The point you are missing is the Marriott reward you are using for comparison basisis the 130,000 point variety. I do not know how often you have tried to find seven successive nights in any premium season to use this award but I have. It was not easy a couple of years ago and I do not believe anything has changed. Marriott rewards are capacity controlled and capacity is quickly filled in Hawaii. To eliminate capacity controls and blackout dates you need to spend 195,000 points. Starwood has no capacity controls and no blackout dates. If you need a room during the summer, Easter break or Christmas vacation and a revenue room is available you can use an award to pay for it. Try that with the standard Marriott award.

By the way I am Hilton Diamond and I have on two occassions been told no award rooms were available even though the web site showed availability for paying customers!