Im no expert, but...works for me

I am not a tech savvy, app loving, digital-age, human being. So I cannot address the complaints of reviewers who clearly navigate their lives on line. In general, I prefer a professional, helpful, real live human being (if Ive a question to ask, a bill to pay, I need to check in, or desire a referral, and even, among a myriad other things, should I want to make a reservation/booking, etc...) over anything less (and yes, I still believe that tech falls into the category, "less").
However, tech has turned our personal information into a valuable commodity, and companies now reward us for such information... though I prefer the human touch, and am admittedly a dinosaur, still wandering the earth, well past my "survival" date, and utterly baffled by the post-extinction era I somehow manage to find myself in...flighty, I may be...earth bound, too...yet one feathered kind of thing I am not...I try my best, as best as I can, to keep my head firmly affixed, to hold my head as high as my neck will allow, that I might maintain as clear, & as near to a 360* view of my alien surroundings as is physically possible...no matter my fatigue, confusion, irrelevance, or despair...Ill struggle to keep my head up, where I can breathe deeply of the air, along with the ever changing developments in personal digitization, the likes of which Ill never understand...but of which Ill try my best to be aware...gravity/age/time-weary as I am, may the weight of it all be d*mned...Ill keep my head, thank you...Ill keep it up, above, and well out of the sand...
That being said, and done, one hopes, I take note of these rewards programs...and with each new promise of yellow moons, pink stars, and magically delicious green clovers...I weigh the value of the offering (for some, I see, the value lies in the ease, as they see it, of avoiding all human exchange...for me, the value lies in earning some manner of symbols, the collection of which affords me, say, an extra night or two on some journey...). Thus, for me to consider registration, I need to know that the program is for a product to which I might realistically return, again and again, such that Id willingly offer up some degree of my loyalty, along with access to my personal information; knowingly tossing my history, my digital preferences, & footprint, as fodder, into some data crunching, demographic profiling, marketing and research, advertising machine, of unknowable reach...as trade, for those few free vacation days, or pennies off my gasoline... a trade I dont take lightly...I find, if I think too long about the ways in which technology has taken hostage, such concepts as loyalty, and drained them of all humanity, I am overcome by the yen to sink my head deep beneath the sand... So instead, I sign on to only those programs from which Im certain Ive to gain, at least: an extra night stay, or some sort of upgrade, & better yet...a flight Id otherwise be be unable to take, to see a friend Id otherwise be unable to visit, attend an event...a funeral, a wedding, a rite of passage, involving old friends, admired role models, and/or extended family...human beings Id otherwise miss.
This app, if youve read this far in, without giving up in disgust...this app offers me that. It offers me a little extra opportunity to extend my time somewhere new, to visit other humans, both familiar, and new...to take my children the extra mile on up the road, to the next town or city, to see a performance, a thing of beauty, a natural wonder, a remnant of history...to greet a new day from a beach, a street, a spot in a forest, a field, a mountain, a plain, a desert, a river bed, a penthouse balcony or garden patio...from a vantage point brand new to them, viewed through a brand new to them lens, a place theyve never been, nor perhaps even dreamed of...and in a language of their own, or utterly foreign to them...there, to make a new friend, or revisit one they know, to gather with family, or create their own...whatever the itinerary...the reward lies in this...an extra moment to take in, and celebrate, all that it is, to live, to breathe, to explore, and to be human...
Thank you Marriott. Its a trade Im happy to have made.

Firstbitz about Marriott Bonvoy: Book Hotels, v5.14.0