Originally Posted by
fireworksboy
Just fyi - MR isn't even close to available room=available award room. In my experience, MR availability isn't within a mile of SPG. If they were, I probably never would've ended up spending so many nights in Starwood hotels.
I like Marriott hotels in general, I like that there's a Marriott family hotel in just about every city in the country, I like Marriott's on location people, and the promos are fine.
The only drawbacks (again, just mho) are lack of elite recognition and award availability.
The thread wasnt about how does MR calculate how many and when to offer Award rooms, and I was responding to the poster who said they were told Hotels that were Cat6s wanted to drop down to Cat5s to get more folks to stay using award nights
How MR allocates the # of rooms per night for award stays isnt really important to what that poster or even the OP said
I cant remember when I wasnt able to use an award night at a Marriott. Now if you want to discuss say Paris or Venice then it doesnt matter which program you want to look at they are all difficult at times. On the other hand there are 4 *Ws @ LAX while there are over 2x that for Marriott, thusly a better chance of being locked out by SPG over MR. Yet by SNA theres 1 *W with a shuttle and well over a dz Marriotts
If all a person wants is a full service hotel then its about equal. Id think most folks arriving late or out early in the morn and spending just a few hrs there between,before or after a flight dont care too much on the type of hotel but just a nice clean room and hot shower
Now if you travel for biz and mainly stay in the citys then *W will work most of the time, if however youre on the road and hitting small - middle size towns as well alot then *W wont work so well. Yet Hilton,Marriott and ICH will have coverage for all 3. btw thats Hyatts problem as well. So Hyatt and *W works great for some folks and are disasters for others. Others are able to maintain Plat status but not hit the 50 or 75 night level
Its no different then the airlines , if you live by a hub city or a place a carrier flys into its haven otherwise lookout. eg till a couple of yrs ago WN wasnt any where near NY, then it went into PHL, today LGA,ISP and EWR But if you lived in NYC it didnt us a bit of good that WN had say a $15 fare. So those flying LAX-SFO were thrilled and sang WNs praises while I couldnt have given 2 hoots about WN
B6 most people sing its praises but a friend who lives in DTW since they dont fly there what good does it do him. Live in SEA B6 has 1 flight a day NY-SEA live near BOS or NYC or LGB, or Florida youre in luck, more flights everyday then you know what to do with
My pt is , its not so simple to say Marriott is best or SPG is best, it all depends on where a person needs to be and if they can be serviced.