jpdx

It appears that Marriott has quietly walked back category increases in much of SE Asia. All hotels that had an increase (e.g., Marriott Hua Hin, JW Phu Quoc, CY Sha Tin) are back at their pre-devaluation category. I also seem to recall that some of the Gold Coast properties and 4P AKL went up; they are also back at their prior category. This does not appear to apply to Japan and Taiwan, where e.g., Westin Kyoto and the Taipei Courtyards remain at the higher new category. All the hotels that went down to a lower category appear to remain at that category.

In addition, almost all hotels in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and HK are showing "Low" season rates for the coming months, for pretty much every day. This doesn't see to apply to Australia/NZ.

There's a lot of whining about Marriott, some deserved, some not, but this move gets a from me.

UA-NYC

Thanks Hyatt for being a leader in this regard and for showing others how it's done!

jpdx

I'm sorry? Is this missing some sort of irony emoji? Hyatt just cancelled its category change (except for a handful of hotels) and move to high/med/low seasons. IOW, Marriott is FAR more customer friendly in this case:

(a) Marriott hotels that moved to a lower category in early March remain at the lower category.
(b) Marriott hotels that moved to a higher category in early March moved back to the original lower category.
(c) For the next few months, almost all Marriott hotels (in SE Asia) are showing low season rates pretty much every day.

With Hyatt? Category adjustment called off (including hotels that were slated to go down), and no low season pricing during the crisis.

ftrichard

This is excellent. Thanks for highlighting. I may book a return to the JW Phu Quoc for later in the year now.

RedSun

Why? Because Hyatt cancelled the annual category changes for all regions, not just APAC. Also, the peak/off-peak is cancelled too.

Marriott? It is wait and see approach. Its changes are only piecemeal. Its change fee is waived for only to 4/30/2020. The FN and TP are extended only to 1/31/2021. Also, its annual category changes are implemented for most other regions outside APAC. If I booked a summer trip with my FN or TP outside APAC, I would not be able to use them for the fall since the hotels have gone up in points.....

No impact with Hyatt point booking. I can still change or cancel the booking and rebook with the same points or FN at the same properties.

Hyatt thumb up, Marriott thumb down. Clearly.

craigthemif

I'm missing the irony. There were at least a dozen Hyatt hotels dropping a category that I was excited about. In exchange for a bunch of SLH hotels going from really expensive to really really expensive...

I can see the "why" behind not changing anything at this time. I just don't see people being thrilled about Hyatt postponing the changes. They were already balanced...

UA-NYC

Peak/off-peak, even if "balanced", is a net win for the hotels as you have people paying more points in high demand times more than offsetting fewer points in low demand times. They aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart...

In aggregate - it's a win for "consumers" for these to be held off as long as possible.

AndWhatsYourPoint

Regardless of who did it first, better or with the most altruistic motives this is a positive development from Marriott and I"ll take it.

nexusCFX

Booked RC Kyoto 5 nights EOM at 280k points, cash rate over 1M yen for the 5 nights. The flood of off-peak pricing is blessed. Only time in history you can just go see cherry blossoms in Kyoto on last minute first class award flights, last minute point bookings at top tier properties.

Kacee

You could do that before the blogs, and without risk of quarantine

honghong322

Doing the exact same thing. Flight is in about 10 days.

cfischer

no change in Japan and more hotels than before now at PEAK pricing. And that is for early May. Well ...

nexusCFX

Well GRANDPA, some of us weren't around in the ancient pre-blog days.

I kid. I can't even imagine how easy it must have been to get business awards in a pre-TPG world.
Hope you have a blast!

margarita girl

What surprises me is that Marriott didn't even bother sending out an email to take credit for this adjustment. They could really use some positive publicity for a change. Who is running the marketing department over there? Maybe no one?

RedSun

Some of the posts above are just puzzling to me. Even if those APAC hotels drop in categories, I still would not want to venture out there transiting at the airports with some strangers who may carry the virus. Then I'm certain we'll face the quarantine when we fly back. The risk is just not worth taking, regardless of the price or points.

The same with the people complaining about Hyatt cancelling the annual category changes. You just can never get people happy about anything.

As to why Marriott did not disclose this APAC rate roll back in the pubilc? Because guests think Marriott should roll back the category change for all the regions, not just the APAC. Marriott still wants to take the chance of a quick recovery and still want to keep the higher rates from the annual category changes. But I think this wishful thinking. Year 2020 may be a losing cause. Marriott should just rewind or roll back the rate changes, and extend everything for another year.