Earlier this September, Hyatt announced that Mark Vondrasek, an ex-Starwood veteran, has been appointed as Hyatt’s executive vice president and global head of loyalty & new business platforms. At that point of time, it was made clear that he won’t be running the program on a day-to-day basis, and that another person would fill up the vacancy created by Jeff Zidell’s departure.

World of Hyatt has announced a new hiring now. Another former Starwood executive, Amy Weinberg will lead the World of Hyatt loyalty program and report to Mark Vondrasek.

Amy joins Hyatt with over 20 years of experience in building brand strength in loyalty through consumer insights, market research, and strategic marketing and operations.

While she recently worked at another company, before that  Weinberg spent 12 years as senior vice president, consumer insights for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. In her position, Weinberg was responsible for leading global analytics, market research and customer relationship management functions, including a global team supporting all of Starwood’s brands and divisions, as well as the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program.

Weinberg will lead Hyatt’s global World of Hyatt loyalty experience and teams, including program strategy and innovation, partnerships, operations and management.

Weinberg quoted

I have always admired Hyatt and its dedication to caring for guests, members and colleagues. I’m thoroughly familiar with the World of Hyatt loyalty platform and eager to build upon the strong foundation Hyatt has created with its guests, both within and beyond traditional hotel stays. It’s an exciting time as Hyatt expands into wellness and other opportunities, and I look forward to helping drive overall guest engagement across Hyatt’s portfolio of brands.

The new World of Hyatt program currently makes it more difficult for Hyatt loyalists to appreciate the program, particularly the ones residing outside the US where the group has a rather small footprint like India.

I am hoping that the new leadership team will bring positive changes to the World of Hyatt. They really need to fix the program to get the goodwill back from old members who are currently disappointed with how the ship is floating and being nudged on every corner. Their core business is still hotels, so before they venture into experiences, they need to fix how to bring back customers who are ditching the program and heading elsewhere for their frequent stay business.