Reservations Platform Overview
Since the announcement of the Starwood merger in September 2016, our most loyal guests have been anticipating the combination of our loyalty programs and the ability to search for and book hotels across the entire portfolio. We are pleased to share that as of 11:44 p.m. ET on August 18, our three loyalty programs – Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) – are now one powerful, unified program, allowing our 110 million members to earn, book, and redeem across 6,700 properties. At the same time, we completed the deployment of EMPOWER: Guest Experiences + Mobile, EMPOWER: Reservations, the new Marriott.com and SPG.com, and the new SPG Mobile App.
Additionally, beginning on August 20, members are able to combine accounts and use one profile to earn status. To learn more about what this means for members, view Marriott’s press release or visit members.marriott.com. While we experienced some challenges that were not unexpected with a deployment of this size and scale, overall feedback from guests and associates was overwhelmingly positive, and many of the issues identified have already been corrected.
We thank you for your continued support in ensuring your hotels are prepared to execute against these new member benefits and deliver a seamless guest experience. And, now that the combined loyalty program is live and being stabilized, we are preparing to shift gears to focus on the upcoming Reservations Platform cutovers for SPG hotels.
In deploying the Reservations Platform, we are migrating SPG hotels onto the Marriott reservation, revenue management, property management, and sales and catering systems and tools. This change is monumental for SPG hotels, which includes transitioning 1,700+ properties to 17 new systems and tools. With this in mind, we would like to provide an update, as well as resources for owners and management companies of SPG hotels.
The deployment of the Reservations Platform represents a different type of complexity than the Loyalty launch, with all SPG hotels converting over to Marriott systems over 13 weeks in 2018. SPG properties are required to transition by wave, as outlined in the Deployment Schedule by Brand.
Due to technical dependencies, it was necessary that we complete the launch of the new Loyalty program before the pre-deployment iT work could begin for the September 18 wave of the Reservations Platform.
CUTOVER PLAN and SYSTEMS
The Reservations Platform deployment approach requires all hotels to complete all tasks by their respective due dates. This is to ensure all property systems (except CI/TY, GPO/SFAWeb, One Source, SRW and OYv2) can cut over on their specified date during Night Audit.
We remain dedicated to minimizing disruption to hotel teams and guests. In doing so, we’d like to remind you:
- For on-property systems, we anticipate existing property hardware investments will be able to be leveraged (notwithstanding any performance or maintenance issues) for this migration.
- Above-property systems were evaluated as an ecosystem, and given its ability to scale and the rate at which it processes transactions, as well as certain transformation projects underway (e.g., the rollout of the Enhanced Reservation Solution, (ERS)), we chose to proceed with the Marriott ecosystem. Being on one ecosystem enables cost efficiencies and revenue synergies, driving profitability for hotels and owners.
To learn more about the benefits of these key systems, view the applicable system overview:
To view the systems your hotels are transitioning to, refer to the Systems Transition Database.
OUTAGES and COMMAND CENTER
Similar to the approach for Launch Day, we are establishing Command Centers around the globe, which will act in an oversight capacity to track cutover activities as they are completed, provide 24-hours support to associates on-property that may have urgent issues, and to keep stakeholders apprised of the progress. Given the multiple, overlapping cutover dates of the Reservations Platform deployment, Command Centers will be active from late August through mid-December. Through each cutover, we are also implementing a simple process to ensure associates understand all the support channels that are available to them so they receive help when they need it.
The Loyalty launch had a more systemic customer impact; whereas, the Reservations Platform deployment will affect the systems used by associates. It’s important to remember that while Marriott internal systems (i.e., CI/TY, PMS, etc.) may have outages through each cutover, reservations can always be made by guests throughout cutover. There is no change to this process.
CONTINUITY PLANNING
Should issues arise during cutover, we have developed comprehensive continuity plans. While associates can expect little impact on guests, we are prepared to communicate with associates to complement existing continuity plans if needed.
We encourage franchise management companies to ensure adequate staffing is in place during the cutover period, especially in the event of any system outages or the need for manual work.
TRAINING & LAND-IT
Certain property functions have a significant amount of associate training to complete in advance of their Reservations Platform cutover. It is critical that all relevant training be completed. Additionally, the volume and level of effort of Land-It tasks required will not be able to be met if hotels are behind on their deadlines.
Many hotels did not complete training on time for compliance on August Launch Day. This impacts a hotel’s ability to deliver a seamless guest experience; and, if it occurs for Reservations Platform cutover training, may result in a revenue impact. While we are aware that some associates experienced challenges accessing the Digital Learning Platform (DLP) for their Loyalty training, we believe many of the challenges have been resolved and should not impact future training.
It’s critical that properties remain on track with all Land-It tasks, not just milestones. If training is not complete, or Land-It tasks are not met, properties may be unable to transition with their brand and would then have to implement manual processes to continue sales and operations. Given the implications, we ask for your support as we approach the critical timeframe for hotels to complete their readiness activities.
NEXT STEPS FOR FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT COMPANIES
In preparation for the Reservations Platform wave cutovers, we will be asking all SPG franchise management companies to join a wave-specific webinar, approximately one month prior to cutover. These webinars will share important updates regarding critical timeframes, hotel experience, preparation activities, the Reservations Platform escalation process, support processes, resources, and next steps.
We appreciate your continued support and your hotels’ preparation for the transition to Marriott systems on their brand cutover date. Should you have any questions, please let us know.