Originally Posted by
Horace
You guarantee that the Marriott Wailea Beach Resort on Maui is going from 40,000 Rewards Points to 60,000 points in August? That would be a 50% increase!
The Marriott Wailea Beach Resort was untouched during the 2018 Marriott Rewards category changes. Marriott Rewards kept it at Category 8 (40,000). It could have easily been moved upward to Category 9 (45,000), but that didn't happen.
There is no category that corresponds to 40,000 points on the New (August 2018) Free Night Award Chart. The Marriott Wailea Beach Resort will either go down to new Category 5 (35,000) or up to new Category 6 (50,000). Either is possible. My guess is that Category 5 (35,000) is slightly more likely, but it could be either one.
The chance of it going to new Category 7 (60,000) -- the category for the top Ritz-Carltons and other top luxury properties in August 2018 -- is very low.
Consider all the chatter about the popularity of redeeming rewards at certain hotels and how this will be a factor in the devaluation. I'm betting this one will go up, and since the pricing can get close to what the Ritz costs, I don't think it unreasonable for them to be the same.
Of course, there's no guarantees in the world, so my poor choice of words. I'm convinced it's going up! At the very least, a cat 6. It will be interesting to see how it all works out in the end.