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I got an email this afternoon from a PR contact over at Marriott, alerting me to a new video that the CEO of Marriott, Arne Sorenson, just published talking about the recent Marriott acquisition of Starwood.

Marriott CEO video

In the video, he talks about how, now that he’s spoken to Wall Street and the employees of both Marriott and Starwood, he wanted to now speak to the guests (i.e. us)

A lot of the rest of it was rah-rah speak, talking about how they are going to prioritize the best of both companies (of course)

He also said that they will be developing their strategy over the next few months (I take that as meaning business as usual for awhile, which is to be expected), and that the SPG loyalty program was one of the most attractive things that Marriott was looking at.

Some other good quotes:

  • “We know that without a doubt these loyalty programs are the most powerful tool we have for developing strong relationships with our guests”
  • “Devaluing points or member benefits is NOT the way to preserve and strengthen these programs” (emphasis mine)

Watch the full video below

What do you think?  Personally, I think 1:3 (1 SPG point being worth 3 Marriott points) is about the bare minimum I’d accept as “not a devaluation”, and 1:4 or 1:5 would make me feel better.  I thought Frequent Miler had a great analysis of the subject the other day. On the flip side, at least I just won 10,000 Starpoints this morning 😛


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