View from the Wing awards “Rolleyes Award” to Marriott Rewards

Marriott sent out a press release today announcing that they had received several travel awards.

    Marriott Hotels & Resorts was named by readers of Travel Savvy as the best domestic hotel chain, and Marriott Rewards as the best hotel rewards program. Travel Savvy is a travel lifestyle magazine that covers international and domestic destinations, fashion, design, food, travel news and celebrity travel trends.


    Readers of Executive Travel, a lifestyle magazine for business travelers, gave Marriott Hotels & Resorts top honors in the following categories: best hotel chain; best for customer service; and best hotel chain for meetings. Marriott Rewards was selected as the best frequent guest program.

Ah, yes, the famous annual rankings from Travel Savvy and Executive Travel. Those are much anticipated each year, with management of various travel providers waking up with night sweats worried over how they’ll do.

Kinda reminds me of Beaches and Sandals advertising that they’re voted “World’s Best.”

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with Marriott. But these so-called “awards” don’t strike me as especially credible. And while they offer a respectable awards program, there’s no way that Marriott offers the best frequent guest program — especially when they revised their terms and conditions this year to make clear that top-level elites are not entitled to suite upgrades.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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