After expressing interest from a general public notice in the official Marriott Bonvoy Insiders group, I received a confirmed invitation to the Marriott Bonvoy 5th Anniversary Party at Marriott Headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
The invite only event occurred on February 22nd, 2024 and was held at the Marriott Bethesda Downtown at Marriott HQ. The hotel is next to Marriott International Headquarters – the properties share a courtyard between the buildings, named after former CEO Arne M. Sorenson. MaureenTravels and I attended this event, along with a couple hundred Marriott staff and a small number of other invited Marriott Bonvoy Members.
The evening began with a reception with open bar and plenty of finger foods and snacks. We then took a tour of floor 57 – which is the floor in the hotel that has prototypes of rooms across the brand spectrum. While we’ve stayed at many of the brands, it was fun to see rooms from brands like Moxy and AC that we have not stayed at before, as well as what some of the new rooms look like for new and newly remodeled Courtyards, Delta Hotels, Sheratons and more.
Following the Floor 57 tour, we spent an hour+ networking with Marriott Staff from all spectrums of operations – the Corporate Team, the Bonvoy Team, Reservations and more. We had the pleasure of having an excellent, slightly lengthy conversation with Peter Volpe who has oversight for the breakfast program/benefits as well as some functions of the M Club. I’m hoping we’ll start seeing Bubly Sparkling Water in more M Club/Lounge Fridges in the not too near future 🙂
We also enjoyed meeting other Marriott Bonvoy Members – we met quite a few while taking in the Floor 57 tour, checking out the Taylor Swift Friendship Bracelet booth, the fresh flowers that were being put into custom bouqets, chatting at the beverage or food stations, sharing a table while eating or just general conversation while walking around the room.
The night didn’t include a lot of “emceed” conversation, but what I was very surprised about was the small number of Marriott Bonvoy members in attendance. During the brief “emcee” conversation a “raise your hand” question came up – raise your hand if you’re from Corporate, part of the Bonvoy Team, part of the Social Media Team, part of the reservations team. When Bonvoy Members were asked to raise their hands, it was a small number of people – likely no more than 20%. This solidified for me just how exclusive attending this event was for Bonvoy members.
Following this, there was a ~30 minute Q&A/conversation with Kristen Kish – host of Top Chef and a couple other food/chef based TV shows. It was a fun and entertaining way to cap off a great night.
At the end of the night, there was some SWAG giveaways that included a nice Bonvoy 5th Anniversary canvas tote, a Bonvoy Yeti mug, a note from Tony Capuano and a custom bouquest of flowers, if you chose to have one created for you.
Overall a really fun night that we’re very fortunate to get invited to.
Cheers Bonvoy, here’s to another great 5 years!
