26 Hotels in South Africa to Join Marriott Rewards in February

E ffective as of Monday, February 23, 2015, you can earn, redeem and enjoy full elite level status benefits at 26 participating Protea Hotel properties, Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! and African Pride Hotel properties in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa — with dozens of other Protea hotel properties to join the Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program in late 2015.

As a bonus incentive, you can get a discount of 10 percent off of the best available rate — per room, per night and based on availability at the time of reservation — at greater than 100 hotel properties in Africa. An advance reservation is required to secure this discount; and you must use a valid member Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program account number to qualify for the discount, which cannot be combined with any other promotion or group discount. Rooms booked through the Internet web sites of third-party retailers are not eligible for the discount, which is available to you for up to a maximum of two rooms booked and paid for by you. Blackout dates may apply. Other terms and conditions apply as well.

However, you cannot redeem Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program points at the aforementioned hotel properties until Monday, February 23, 2015; and you will earn ten Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program points on the room rate only.

The Protea lodging chain currently has greater than 100 properties in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.

Back on November 12, 2013, I wrote in this article that Marriott International, Inc. will nearly double its number of hotel rooms in Africa with its acquisition of the brands and operations of Protea Hotels Group; with the transaction resulting in a total of greater than 23,000 hotel rooms in Africa — and when combined with the hotel rooms currently under construction, Marriott could very well become the largest hotel company in Africa.

The following are the 26 hotel properties — complete with links for your convenience:

 

“The hotel category these hotels have been placed in for their initial entry is great news”, opined Ric Garrido in this article he wrote at Loyalty Traveler, where he also posted some sample analyses. “The highest hotel category is 5 or 25,000 points per night with 5th night free.”

Africa could be considered the last frontier of growth for the lodging industry. “Africa has significant untapped potential for travel and tourism, both as a destination and source of new global travelers”, said Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International, Inc. “The continent’s GDP is anticipated to grow at over five percent annually over the next several years which we expect will raise more people into the emerging middle class.”

This acquisition is key to Marriott because Protea Hotels is an established brand in Africa, where “the development cycle for opening new hotels in Africa is typically long due to the challenges posed by emerging infrastructure”, according to Alex Kyriakidis, president of Marriott International, Inc. for the Middle East and Africa. This transaction is expected to be a strategic “short cut” to the growth of the hotel footprint of Marriott in Africa.