Originally Posted by
ethernal
I agree, except with one minor correction... there obviously is a correlation between brand/quality and category. There are no Cat 1 St Regis and there are no Cat 8 Fairfield Inns
.
There were a fair number of Courtyard and Fairfield properties at the upper end of the legacy Marriott award-redemption category chart. Likewise, there were category 2 or 3 Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott properties. I haven't looked at those properties of late to see where they are now.
Originally Posted by
ethernal
I agree with this, the primary draw of Cancun is that it is relatively inexpensive (hence why you end up with a lot of high school / college kids). Which again makes it even more befuddling why it has such a high points redemption rate - maybe they don't want the old fogies (defined as 25+
) messing up the vibe.
I wouldn't be surprised if an astute owner can specify the category the property starts at when they sign a contract with Marriott hence why there are new-build properties getting category 6 on their first day.