Marriott Revamps Loyalty Program Post-Breach

As Marriott International recovers from a data breach, the company is rebranding its loyalty program as Marriott Bonvoy.  That offering will roll out in mid-February, along with new branding and a new logo in its hotels and online, USA Today reported.

Marriott Global Chief Commercial Officer Stephanie Linnartz said, according to the outlet, that the offering “has the largest and deepest portfolios of hotels in the world. We really have something for every consumer.” As it stands, Marriott has 6,700 properties and more than 30 brands, as well as a presence in nearly 130 countries.

With the rollout, the program will bring two new names to levels of elite status. Platinum Premier Elite (for guests who stay over 75 nights) will be supplanted by Titanium Elite. At the same time, Ambassador Elite will take the place of Platinum Premier Elite for customers who spend more than $20,000 a year and stay over 100 nights. The report also noted that the company is placing a focus on experiences with the new offering.

The news comes after Marriott said earlier this month that the total amount of guest records involved in a Starwood database security incident was less than initially disclosed. However, the company said at the time that unencrypted passport numbers — 5.25 million of them — were “accessed by an unauthorized third party.” It noted, though, that  “there is no evidence that the unauthorized third party accessed the master encryption key needed to decrypt the encrypted passport numbers.”

Marriott President and Chief Executive Officer Arne Sorenson said at the time of the update, “We want to provide our customers and partners with updates based on our ongoing work to address this incident as we try to understand as much as we possibly can about what happened. As we near the end of the cyber forensics and data analytics work, we will continue to work hard to address our customers’ concerns and meet the standard of excellence our customers deserve and expect from Marriott.”