Eat Around Town by Marriott Bonvoy™
As you are aware, in February 2019, Marriott International launched our new loyalty program — Marriott Bonvoy™. With Marriott Bonvoy, we have a greater opportunity to capture customer attention and preference for Marriott as the world’s favorite travel company.
Looking ahead, we want our 133 million members to choose Marriott International throughout their entire travel experience — taking advantage of the new opportunities within our loyalty program, which we believe in turn will drive more share of wallet to hotels and owners.
To bring this vision to life, we continue to pursue new business development opportunities across travel categories, including food and beverage. Marriott is committed to achieving excellence in food and beverage, and creating compelling experiences for guests. This includes showcasing our craft at restaurants and bars at Marriott hotels, as well as off-property restaurants.
To this end, earlier this week, Marriott announced the launch in the U.S. of Eat Around Town by Marriott Bonvoy™, a dining program that offers members and associates (who reside in the U.S.) the ability to earn Marriott Bonvoy points by registering their credit card(s) and dining at the more than 11,000 Rewards Network establishments across the U.S.
Following are key facts about the program. Please refer to the FAQs on MGS for additional details.
- What is Rewards Network? Rewards Network is one of the largest promotional programs for the restaurant industry in the U.S. that provides marketing to independent restaurants.
- How much will members earn? Members will earn a specific number of points per $1 spent based on their level of membership, starting at four points per $1 spent with additional benefits for Elite members (Silver status and above) and special limited time offers. Plans are also underway to offer even more points to co-brand credit card holders.
- Will Marriott International restaurants participate? On-property restaurants will not participate at launch; however, we are currently testing how to provide Marriott Bonvoy members the opportunity to earn and redeem points on property when a customer is not charging to their folio. The rollout of this initiative (and enabling technical capability) is expected to launch in late 2020. Once this happens, Rewards Network will be given the opportunity to also market participation in their overall program to on-property restaurants (at cost).
- What are the benefits to Marriott? From a customer perspective, Eat Around Town enables members to earn even more Marriott Bonvoy points through a high-frequency activity — dining. From a business perspective, Rewards Network will pay Marriott International a premium over the cost of Marriott Bonvoy points. A portion of these earnings will be reinvested into the continued enhancement and expansion of the Marriott Bonvoy travel program to the benefit of our customers and owners.
- What is the cost to owners? There is no cost to owners for the launch of this program.
- When will this expand outside of the United States? This program will likely stay in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Rewards Network operates in the U.S. only and does not have plans to expand internationally. Marriott International will engage with owners should this change.
We appreciate your support and partnership, and look forward to the opportunity to enhance the Marriott Bonvoy travel program to further capture share with consumers and drive results for all.
