Duke787

Absurd.

Will get my 50 nights via combination of things this year to get to 10 years of Plat for LTP (and because I've already got 36 nights on the books with the 15 CC nights) but anticipate a move to Hilton for the foreseeable future until Marriott gets their act together.

Kacee

Meaningless statistic. I really don't care that the Fairfield Inn Topeka stayed at a 3. But I do care about the increases at Ren Republique, the Bangkok properties, the NYC properties, etc.
Yes. 50 and then evaluate options. The writing is on the wall for this program.

mahasamatman

Marriott has never used quality as a factor in assigning award categories. It's always been 100% about how popular the properties are for redemption. It only makes sense that the cheaper properties in an area will go up because there will always be more "value" redemptions there. That's why every Courtyard in San Francisco has moved up.

For me, no property I care about has changed, so it's a wash. I understand others are affected, but that's life.

Kacee

TPG's Nick Ewan has an excellent guide, which explains what's really go on here. Marriott 2019 Category Changes. He notes that Cat 5 sees a net loss of 69 properties.

CardMaster

I don't care. Imma fill up the year with multiple concurrent speculative reservations for multiple dates for any property going up in category that I think I might want to go to within the next 13 months !

THR

I was under the impression RC Tokyo and RC Kyoto were going to go from category 7 to 8, but neither of them are on that list.

Are they remaining category 7?

Kacee

No they were already listed as 8s with the prior change. The changes is just new 8s.

atojbk

Looks like the T&C says unless you've ordered the redemption certs, they'll be subject to the new rate and possibly peak pricing as well.

joeags

We didn't quite have the luck that you do, but I could only find one hotel that impacts our next 18 months of travel negatively, and that's the Courtyard Bangkok - but I knew at 12.5k it was undervalued. But all in all, it's not good, but not horrible.

As long as our points last, we travel based on solid value. We are traveling to Venice solely for the Gritti Palace. We are staying in Singapore for 48 hours at the Marriott South Beach because we could lock in at 35k. Sure, places are going up, but I'll just look a bit harder for the value. Some definitely disappoint, and I am sorry for those deeply impacted, but I will adjust

I am confused about Vienna now though .. Imperial Riding School Renaissance dropping to 25k again has me tempted to save some points...

MasterGeek

Mr. Vker

OK--I have been loyal Marriott for 16 years. LTPP. What other brand would you suggest I look now to spread the love a bit. I am getting tired of this. Some chain with a challenge or status match would be great. I stay at mid to upper level properties normally. About 80 nights/year.

Happy

I was going to stay at Domes of Elounda, Crete, Greece last year booked at 40K but plan changed so had to cancel it. The property then went to 60K, and will be at 85K comes March 5th.

A Perfect Example in the line of my professor at the college statistics class said, any person can use statistics to explain things to his point of view, even if it is very twisted, or very irrelevant.

The fact remains, it is outsize category adjusted UPWARD. from the pool of the new carrots, ah, the 35K FN certs from the credit cards that Marriot / Chase / AMEX push. Who care about the remaining 6300 properties that dont go up when your 35K FN cert suddenly lost 50% of more options in NYC? The properties in HKG and SIN also once again, go up.

W HK being a Cat 8 is beyond being ridiculous.

Worth to point out, at the bottom of Nick's article, this is the alarming New Languages about Future Bookings with Point Advance, on hotels going up in Category. Looks like if you dont pay up before Mar 5th, your point advance booking will be priced at the New Chart despite you have made the booking ahead of March 5th!

Here is the gist and everyone SHOULD PAY ATTENTION to the NEW LANGUAGES found on the announcement -

Possible Points Advance ImplicationsThere’s another (potential) issue with these problems. Marriott included the following information when they emailed us about the upcoming changes (emphasis mine):“Points Advance — Members can book stays when they do not have enough points if they earn or purchase the needed points at least 14 days prior to check-in. Members who wish to book a points advance redemption under the current Marriott Rewards and SPG award chart are encouraged to order redemption certificates before March 5 to lock in the rate. On March 5, redemption bookings are subject to the new unified program award chart.”We’ve reached out to Marriott to confirm the practical implications of this verbiage, as it sounds like Points Advance reservations will revert to the new pricing if they don’t have certificates attached prior to March 5. This would be a tremendously negative change, though again, we don’t yet know for sure that it will work in this way. We’ll be sure to provide an update as soon as we have confirmation from Marriott.

So Let's hope Nick would get a clarification from Marriott, then we will know if this is yet ANOTHER TAKE AWAY of a very useful feature of the program.

BaconSF

Kacee

That's what's most bothersome to me. They're making the certs ever harder to use. There were still a number of limited service Manhattan properties that were still achievable, but that list is getting decimated. SkyCity Marriott also really hurts.

JW Singapore at Cat 7 as well.

Jim055

Net 69 properties went from category 5 to 6. All 4 of my CC certs properties took the hit. That's a 100% for me. Next, peak pricing will be the final nail in CC certs coffin. Bonvoyage Marriott.😚