With any brand, it pays to be a loyal customer. So why not delve into the travel industry and pick out a transportation or accommodation company that will ultimately benefit you in the long run?

In this blog, we’ll be focusing on brand loyalty, specifically hotel loyalty with Marriott. If you know us, then you know that we absolutely love the Marriott brand and portfolio. It’s the biggest chain hotel brand in the world, what more can you say? Believe it or not, I never was the type of person to enroll in rewards programs. I always shrugged it off and thought to myself, “how often will I be using/buying this again?” Even when it came to traveling, I was more of a budget traveler looking to find the cheapest independently owned hotel, a hostel, or splitting with a group of friends for an Airbnb. Hotel chains to me were expensive, and don’t get me wrong, they still can be. But that’s the thing, I didn’t really know how to efficiently book hotels.

Fast forward to later in my life, and I finally got myself my first travel credit card: the American Express Platinum Card. Although it has a high annual fee, the benefits seemed to cancel out the cost. With that card came automatic Marriott Gold status. I instantly thought I was the hottest thing, feeling empowered that I finally held status with SOMETHING. That was the start of my brand loyalty journey with the Marriott Bonvoy program.

We recently achieved Platinum status with Marriott (cheated by getting the Amex Bonvoy Brilliance card), and have absolutely no regrets despite the insanely high annual fee. We had an upcoming 3-week vacation in Malaysia and wanted to put our newly attained status to the test; and let me tell you, IT. WAS. WORTH. EVERY. PENNY. Every single Marriott property we stayed at upgraded our rooms, plus the other included benefits were just the cherry on top. To put the savings into perspective, breakfast wasn’t included in our booking. It was a fee of $40 USD per person per day if you wanted to have the included breakfast. Well guess what? We got it for freeee babyyyyy. To make things even better, the breakfast options were top tier. I’m Malaysian myself, and some of the food options at some of the Marriott properties were as authentic as you can get.

To sum it all up, if you’re an avid traveler and have not yet committed to any sort of loyalty rewards program, you need to do that ASAP. Whether that’s flights, hotels, or car rentals, research the benefits of each brand and pick a favorite based on your preferences.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for my next tip where I’ll go over how to maximize your Marriott stays, accumulate points efficiently, and spend points effectively.

Till next time, Reef