Sure Marriott was consistent -- consistently boring -- with respect to the types of hotels they had, as well as the types of bonuses they provided for your loyalty.

HOWEVER, in the last couple of years, they have moved away from the boxy cookie cutter hotel (See Rennaisance Hotels, and even some Marriott properties), and with Ed French now running their Reward program, they have really come out of the doldrums.

Now, they have married their consistently good service product with the above, and they are a huge force to be reckoned with (re Loyalty Program and free stays, etc.) -- commensurate with their gargantuan size measured by the number of properties they possess.

You likely will not find much difficulty in reward space, if you do not plan last minute -- and, even if they have rooms sold out at standard rewards points, they might have inventory available, but it will cost you 50% more in Rewards points.

Two other things you should know:

1). Marriott has a very handy calendar for each property for you to see what reward days are available -- 30 days out from a specific date -- always search by 1 day and then project the search for up to 4 weeks -- this discloses all the days that are available. Unlike other chains (Hilton) you can string non-reward days with reward days so thta you get the benefit of the increasing point discount per day, the more days you book at a given property.

2). The packages that include up to 120,000 FF miles and a 7 day stay plus a 25% Hertz discount are exceedingly good redemption options -- so long as you plan to spend 7 days at a property -- and can get 7 days of rewards at that property.