Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - "Best" usage of Cat 5 vs. 1-4 certificates

I know there have been several threads about popular properties to book using CC or MegaBonus promotion certificates. I have a slightly different twist on this question. For US Properties only, would you prefer to use your cat 5 on a city that really opens up for you (say Austin or Nashville where there are poor/inconvenient choices at Cat 4 but closer choices at Cat 5, including the awesome Nashville's Union Station) or a city where you could still end up okay with a 1-4 certificate (say Houston, Miami, Philly) in terms of convenience but could stay at a much nicer property (JW, Autograph, etc.)?

I like to save my 2 annual Cat 5's per year for cities where that opens up a wide range of options. Washington DC area is my prime example.

Cat 4 puts you in a limited-service hotel or a FS farther out from the city. Cat 5 opens up some close-in options on the Metro.

I tend to use the 4's when I want a Residence Inn for a family trip.

Although this year, I'm using one of my 5's at the Fairfield Inn in Santa Cruz. I know that sounds weird, but from what I gather it's actually a good Fairfield Inn and everything around around there on the night we need to be there is running $200+. It's one where we need two queens and assurance of a good-sized room, so a Priceline gamble is out of the question.

How do you get two? Two credit cards? I actually like the new Courtyatd in DC that is a four. Right next to a metro stop. Stayed there recently.

How do you get two? Two credit cards?

Yes, 2 CC's.

Any more thoughts? Just curious ...

For me it's all about convenience. I happen to have a stay in Nashville this fall and will use my Cat 5 at Union Station (looking forward to it!!) and I'm using my Cat 4s from spring megabonus in LA this summer since there are plenty of good Cat 4s. On another note, it's absurd that the CY West End (Nashville) is a 5, on the same level as the Renaissance and Union Station.

These are worthwhile but not so much in the United States. Better to use them in the Middle East & Asia.

These are worthwhile but not so much in the United States. Better to use them in the Middle East & Asia.

+1. The 4's play very well in Asia. I'm also using one in Jordan in a couple months (Petra).

Yes, 2 CC's.
Personal and business? Or are you counting two people (in the same family)?

I know there have been several threads about popular properties to book using CC or MegaBonus promotion certificates. I have a slightly different twist on this question. For US Properties only, would you prefer to use your cat 5 on a city that really opens up for you (say Austin or Nashville where there are poor/inconvenient choices at Cat 4 but closer choices at Cat 5, including the awesome Nashville's Union Station) or a city where you could still end up okay with a 1-4 certificate (say Houston, Miami, Philly) in terms of convenience but could stay at a much nicer property (JW, Autograph, etc.)?
Well, the problem is, everybody's different. I'm happy enough if the hotel is good (at the factors that matter to me), so if I find a good-enough hotel at cat 1-4, then there's no way I'd "use up" a cat 5 cert on that unless it was about to expire anyway. (I've used up some of my cat 1-4's at places they weren't great values, simply because I didn't end up needing them at a place where they greater value before they expired.)

But among other factors, I'm usually traveling solo, so I don't need to impress anyone else :), plus I don't need that much space, I don't really need a suite, etc. I may care about the hotel upkeep, I may care about the breakfast quality, I may care about location of course, but I may not care about other factors that other people might.

(Furthermore, in my case, I've got points and sometimes certs in several other programs too, so I'm typically looking at more than just Marriott for any particular award/cert stay.)

But "good enough" may include what's included in the cert rate. For example, when I stayed in Madrid on a cat 1-4 cert, my only choices were a couple ACs, where breakfast wasn't included for Marriott Golds (plus was just ok). If a cat 5 had gotten me a real Marriott (now I'm not sure if cat 5 is enough for a real Marriott in Madrid, but for this example let's assume so) then I might have used a cat 5, had I had one then, for that to get a better breakfast included (as a Marriott Gold).

And that example shows, btw, that I might look at all of this quite differently if I didn't have at least Gold status with Marriott!

I have a Cat 1-4 to use before September, thinking of using them in the Middle East.

Yes Cat. 4's seem much better overseas than in the US, but I will be needing to stay in the US this year for mine ...

+1. The 4's play very well in Asia. I'm also using one in Jordan in a couple months (Petra).

Just used one at the JW Marriott in Kuala Lumpur that was a fantastic hotel. Will write a piece about it sometime.

Last week I was in Doha. Renaissance (brand new) and the Marriott were category 3 and the colocated Courtyard was cat 2 (if my memory is correct). Fantastic use of certs (or points) considering the paid rates. I wrote a piece about my hotel award dilemma (http://loyaltylobby.com/2012/05/31/my-hotel-award-dilemma-for-doha-qatar/).

Yes Cat. 4's seem much better overseas than in the US, but I will be needing to stay in the US this year for mine ...
I just used a Cat 4 on a (cat 3) Fairfield Inn Buffalo Airport (BUF). There were a couple cat 4's nearby, but the Fairfield Inn got much better reviews, so I chose it despite not it not being the highest category I could get. The cash rate before tax was $175+. (And all other decent brands near by were $150+ I think. And I was arriving on a late flight so needed something near the airport.) And it was a very nice Fairfield. So despite it only being a cat 3, and only being a Fairfield, I thought it was a good domestic use for a cat 1-4 cert.

These certs may work even better in some places overseas, but the good news is that Marriott keeps doing promos where you can keep earning more of them (and with longer expirations now than before), so I don't think there's anything wrong with using them domestically when they expire before you go overseas, since you're likely to have more later when you do in fact have a chance to use them overseas.

I know there have been several threads about popular properties to book using CC or MegaBonus promotion certificates. I have a slightly different twist on this question. For US Properties only, would you prefer to use your cat 5 on a city that really opens up for you (say Austin or Nashville where there are poor/inconvenient choices at Cat 4 but closer choices at Cat 5, including the awesome Nashville's Union Station) or a city where you could still end up okay with a 1-4 certificate (say Houston, Miami, Philly) in terms of convenience but could stay at a much nicer property (JW, Autograph, etc.)?

The latter for us. I highly recommend the JW Starr Pass in Tucson. A beautiful resort (with lazy river!) and a gracious staff. They even gave us a suite upgrade for Gold Elite (ok, I know that was a stroke of luck!). All in all, it just "felt" like a great use of a Cat 5...even though I have used Cat 4's for "lower" props (e.g. Courtyard) in expensive cities with significantly higher nightly rates. Funny thing is that the JW trip was far from cheap, given the "need" to consume fancy drinks and a great dinner on their beautiful terrace.... moral of the story, any certificate can "feel" like a great reward...and Marriott knows what they're doing! :D

I use level 5 certs from two credit cards for long weekends each year. So for a three night weekend, get two free, pay for one.

Have solved the problem of very few good level 4 properties available following recent massive devaluation in a very simple yet elegant way--I completely avoid the Megabonus promotion by giving all my business to Hilton.

I can rarely find a Cat5 that I can use, most of JWs are Cat6+ As noted above, you generally don't find them in city center for popular destinations like London, SF, NY, DC etc. or for resorts.

There's a Residence Inn in downtown San Diego, and also a Courtyard by the airport(which looks really nice) that both fetch over $200/night during summer that are Cat 5s.

Not higher end properties, but location and value wise they seem to be good point redemption options.