gojko88

For me as a purely leisure traveller, 2022 is the year to stop all loyalty to Marriott, and also the year to burn all the points. The value proposition of paying a premium to stay at a Marriott property was already wobbly since the start of the pandemic, with inconsistent upgrades and a global drop in breakfast quality, so now that great-value redemptions are taken out of the picture, it simply isn't worth it anymore. I do most of my travel in Europe where Marriott can be outrageously expensive, and I can often book a suite w/ breakfast in a boutique property for the price of a standard room at an upmarket Marriott hotel. When I went to the Maldives last year, I literally booked an overwater bungalow in an independent resort for less than half the price of a comparable Marriott one.

I appreciate that for business travellers where expenses are not paid out-of-pocket the Marriott loyalty game may still make sense, but for leisure travel it's highly questionable at best and nonsensical at worst.