FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - I thought award pricing was dynamic and based on demand and price
Old May 6, 2023 | 5:53 pm
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sdsearch
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Originally Posted by christianj
I think Marriott makes up the award pricing as they go along and it really has no rhyme or reason to it. The Marriott is the cheapest hotel and also 28 Euro cheaper than the Moxy but double the price when booked as an award. How can this be?
Marriott has historically (started long before the SPG merger) done award pricing based primarily on how much award redemption happened in the recent past at that hotel, not based on the cash price.

So presumably more people redeem at the Marriott than at the Moxy.

For example, when the Protea brand in Africa first joined Marriott, there were just about no people redeeming for points there, so for the first few years the points redemption rates were low per night (7500 - 16000) even when the cash prices were very high. Now that Protea has been in Marriott for quite a few years, the award redemptions have gone up because so many Marriott travelers to Africa were redeeming there, including me in 2017.

I routinely get Marriott properties in far suburbs at low award prices, even when temporary events raise cash prices a lot, because most people don't redeem in far suburbs.

When Marriott added dynamic pricing a few years ago, it was just a minor variant added on top of the exiting award pricing scheme. So while a far suburbs Fairfield Inn might have cost always 20000 before Marriott added dynamic pricing, it might cost 17500 to 22500 now. But it never goes to 30000 or more, no matter how high the cash price gets. "Dynamic" only means that it changes, the term "dynamic" doesn't have anything do with how much it changes.
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