Marriott has just hosted its first “Member’s Day”… Could it signal the future of loyalty in hospitality?
Repeat customers are more valuable now than they’ve ever been. And acquiring a new one is harder than ever.
Between 2022 and 2025, Adobe found the cost to acquire new customers in travel and hospitality rose by around 35%, while customer lifetime value grew around 4.5%.
Points and perks aren’t enough anymore.
So how do hotels like Marriott stay close to the customer?
→ Guests tested new products, previewed rooms, and shared unfiltered feedback
→ Chief Customer Officer Peggy Roe turned the event into a live focus group
→ Nearly all of Marriott’s C-suite showed up
This is a signal of just how critical direct customer relationships have become.
Marriott’s CEO Anthony Capuano gets it. He’s transforming Bonvoy from a ‘transactional system’ into an emotional one, learning directly from loyal customers why they keep spending with Marriott.
In a market where discovery is happening on social, bookings are shifting from search to AI tools, loyalty can no longer equate to just a loyalty scheme.
Marriott International’s approach to loyalty could be the way hotels capture changing consumer behaviour for long lasting, profitable relationships.
