Marriott Trialling Rewards For Non-Staying Guests

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In what may be an idea taken from Starwood’s SPG program, Marriott is testing out a program for customers visiting their restaurants, bars and coffee shops but who aren’t staying at their properties. The idea behind this is to reward customers who regularly visit Marriott properties for business meetings (for example) without actually booking a room.

The Starwood’s SPG program (which will, at some point, be engulfed by Marriott Rewards once Marriott’s takeover of Starwood is complete) has offered Starpoints for stand-alone restaurant spend for a number of years so this may be another move by Marriott to more closely align some of the benefits of the two programs.

The new incentive scheme will see Marriott Rewards members earn 10 points per dollar spent at F&B outlets at Marriott properties in the Washington D.C and Baltimore areas between now and 21 June (which is the same as what base-level Marriott Rewards members earn when they stay at Marriott’s full-service properties). There’s no news as to whether Marriott’s Elites will get extra points based on their elite status level.

USA Today reports that Thom Kozik, VP of Global Loyalty for Marriott, says that the idea was born out of his own experience of spending thousands of dollars, over two years, on business meetings at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles without any Marriott Rewards program recognition.

Don’t be fooled into thinking Marriott’s being generous here…they know what they’re doing.

Marriott is aware that, if successful, this new incentive will not only boost loyalty to the Marriott brand but will also give the corporation a vast amount of new data on their non-staying guests – which is a big point of a loyalty program in the first place.

The bar at the JW Marriott Washington DC

The participating properties are as follows:

• The Mayflower Hotel, Autograph Collection
• Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards
• Baltimore Marriott Waterfront
• Bethesda Marriott
• Bethesda Marriott Suites
• Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
• Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport
• Crystal Gateway Marriott
• Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park
• Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center
• Greenbelt Marriott
• JW Marriott Washington, DC
• Key Bridge Marriott
• Marriott Marquis Washington, DC
• Tysons Corner Marriott
• Washington Marriott Georgetown
• Washington Marriott Wardman Park
• Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel
• Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel
• Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel
• Renaissance Washington, DC Dupont Circle Hotel

For now (i.e for the trial), the receipts that customers will receive from the F&B outlets will have codes printed on them that will need to be entered into a website (detail of this website will presumably be on the receipts) in order for the points to be credited to the customers’ Marriott Rewards accounts.

Bottom Line

While this innovation to the Marriott Rewards program (if it gets rolled out) won’t be particularly beneficial to me, I can see it being very popular with a large number of Marriott’s business clientele. Not only will this make it even easier to rack up Marriott Rewards points for free nights (up to 15 points per dollar if they use the Marriott Rewards credit card from Chase) but it will also make meeting the thresholds for Marriott lifetime status a lot easier for them too.

I don’t see this changing too many people’s dining habits from a personal standpoint (I spend more than enough times in hotels as it is without going into my local Marriotts for dinner just to earn some more points) but, for those who visit for business meetings or conferences but don’t actually stay at the Marriott, this will be a welcome bonus.