Also the quality of the hotel - the actual maintenance of the property. I used to rank Marriott as the best in terms of the quality of the room before the merger. Sure, the old CYs in the US were terrible but compared to IHG and Hilton they were actually better imo. Now it's not the case anymore, they all have good and rundown properties.

Another data point that also made me annoyed. I was checking in at Marriott Amsterdam and the rate was like 300€/night. The person next to me got an upgrade to a junior suite but not us (I was with my adult kids). I was curious and asked whether we could get one and was told no and she called her manager and the answer was no. Not exactly a nice experience when you overheard someone got an upgrade and we got exactly what we paid for.