Many Fairfields leaving
 

Lately I have noticed quite a few Fairfields leaving. These all seem to have left during the last month or so.

Becoming Wingate:
Clay
Great Falls
Kansas City Independence
Kansas City North Near Worlds of Fun
Minot
Oklahoma City South
Sioux City
St. Louis Fairview Heights
Zanesville

Becoming AmericInn:
Appleton
Davenport
Hudson
Moline

Becoming Baymont:
Coon Rapids
Tulsa Woodland Hills

Now, I understand that this is not Marriott selling off properties, it's the owners of these properties choosing to rebrand. But so many owners independently make similar decisions at the same time? Hmmm... Could Marriott be forcing/encouraging them out? Or slowly phasing out the Fairfield brand (I know, I know, many hundreds are still here.) Does anyone know what is going on?

It appears many of these properties are owned by Aimbridge Hospitality, and that Aimbridge struck a deal with Wyndham, which owns Wingate, AmericInn, and Baymont, among other lower-end brands.

There's a list of Aimbridge Hospitality properties, including current and former Marriott-affilated properties here: https://about.aimbridgehospitality.com/portfolio

Marriott continues to expand the Fairfield brand. There are 965 open properties and 357 pipeline properties according to https://hotel-development.marriott.c...ld-inn-suites/

Newer Fairfield properties are much nicer than the first and second generation properties.

The real question is does anybody care? Oh no, the Coon Rapids Fairfied Inn is leaving. That's it, I am done with Marriott...LOL.

Yes. Obviously the OP cares or there would have been no post. Obviously people stay in these properties or the hotels would have closed long ago. Personally I have stayed in two of the properties. While I do not follow these properties closely I thank the OP for passing this information along. Not everything everyone posts on FT is going to directly impact each person who reads FT, but the entitled sarcasm dripping from your unnecessary post adds nothing.

One of the reasons many of us chose Marriott is because we wind up in odd places and wanted a chain with presence, rather than a chain with a very limited footprint. The attitude that those properties don't matter and those people are unimportant never previously existed on the Marriott forum before the buyout.

Those hotels will now all be 15000 points a night (the flat program-wide redemption rate at WyndhamRewards). Were they less than that -- in Marriott points -- before or more?

its ironic, of course, that the Starwood/Marriott board's main value in the buyout was getting SPG folks in Fairfield Inns and Courtyards. You won't find anything in the deal docs, board presentations, or prospectus that supports the idea that they thought there were more high end guests or properties that made this a good transaction.

Before - 8 were less than 15K, 6 were 15K, and 1 was over 15K

After - 13 were going to be less than 15K, 2 more than 15K.

Do you think absolute value of points is an accurate comparison?

I doubt 15 of 980 FI properties is going to ruin the merger synergies metrics.

Not necessarily in this case, because there's no way to transfer from anywhere (other than merger partner La Quinta) to WyndhamRewards, and thus there's no way to use a common partner to compare transfer points to Marriott vs the other program (like you could if the both programs were in Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards or Diners Club USA Club Rewards).

It just seemed an interesting comparison to have, given how low 15000 points seems to me to be in the Marriott world.

But then, I'm not familiar with Fairfield redemption rates in those cities. I did redeem Hilton points several times, but never Marriott points, in a few of those cities.

A lot of hotel affiliation changes occur when they become delinquent in royalties payments, Basically the parent cuts them off. Then the hotel finds a new game.

I wonder if the franchise owners found themselves in that mess....

I can tell you the Moline and Davenport ones were very old and not any good. I have spent many nights at both just because they were Marriott. I wouldn't really stay there otherwise. Good thing is that 2 Autograph hotels opened in that area in the last 3 years or so and are much much better. The Moline hotel could be had for as low as $63/night if that gives you an indication on how low quality they are.

Not all FFI are low-redemption - try Manhattan for example ;)

Cheers.

Or the Rapid City, SD, FI which is a Cat 8 redemption.

Going in the other direction, there was a sketchy Rodeway Inn at PVD. Recently remodeled and is now a Fairfield Inn that is 10x better that the Sheraton next door.