One small change makes Marriott Bonvoy less sympathetic.

The latest version of the terms and conditions of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program brought a small change. A change that will probably impact less than 10% of program members and certainly designed by the hotel chain to limit fraudulent use of Bonvoy points.

What changes

The program had a cap on the number of award nights a user could book for third parties. Previously, a member of the hotel chain's loyalty program could in fact book, using points, a maximum of 20 rooms not for himself.

Now this limitation has been Lowered to a maximum of 5 reservations per year.

As mentioned most members will not often happen to book rooms for friends and relatives. Probably the management of the loyalty program thus thought to put a limit on all the fraudulent uses that are made by exploiting Bonvoy points.

However, there is a need to consider that users who travel a lot and reach the higher levels of the Bonvoy program can easily accumulate hundreds of thousands of points each year, and many of these points can be used to book a stay at one of the many More exclusive hotels such as the St. Regis in Bangkok or some resorts in the Maldives.

However, it is just as easy to think that a user with so many points can Decide to give a vacation to a couple of friends who are getting married, to a friend who is retiring, or to children who want to take a trip. Thus, placing a limit of only 5 reservations is much worse than the current limit of 20 reservations.

It happened to me with Hilton to book hotel nights for a family member of mine who had to move and was Repeatedly in the Milan area for visits. Using points was much more convenient than paying the fare, especially at special times such as Salone del Mobile, Fashion Week...

In conclusion

If Marriott wants to stop those who cunningly exploit the Bonvoy program, it is only fair that they defend themselves, but not at the cost of penalizing users who by doing so are not free to use the points as they see fit.

• Bonvoy