World Tourism Network, the voice of Small and Medium Travel and Tourism Stakeholders and their destinations and partners is calling for larger hotel groups, such as Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham, and Accor not to use their size and market share to bully guests, travel agencies, home-based travel advisors and tour operators, and meeting planners in denying award points and stay credits when a booking to their hotel was made through such a third-party provider.
Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, Hilton Hhonor, Accor Live Limitless, Wyndham Rewards, and other popular frequent stay programs require guests to maintain stays in the brand of their choice to get status and benefits. Staying 60+ nights a year travelers will reach the Hyatt Globalist status, for example, allowing for free breakfast, no resort fees, lounge access, suite upgrades, and bonus points.
It appears frequent stay programs are designed to maintain loyalty but also to punish travelers for using a travel agency, a tour operator, or an event organizer to book stays. All major reward programs decline giving points to travelers when booked through what they refer to as a “third party”.
WTN Chairman Juergen Steinmetz finds this unfair and is urging its travel agency and tour operator members to avoid booking their guests in hotels branded Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham, and Accor Live Limitless. Steinmetz says: “Agencies that book clients in such large hotel groups may most likely lose such clients for repeat business, once clients realize they won’t get points in these popular loyalty programs.”
“A large percentage of travelers still book packages and hotel stays through agencies. For “third party booking agents” to boycott Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham, and Accor would have an immediate impact on those companies and may encourage a change in their discriminatory policies.”
Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham, and Accor make it however very clear to their guests that they don’t appreciate their business if it is booked through an agency. Their goal is that next time around such a client will book directly, and the agency will lose them.
It’s a direct bully attack by large companies against so many hard-working agents employed or working independently for small or medium-sized travel businesses. Marriott is going a step further in having developed a booking program for business clients to book directly bypassing travel planners.
More surprising is the policy by hotel giants when meeting planners to book events at their properties. Business clients attending events at such a hotel and when booking through the event organizer are most likely forfeiting all hotel status benefits and points. Hyatt Tampa told eTN that in some cases their hotel managers may implement exceptions.
In many cases, travel planners and guests are not aware of this. This causes issues in a provider-client relationship not only between the hotel and its frequent stay guests. It has the potential to destroy a relationship with the third provider, especially with SMEs and home-based agencies, threatening their ability to maintain clients and, in some cases, stay in business.
Secondly, it makes meeting planners and also trade shows or those organizing or holding such meetings look bad and may lower participation in events.
Steinmetz says: “Even if agencies would tolerate such discriminations, or sell reduced package rates, consumers should get hotel stay credit, so they can reach their status tiers.”
The World Tourism Network advocacy committee sees this as an opportunity to support the many SME-size independent hotels and urges its 23,000+ members in 133 countries to do so.
“We’ve seen when airlines eliminated commissions. Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Wyndham, and Accor are taking this discrimination a step further and openly punishing consumers for selecting a third-party channel when booking travel.
“I am puzzled why any agency would continue to support hotel giants with such a policy in place. At our WTN summit at a Marriott-branded hotel last year 3 of our delegates were very upset and asked for money back when they realized they wouldn’t get points,” said WTN Chairman Steinmetz.
“One of our delegates, who is also a well-known personality in the global travel industry lost his platinum status last year at Marriott by not getting points for the four nights he stayed because of our summit.”
There was no response from any of the mentioned hotel firms. However frustrating sales agents and front desk managers often confirm they get such complaints constantly, but “corporate” is firm with this policy.
The World Tourism Network is calling on third-party providers, including meeting planners, not to do business with such hotels unless their clients specifically agree to forfeit their ability to earn points.
World Tourism Network is calling on Marriott, Hyatt, Accor, Wyndham, and Hilton to understand and respect the importance of small and medium-sized travel agencies and to stop forcing their customers not to do business with such agents. WTN feels this policy is also bad for the reputation of large hotel companies offering a frequent-stay program.
Not giving expected benefits to their loyal guests has the opposite effect of loyalty. It is unfair, and borders on fraud and misrepresentation. Such hotels should start seeing third-party providers as their allies and not enemies. They should see guests as those who generate business for them. They must stop seeing third-party providers as competitors.
For such hotels to punish their frequent guests by withholding expected benefits will result in a loss of business and loyalty and generate bad feelings among everyone in the service supply chain.
“The result is the opposite of creating loyalty”, Steinmetz added.
WTN members can contact the World Tourism Network with comments.
WTN can submit advocacy requests on the WTN website.
Membership in WTN starts from $2.50 a month. Click here to join.
