With the easing of lockdown globally, the world is beginning to travel again and business travellers seek hotel accommodation for their meetings and engagements with associates.
It is also time to make use of the accumulated hotel reward points or get onboard a loyalty programme. Of course, one of the global hotel loyalty programmes to take advantage of is the new Marriott Bonvoy.
It would be recalled that in August 2018, Marriott International, the largest global hotel chain, announced plans for a unified loyalty programme. The Maryland, Usa-based hospitality giant assured that the reward programme would be the largest in the global hospitality landscape.
As well, in February 2019, Marriott International replaced Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), its three reward system, with Marriott Bonvoy.
Read Also: Restaurant lockdown: La taverna is back and open after the global pandemic
Now unified under Bonvoy, the reward programme gives Marriott’s 110 million members access to the largest, most extraordinary and diverse collection of properties in the world, to seamlessly book, earn and redeem for the first time ever across 29 participating brands and 6500 hotels in 127 countries and territories.
Marriott Bonvoy offers the best of the three rewards programmes. While Marriott Rewards offered great rewards for all guests, particularly for members with modest number of stays, SPG provided particularly attractive rewards for travelers at the upper tiers. Under Bonvoy, Marriott stepped up its game by combining the best of both, with attractive offerings at each tier. In addition, Bonvoy increases the number of points earned for each dollar spent and offers additional opportunities for members to earn points.
Moreover Marriott Bonvoy loyalty programme is unmatched in the world because of the additional 110,000 new experiences on Moments in 1000 destinations and Moments Live, a collection of premiere musical and culinary events powered by Marriot’s partnerships with iconic brands.
Also, members of the loyalty programme who love to travel to pursue their passions or seek out incredible experiences that will last a lifetime can share with friends and family and on social media.
At the unveiling of the loyalty programme two years ago, Marriott International launched a global marketing campaign that introduced Marriott Bonvoy (MarriottBonvoy.com). The campaign celebrated Marriott Bonvoy as a travel programme with the tagline “Rewards Reimagined” through its 30 hotel brands, extraordinary experiences and rich member benefits. The comprehensive campaign encompassed advertising across television, digital video, mobile, print, social media, out of home, and cinema, as well as, special events and member access to partner experiences around passion points like sports and entertainment. In addition, Marriott’s websites and mobile apps, co-branded credit cards and original content such as Marriott Bonvoy guest-room television and digital publication Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, all reflected the new name.
In Nigeria, members can take advantage of the unified loyalty programme at the four Marriott International hotels including; Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Four Points by Sheraton Lagos and Le Meridien Ogeyi Place; the hotels participating in Bonvoy programme and members can earn and redeem their points while staying at these hotels.
Also, Nigeria was one of the key markets for Marriott International dedicated loyalty consumer research in 2018. Meanwhile, Marriott International has been engaging with its loyalty members in Nigeria on a regular basis through their passion points, such as the SPG Golf tournament in Port Harcourt, and building its brand equity with the members.
The Group believes that the new programme is bound to resonate with the aspirational and affluent Nigerian traveler, as the members can earn more, earn faster and can pursue their passions, which is what makes it the industry’s leading and richest loyalty programme.
It is of note that Marriott International has a strong footprint in Nigeria, and the Nigerian traveler is familiar with its brands and what they stand for. Over the years, this has given the Group the opportunity to tap into the growing Nigerian outbound travel business with the belief that they will look for Marriott brands and its new loyalty programme, which allows them to seamlessly book, earn and redeem across Marriott’s portfolio globally.
