marriott staff had limited knowledge of Openshift or how it ran. They brought in RedHat ProServ to manage the Openshift stuff, my former employer to lead the DevOps group in assisting the dev teams to containerize, and then when I left that team to go somewhere else, tried bringing in a devops shop in Bethesda (and then tried to hire everyone in the company to come work for them).