Dubai
In a move highly anticipated ever since the two hotel giants merged in 2016, Marriott International said on Tuesday that it was preparing to combine its Marriott Rewards loyalty programme with Starwood’s own scheme, the popular SPG.
Marriott said the resulting programme, which has yet to be named, would impact as many as 110 million travellers, who will now be able to earn, and redeem, points at 6,500 hotels across 127 countries.
Starting from August, members will be able to combine their separate Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and SPG accounts into a single account spanning the “entire loyalty portfolio,” a statement released by the company said.
It added that a new name for the merged programme would not be announced until 2019.
Starwood and Marriott came together in a $13.6 billion merger back in 2016, creating the world’s largest hotel company with over 5,700 properties, and 1.1 million rooms.
Analysts have noted that typically in mergers of this size, rewards programmes are cut back in scale and scope.
This does not appear to be the case for Marriott’s new, combined rewards programme, according to industry experts.
“Overall for the programme going forward, this works out to being about as good as we might have hoped for with the bulk of partnerships retained and even Starwood’s lucrative points transfers intact, albeit with less lucrative credit card earn — certainly for miles transfers,” said Gary Leff, a travel industry blogger who runs the popular website View From the Wing.
He added that Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood was seen as a play for scale and leverage with its partners. “The same applies to this programme. In order to access the best benefits you’ll need to stay more and spend more. But the larger footprint means it’s easier to give Marriott a greater portion of your wallet share. And the new program means in many ways it’s more valuable to do so,” Leff said.
