Marriott Bonvoy Isn't Cutting Points Earning Rates... I'm Confused

The error was that they released the update early.

I don't believe this has anything to do with tech processes, which differ so much between organizations and industries that there is no way to speculate meaningfully. Be especially careful of Computer Science professors, even at top universities like Stanford, speculating about the operations of a non-academic business; such professors tend to have a lot of naive assumptions of how technology works in the business world.

In my highly informed opinion, most likely, the business team drafted several variations of points earning rates, and this one was published inadvertently.

It remains plausible that these rates will eventually take effect.

Frankly, non-Hyatt hotel points are so worthless that nobody cares.

Given the pace of changes, it's clear they do not intend to use KY.

Would you stay at Marriott hotels if the earning rate were ZERO points per dollar?

Yes, I would. The points don't matter. I stay at Marriott hotels so I can take advantage of late checkout, so that I know my room meets some very minimal bar of cleanliness that downmarket hotel brands somehow cannot meet. I've literally checked into a Choice Hotel room that had wet semen.

“ The company is planning the change, but accidentally published the information prematurely”

Guaranteed this was what happened.

Agreed

A fourth explanation is simply that they've made Bonvoy so complicated it is not hard to work off the wrong list. This "error" basically mirrors the list of hotels that get the 250 point bonus point amenity vs 500.

That being said, seems pretty obvious the most likely is they updated it early (as you note, they'd have to update the terms first in any event). Although, I guess bold of Marriott Comms to so definitively tell everyone that is not indicative of future changes.

How would an error like that happen? It's not like a web page rewrites itself. Someone with a level of authority did the change.

The persons saying this was a mistake might have plausible deniability as they may not be in a position to actually know if this is part of a long-term de-evaluation that was accidentally published. Remember, they’ve already changed the meaning of a “night” at some brands.

Since this particular "mistake" is related to just website publication, I highly doubt this would be a prank unless someone in IT was fired and (s)he wanted to give a parting gift. I am certain, Marriott is actively working on it and we'd soon see these changes.

If Marriott cuts the base earning to 5 points per dollar at brands that make up a majority of its properties within North America, it will be virtually impossible for anyone just starting out or anyone who isn't a full-time road warrior on a large expense account to ever accumulate enough points for redemption at aspirational properties.

While Marriott's large footprint will insulate some properties (like those in small towns and other markets with little chain competition), this could be a massive blunder because anyone who cares about points won't stay at the limited service properties. Not only will that hurt the bottom line of owners, but it will ultimately cost corporate money.

It's not unheard of to see Fairfields and Courtyards with nightly rates as expensive or, in some cases, more expensive than a Delta, Marriott or Sheraton. Why would you stay at a Courtyard? It would make no sense (or cents).

This was an early release of what's to come. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to ask how that chart would just randomly appear on Marriott's website.

Don't forget, Marriott is paying a bunch of points out through branded credit cards to both Chase and Amex for stays.

Someone released it too early. A lot of times, engineers develop multiple versions of the site for each major release milestones. Some of those are simultaneously developed. A release engineer probably fat fingered the wrong release and rolled it back afterwards.

This is not to say that would be the final changes, but it shows they are thinking of changing some of those aspects.

Many web pages do, in fact, right themselves every time from program code merged with data . I have no idea whether that's happening in this case, but it's possible.

The most likely explanation is that was discussed for the future and released early or tabled for further discussion but someone misunderstood (the later case allowing the statement you got from Marriott to be technically true).

That said, his could it happen "by accident"? If the page, or at least the earning rate section, is generated either on demand or as a static site generation process (which seems possible given the complexity of the program) then it's entirely possible that a programmer might have made a naive code simplification that would put some hotels into the wrong section. It's also possible that a DB admin might have "cleaned up" the database by "correcting" some values that appeared incorrect to them.

So I believe that happened? No, but it's an example of how it could.

Nice try, Skadden would never be caught dead in a Choice Hotel

If you believe the Marriott explanation I have some Enron stock to sell you

Here's an example. The Detroit suburb of Livonia. The Marriott is $107. The Courtyard (literally right next door) is also $107. The Fairfield a short drive away is $91. At Detroit's airport in Romulus, the Sheraton is $156, the Marriott is $156 and the Courtyard is $156.

At the Marriott as a platinum or higher, I'll get (1) a choice at check-in of 1,000 points or a $10 F&B credit and (2) a second choice at check-in of 750 points or breakfast in the restaurant if the club lounge is closed.

At the Sheraton as a platinum or higher, I'll get a choice at check-in of 1,000 points, an amenity, or breakfast in the restaurant. That's in addition to my club lounge access (assuming it's open).

At the Courtyard, I'll get one choice at check-in of 500 points or a $10 F&B voucher.

At the Fairfield, I'll get one choice at check-in of 500 points or a F&B item from the pantry.

Why would I book the Courtyard or Fairfield, especially if the number of points per dollar is cut in half?

There could be many innocent technical explanations for this. e.g. the website was coded to automatically pull the higher earning brands from one database table and the lower earning brands from a different database table.

In this hypothetical scenario, they could have moved some brands around in their database without intending to alter points earning policy but the way the website was coded it caused this unintended change.

The above is a very simplified example of one of 100s of technical reasons why this might have happened without being indicative of any policy change. Thats not to say it is definitely an innocent technical mistake, but there are many ways it could be.

I might suggest that there is something to panic about- for anyone who is planning on earning Marriott points in the future.

Fair to generally assume the worst with Marriott I would stay. They think they are too big to fail, and habe some degree of industry power, and thus and can generally ratchet down benefits and customer service over time.

It's entirely possible someone within Marriott's loyalty division under David Flueck disagreed with the direction Bonvoy was going and sought to undermine a planned devaluation by accidentally leaking it ahead of time. Especially if that person is one of the people whose jobs is being eliminated as part of Marriott's $100 million corporate downsizing.

Off topic but Marriott related. Currently staying at Sheraton Grand Taipei. I’m lifetime Titanium and used points for 5 nights (w 5th free). As I recall when I booked I think it was around 160,000 points for entire stay (40,000/night for 4 nights plus free 1). I was upgraded to a 2 room diplomat suite and the lounge is amazing with extensive breakfast (Western and Asian), afternoon tea and a 3 hour happy hour with open bar plus many varieties of hot food (could easily be dinner).

Just letting you know point value and upgraded delivery does exist, just need to usually look outside the US

“not indicative of any future changes.”

They only need to move one brand between the categories compared to what was prematurely published, and the above statement would remain truthful albeit twisted!

Web Pages don’t write themselves… this is happening..

Reminding myself to come back here and flag that Marriott PR played you when this happens.

I work in tech. Usually the tech team creates a ticket based on a department's requirements. They then build it in a sandbox and the department tests it. Once approved, it is given a date to deploy to production. Very unlikely the web tech team updated the page by accident or for fun.

Marriott CEO is having quite a few glitches.
A year ago in February Marriott did not roll over Marriott Elite members who had airline status with United.
Despite members showing up at he airport, being surprised with no status and had to pay for their luggage (without the rollover), Marriott admitting to the Tech Glitch in their system, Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano decided not to reimburse those Marriott Elite members. So much for Lifetime Titanium members.

Now he promised Wall Street, $100 million in savings after an earnings call. People come people go.
As once famous NFL football coach Jerry Glanville told the ref, if you make calls like that, NFL means Not for Long for the coach, or perhaps even a CEO.

I would like to share that in event where you are redeeming and paying for a stay and they are overlapping stays for some valid reasons like mine. I have too many points and can afford to use it for a hotel nearer to where my meetings are held in the day and pay for a higher value room with great dining and views for the nite. BUT Marriott would ONLY credit the nites and meagre points for the redemption nites and NIL for the paid nites until you are able to prove that you stayed in the paid nites. So you have no say over how you use your redemption points. And in overlapping stays instead of crediting points and nites for the paid stay they wud do it for the redemption nites until you discover and prove otherwise. So in event where you want to use your hard earned redemption points make sure there are NO overlapping with paid nites. Or a better option wud be to use the redemption points at Marriott and go to any other hotels for paid nites. And you can forget about trying to reason or show prove cos the response is rather standard and insincere. Chat gpt can generate a more personal and sincere response.

They didn't "play him" if he's writing this article though. Ben is literally saying he suspects Marriott's PR is BS.

This kinda work has been my career and it's unlikely to be an error.
A large corporation like Marriott should have some type of Content Management System & process to update their web site. This requires a request for changes from the business users, probably some review by other stake holders, changes, localization,....before approval to be put live...
In short multiple steps, multiple people...
If it hadn't gone through much of that process, it wouldn't have gotten to the IT/web guys to make the actual changes to the site...

Marriott might still do it later as scheduled or push it back/change/cancel based on the reaction to this leak... but I'd call BS on "not indicative of future changes"

If this was indeed an error, Marriott's IT is a lot worse than I thought... and I didn't have a very high opinion of it as it was...

Highly suspect. Hopefully reports like this can walk them back from what appears to be a likely plan for a future date. Things such as this don't just happen and their denial is not surprising, companies, the government, etc. lie all the time.

As an IT guy who did work at Starwood, I believe they created this page intentionally so make new brands categorized as such. It can’t be an error to create that page. It might be an error of timing or it might be a decision to walk it back (at least for now) due to perceived or real backlash.