I have been extremely loyal to Marriott over the years. And why not? I have been all over the world, using points to stay at some fine Marriotts. I used to travel 80% of the time and earning points was easy.

Over the last few years, my business travel has diminished to zero, and most of my points are earned through my credit card and occasional stays.

Until recently, if I was going to book a vacation or weekend getaway, I really didn’t look much further than booking a Marriott. But my disposable $ for vacations is not unlimited.

For weekend getaways, we would go into San Francisco, and use the BOGO at the Stanford Court or one of the other city Marriotts. Great hotels, but the BOGOs are gone. Now I shop for the best rates across all 4-5 star hotels.

My spouse has a business meeting coming up in the Phoenix area in Sept. and we decided to add on a couple of days of R&R. Of course I checked the Marriott resorts. This is low season and yet Camelback and Desert Ridge have rates over $300 a night.

So what did I do? I booked The Four Seasons Troon through a preferred Four Seasons travel agent for $234 a night, including Daily full American breakfast for two, served through In-Room Dining or in the hotel restaurant (including buffets), a food and beverage credit of $100 once during stay, an Upgrade of one category, based on availability at time of check-in (Within a day of making this reservation, I had a confirmed two category upgrade to a Premier King Casita), plus a $100 resort credit per stay.

All that, and I have no status with Four Seasons. Now I know that Marriott has little influence over the rates of an individual hotel, but had I gone with the Marriotts, I might get an upgrade or I might not. Certainly no breakfast.

So as much as I like the points, my leisure dollars are migrating. Perhaps, I’m not really the type of customer Marriott want to focus on. But if I am, Marriott needs to wake up and understand that the points alone don’t cut it anymore. And while you’re working on a fix for the BOGO, I have been discovering the wonders of Four Seasons hotels.