Yesterday I wrote a little post about the Wyndham Rewards program.  In it, I think I made it pretty clear that I don’t have anything against these hotel customer loyalty/encouragement programs, per se, but that I’m not the target audience for them.  I’m a “comb through the bid sites to find a deal for pennies on the dollars” kind of guy.

But that’s because I’m not a constant hotel guest and because I do tend to use hotels primarily when engaging in recreational activities with Mrs. Lampsen and the wee Lampsens.  We can be a little more flexible than the jet-setting, up-and-coming executive who has to take meetings in city after city, day after day.

In other words, I’m beginning to think that these reward programs might be AOK for the business traveler who doesn’t wants a little more than a cot and a hot because the road is “home sweet home” and the office rolled into one.

And with that in mind, I hereby recommend the Marriott Rewards program and other similar programs with other hotel chains for folks in that high-mileage demographic.  You might as well get something for your patronage.

The Marriott program is one of the grand-daddies of the industry.  It’s been around for over twenty-five years and it was one of the first of these systems that exanding point-earning opportunities beyond the hotel running the program.  Before Marriott Rewards, the idea of getting credit with one company for staying somewhere else wasn’t really getting a lot of traffic, apparently.

Here’s how it works.  You stay at the hotel.  You get points.  You cash in said points for room rate reductions, free stays, airline frequent flyer miles or other assorted swag.  That’s the core, anyway.

The thing is, these programs are so dressed up with doo-dahs and extras that they eventually become unimaginably detailed and complex.  That’s because there are so many different promos and so many different options.  The flexibility (which appears to be tremendous with Marriott Rewards) makes it difficult to determine its actual value.

So, how could I possible recommend signing up to join up with a messy, complicated knot that you can’t untie?  Here’s my thinking…

First, the Marriott program has stood the test of time. Over 25 years.  If you stink too miserably, you generally can’t hang on for over two decades.  Over that time, you’ll find a lot of people who love it, as evidenced by conversations on frequent traveler forums and elsewhere.

Second, there’s no real downside to joining.  You don’t spend any money to sign up and the worst thing that can happen is that you don’t get much, if anything back.  Look, if you’re going to be high-tailing it all around the world and living in hotels that fall under the Marriott Rewards umbrella anyway, you might as well try to score a little bit of something.

Third, people actually do get the hook up.  A little cursory research discovered that people get the miles, the hotel stays, the upgrades, etc.  It might not be as fast, cheap and easy as the marketing would lead you to believe, but it does happen.  Oh, and it looks like Marriott will shell out some bonus points upon occasion for anyone who happens to be a breathing member and they run other promotions.

Fourth, it’s not all about cashing in points.  There is a host of other perks associated with joining.  Easier check-in, better base rates, etc., etc., etc.

Finally, it looks like Marriott has some level of dedication to creating a loyalty program that matters.  They’ve dispatched their agents into the  world of online discussion boards and forums to find out what would make members happier.  They also seem to take the value of the program and its potential to make life at least a little better for their customers.

So, if you’re going to be staying with Marriott or its sister facilities, go ahead and sign up.

What’s the worst that can happen?