Marriott-Starwood Merger

Loyalty Program Merge

  • 30 Brands

  • 7,000 Properties

  • 3 Loyalty Programs

  • 110 Million Members

One part of the merge was member benefits.

Goal

Merge The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Marriott Rewards and SPG into one new loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy.

Challenges

Collaborate with 14 departments to merge 30 year-old complex reward programs under strict legal deadline.

Results

Successfully merged three programs before legal deadline and with full ADA compliance.

14 DEPARTMENTS

DIGITAL LOYALTY UX

RESERVATIONS

REWARDS

PROMOTIONS

OPERATIONS

CUSTOMER CARE

HOTEL WEBSITES

MOBILE

BRANDING

STANDARDS

MARKETING

PRODUCT OWNERS

DEVELOPERS

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Merge Highlights

  • The Ritz-Carlton Rewards

  • Marriott Rewards

  • Starwood Preferred Guest

  • Merging Accounts

  • Brand Rollout

  • Points Conversion

  • Status Matching

  • Educate what didn't change

  • Educate what did change

  • Changes to Cobrand

  • Company-Wide Collaboration Workshops

  • Scaling team increased design urgency

  • Waterfall for Quicker Delivery

  • Hefty Fines if Deadline Not Met

  • ADA Compliance Under Tight Deadline

CASE STUDY

Free Night Reward Program

The Free Night reward program was an important part of the merged Marriott and Starwood loyalty programs. It was important to get all changes implemented properly as any change could have significant financial impact. For example, the free updates to the rewards system for redeeming free stays at hotels cost the Rewards Team $500,000 in one month. Rules for redeeming awards across properties and dates needed clear communication. I led the UX effort to align teams and translate requirements into a unified omnichannel experience.

Three-Phased Solution

Phase 1

  • New taxonomy rollout #1

  • Education on new award system

  • Education on how to use new award

Phase 2

  • Taxonomy rollout #2

  • Education on upcoming changes to Free Night Awards

Phase 3 – Launch New Free Night Award System

  • Taxonomy rollout #3

  • New Free Night Award system introduced

Result

The issue was resolved and did not require further attention in the future.

Press Recogniton

”The [account linking] process is very simple”
- The Points Guy, 1.8M followers