secret devaluation: Cat 5 to Cat 6
 

I booked the CY Century City Los Angeles 9 days ago. It was Category 5. I just went to get a second room and it is now a Category 6. Shame on Marriott. Travel is going to stay rocky for a while, and now is a strange time to slap your fans.

I have noticed this with a few properties over the years , inc. the Avalon Beverly Hills also in Los Angeles which moved from a Cat 5 to a Cat 6 out-with the annual category changes.

Right now it's rocking upward with tons of travel. I imagine if the rock reverses then the category may reverse, too.

Lots of properties went down this year in the annual reassessment. More down that up, IIRC

Rooms (and airfare) become more expensive as demand goes up. Nothing new really.

I think we may see the annual category change go away, and it become more quickly moving forward. Not saying we are thee yet, but that whole approach (announce in feb and change in March, etc.), seems so much more humane than where much of this program has gone.

I have finally canceled my bonvoy credit card. I found the free night certificate is too difficult to use. For all the places I visited this year, it was hard to find a cat 4 (35k) hotel to use the certificate. Even Fairfield Inn can cost over 35K. Didn't use to be that way.

With the annual category change, we get a few weeks notice. For properties going up, that gives you chance to book at the old rate.

If Marriott wants to recategorize monthly, or weekly, or whenever, they should at least have the courtesy to give the same advance notice.

This is historically not how Marriott category changes have worked.

Again, this ain't it, buddy.

If the points rate is too high, could you use the healthcare heroes rate instead?

Maybe I could live in a pineapple under the sea?

So what? Marriott decided to make this hotel kore expensive, presumably because of demand. This happens all the time, at all companies.

Ah, I understand the confusion. I refer to the *points* rate, not the rate in dollars.

My point is that the management company constantly changes rates and categories based on demand development. As an anecdote, there is a hotel in Dusseldorf, The Wellem, that used to be a Hyatt House (or Place, I can't remember). It is in a former justice building, quite central, and nicely decorated. It would regularly achieve a higher ADR than the 'flagship' Hyatt hotel in the city, the Regency, which is located in a new development area a bit adrift of the old town. Hyatt decided that this was not sustainable, and rebranded the Wellem as part of the Unbound Collection, raised the official rack rate, and the points category.

The point of this thread is to say that this is a change from how Marriott did the category changes in the past - it was timed in February/March and pre-announced,

Now there is a stealth devaluation of the point required. Sadly this is not new, I've pointed it out several months ago when I've seen it happened in other hotels I was looking for (see the old thread).

The bottom line is that Marriott is failing on customer service, removed the points advance, and not change hotel categories without any announcements. It seems that corporate had just given up on the loyalty scheme altogether.