Marriott Bonvoy Lurker

It’s that time of year again — the annual Marriott Bonvoy™ hotel category changes will take effect on March 3, 2021. We’re giving you advance notice so you can decide if it makes sense to redeem now to lock in a lower rate or wait to take your points further with a lower rate after March 3.

This year marks the fewest category changes in the history of Marriott Bonvoy: 201 hotels. Of those, 150 will move down a category and 51 will move up — that’s nearly three times as many hotels moving down as up!

And about 89% of the portfolio will be eligible for Free Night Awards (Categories 1–5) at standard redemption rates.


Review the complete list of hotel category changes here.


Want to be the first to get breaking program news? The Marriott Bonvoy Insiders Facebook Group gives you access to the latest news, offers and tips to get the most out of the program.

pazza2000

As expected, not much in terms of changes, that’s not a good thing but it’s not a bad thing either!

stuartpig

Pleased to see no changes with our favourites in the UK.

MSPeconomist

Please note that not everyone who participates in the Bonvoy program also participates in Facebook (and some who do Facebook might not want to be a member of the "Marriott Insiders" group).

dcstudent

Interesting, and I would love to know the criteria for changes this year (and I certainly don't expect the Lurkers to actually provide this proprietary data)as it appears Marriott must not be using a combination of past year's rates and number of redemptions as in many major cities there were 0 changes, or 0 changes at full-service brands. For instance, Montreal, Toronto, and London (just happen to be my most common international destinations) there were 0 downward moves even though rates, and I'm sure redemptions, cratered last year. (Haven't had a chance to analyze major US cities as you can't sort the list by city/state.)

I would have liked to see many more downward moves. Here's why: Marriott did not hesitate to move categories higher when times were good, sometimes multiple category moves up at one time, so it would have been nice to lower categories when times are not so good. In other words, I would appreciate consistency in using their formula for increases/decreases instead of what appears to be a freeze (only 200 out of thousands of properties changing).

Next year will be even more interesting to see what happens with category changes.

dcstudent

Been able to do a little more looking at the list and very few moves among full service hotels in the US as well.

• Autograph: 4 changes, 3 down, 1 up
• JW: 0 changes
• Marriott: 1 change, down
• Renaissance: 2 changes, down
• Ritz Carlton: 0 changes
• Sheraton: 4 change, 3 up, 1 down
• St. Regis: 0 changes
• Tribute: 2 changes, down
• W: 1 change, up
• Westin: 1 change, up

Can't speak for Tribute/Autograph as I don't know exactly where they are located based on the names, but it appears no moves in any direction for full service center-city hotels in major US cities.

TravelingZoomer

Westin Element Ubud to cat 2 is really wonderful...now if we’re able to go to Bali anytime soon

ankomonkey

I think I saw The Langley has increased a category. This seemed one of the UK's most popular redemptions from what I've read in different places.

merrickdb

As another poster echoed, very disappointing to see Marriott quickly raise categories when ADRs and redemptions support it, but not decrease categories when the same formulae would point to decreasing redemption categories. I would have expected this year to have more category changes than other years, if anything, but in a downward direction.

RAPC

Unsurprising, but certainly out of kilter with the reality of the pressure on room rates globally. Should be a lot more hotels taking a drop in category, but with properties needing revenue, money is going to be a lot more appealing than points to them.

Certainly going to be a year where it will be hard to find value vs paid rates at the majority of properties.

donotblink

Not happy to see W Aspen going from Category 7 to 8! :-(

Intl359Widget

I’m not really surprised at this change but at the same time their ADRs have been really high this year.

Keyser

the list is not surprising & neither is the fact that only about 200 properties are changing categories....

rates are extremely low in all the places i am traveling to over the next 6 months so there is no incentive for me to use points....i usually end up using 250k points in nyc every year but i don't think i will use any points this year with rates hovering around $100 a night at all the properties i usually stay in....

MSPeconomist

When I skimmed the list, I noticed that a lot of the hotels moving up were located in ski or beach resort areas. This probably reflects the shift from business to leisure travel plus people's concerns about possibilities for social distancing at the destination.

DallasEsq

Yeah, that makes sense. Kind of disappointed to see properties in Kauai and Puerto Vallarta going up, but otherwise most destinations I go to haven't changed.