Marriott spend tracker thread
 

Given the complete opacity of Marriott spend and point tracking, I was thinking we can start a shared thread for tracking methods and templates. To that end, attached is a tracker spreadsheet I put together. Please feel free to comment/extend/criticize/help as you see fit.

Tab 1 : Dashboard - This is a running count of points (including a spot to include starting balance and redemptions) as well as spend towards Ambassador
Tab 2 : Data - This is where the data is entered

1. Yellow tabs are for informational tracking only
2. Orange tabs are used for calculation
   1. Status - Based on selection, the point bonus is applied
   2. Brand - This lookup will determine the point multiplier (eg. 10 for Marriott vs 5 for Residence Inn)
   3. Base Spend - Sum of room rate
   4. Ancillary Spend - F&B etc.
   5. MAGC - Number of days of Make a Green Choice selected
   6. Bonus (Y/N) - For Platinum and up, this is the 1000 point welcome benefit.
3. Gray tabs are calculated/tracked
   1. Tax Rate is informational. It turns red on > 20% to assist as a data entry validation check/prevent miskeys.

Your thoughts and/or other tracking methods are appreciated!

Updated the sheet. Realized I hadn't applied one formula all the way.

From looking at the spreadsheet it appears the tax rate (informational only) is computed only utilizing the Total Spend less the sum of the base rates and ancillary spend. There are several things such as parking, spa treatments, mini-bars, etc that would be included in the Total Spend that would impact the calculation of the tax rate. I could see where the rate would turn "red" as you state yet not be a problem but only because there are other items other than Ancillary, Room Rates and Taxes in the Total Spend amount. Other than that I'm not sure the reason for the tax rate calculation since it appears the main purpose of the spreadsheet is to determine one's progress towards the $20,000 Ambassador requirement.

good point. My thought process was to add a data validation step. Like your total is 1000 and you accidentally key in 3 nights worth of room rate instead of 4, it would alert you of a data entry error.

maybe Tax rate isnt the right term.. Cost Variance perhaps?

thanks for the input!

Thanks for putting this together. A great start!

As a non-American, there is obviously the issue of what Marriott considers the value of non-US stays in something other than US dollars. Not travelling now, so haven't put in the effort to address it, but probably need to think about international stays and international guests. Will look at it as I have time.

Interesting .. never really thought about that. Wonder if the dollar spend is converted to USD at the forex value at the time of posting, checkout or some random batch time?

The multipliers in column E of sheet "setup" look correct, but is there a link between spend and the brand for the purposes of the $20k ambassador threshold? For example, does spend at RC Reserve or Bvlgari count? I thought hotels were non-participating therefore any spend there does not contribute to the $20k. Also, perhaps it's a stupid question but if you spend $100 at Residence Inn, it counts as $100 spend rather than $50 spend despite points earning being cut in half, right?

Answering your questions in reverse, 100 at a Residence Inn counts for 100. I am not sure about the spend on BVLGARI or RC Reserve. Currently, it is counted in the sheet. However, since they don't participate, I wouldn't even enter them personally.

Attached is v1.5

1. Included support for 2019 Double Take promo calculations
2. Improved the welcome bonus and MAGC points to the brand multipliers. (example, MAGC at Four points is worth 250 pts vs 500 at a W, for example).

Cheers.