Originally Posted by sappstuf

My worthless opinion is that we are looking at it as Marriott the hotel, which they know how to do and wouldn't need to offer such a drastically good price with points. But if you look at it from the luxury safari perspective, Marriot is a new player with zero experience and no proven ability to pull it off. If I was going to that area and could afford to pay $4500 a night in cash, I would not be interested in the JW. I would be booking with a luxury safari company that has been doing it for 20 years and is a proven value for even that much money. Marriott needs good ratings and they need them fast. What better group to help make that happen, other than a group of highly loyal insiders that know they just got an incredible deal. A forgiving crowd as the kinks get worked out.

It is just the cost of starting a new business when you don't have the proven track record that you can pull off $4500 a day value.