Marriott Bonvoy has just reached an impressive milestone, which puts into perspective just how big this loyalty program is, and what an incredible marketing tool these programs can be.
World’s largest hotel loyalty program now has 200 million members
Marriott Bonvoy is already the world’s largest travel loyalty program, and has just passed yet another impressive milestone, as it now has 200 million members. Wow, that’s a lot of members, and a huge pool of people to market to!
I do find the story around this “celebration” quite funny, though. Marriott has identified one specific member as being the 200 millionth person to enroll. This was someone named Nino, who signed up for the program at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai.
The hotel celebrated this with a cake and a champagne toast. Not only that, but Marriott’s SVP of Loyalty and Marriott’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer happened to be at the hotel as well. What a coincidence. 😉 Joking aside, I can of course understand the challenging logistics here, and wanting to at least celebrate someone.
In addition to the celebration, Marriott rewarded Nino with 200,000 Bonvoy points plus two free night awards.
How does this compare to other loyalty programs?
Admittedly bigger isn’t always better, but how does the membership of Marriott Bonvoy compare to that of other hotel and airline loyalty programs? Well, Bonvoy is the biggest travel loyalty program in the world, but that might not be the case for long.
Skift had an interesting story in late 2023 about the growth rates of various hotel loyalty programs:
- Hilton Honors has roughly 173 million members
- IHG One Rewards has roughly 100 million members
- World of Hyatt has roughly 42 million members
What’s interesting is the difference in growth rates between programs. Over the past five years, Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt have seen a roughly 110% growth rate, while Marriott Bonvoy has seen a roughly 60% growth rate. So Hilton Honors may very well overtake Marriott Bonvoy as the largest loyalty program in the near future, if that trend continues.
For those curious about airline loyalty program membership, American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, and United MileagePlus, are all believed to have somewhere in the range of 100 million to 120 million members. Those programs continue to grow at a fast pace, given the incentives that these airlines provide for signing up (Delta offers free Wi-Fi to SkyMiles members, American offers earlier boarding for AAdvantage members, etc.).
What’s interesting is how big the drop off is after that, as the next airline loyalty program doesn’t even have half as many members. For example, take Emirates Skywards, with Emirates being a globally known airline. Emirates only has around 30 million people enrolled in its program.
Bottom line
Marriott Bonvoy is celebrating that it now has over 200 million members, which is an impressive milestone. Marriott Bonvoy is the largest travel loyalty program in the world, with Hilton Honors being a close second. Given the difference in growth rates, Hilton Honors may very well become the biggest program soon.
What do you make of Marriott Bonvoy’s impressive milestone?
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