Like Dd992emo #37, I am thankful to Andrew for reporting what he has. However, I too have 2 Cat. 4 nights from the Fall Megabonus & consider it important to know the Cat. 4--> 5 changes. However, I will have to make do by reserving 2 nights at an interesting Cat. 4 hotel which I suspect may increase.

7A, you may wish to add your congratulations to this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ge-andrew.html

Sophiegirl

Not that it will a difference, but I sent an email to Ed French directly. He should know how something so simple can tick people off. Anybody else not happy about should as well.

Cheers.

I have 2 of these certificates as well (with one more on the way) and will just make a bunch of reservations for hotels where I'm thinking about using them. Come March 8th I'll just delete all of my reservations that I won't use based on what hotels aren't changing from cat 4 to 5. I think it's ridiculous that Marriott won't at the very least post those cat 4 to cat 5 changes as these impact so many of us. Don't understand the proprietary argument at all as any one of us can (and most likely will) create our own list of changes and publish them.

Time for a vote:

(a) I fell better that Marriott finally acknowledged the request for more info.

(b) I feel worse given Marriott's reply was NYOB (None of your business).

I understand what they are getting at - somebody made a business decision that it was ok to release a selection of the changes ahead of time and disclose the overall nature of the changes (we now know they will be predominantly category increases) but not to release the entire list. Whether that's smart for them in the overall sense or not I haven't a clue. But it at least beats the heck out telling us nothing ahead of time.

This is a very, very poor response from a company that likes to pride itself on allegedly displaying customer friendliness and responsiveness.

If the folks at Marriott had not guessed, the reason why many find this statement concerning the Category 4 - 5 hotels important is because Marriott likes to trumpet their promotion that one can obtain a free night up to a Category 4 with just 2 stays at any Marriott property.

Marriott also offers a variety of this promotion to its credit card holders with a spend threshold within a certain amount of time.

It is not acceptable for Marriott to say this is propietary information when it is running such a promotion right now, nor is it a solution for one to book as many nights at a current Category 4 hotel that you may wish to stay at in the future, as many people do not have that number of points available to use for such eventualities.

Ira, I certainly hope that Marriott will reconsider this response, for as others have rightly noted, it amounts to little more than a "None of your buisnees" kiss off to its loyal customer base. :td:

What are you? Some kind of hippie? You think you can come in here with some maturity and a reasonable attitude and get away with it? Nosirree, Bob.
Get in the whine line and brace up, Sparky! :D

Am I surprised that Marriott does not want to release the entire list of changes? No, because people have asked for that this year and last year. They are on FT, and they would have released the entire list last year if it had been their intent to do so.

Do I agree with this decision to not release the entire list? I am not thrilled about it, but I think you can use the information they released to get an idea of what other properties might be moving up or down in category this year. Socrates has mentioned before that award categories are set partly from the demand for awards at a particular hotel and partly from how much the typical room rate is. Some markets are recovering faster than others.

Since Marriott has released the info for the higher level category properties, it is safe to assume that most of the increases in the lower category properties are in North America. You are not going to find as many category 4 or lower properties overseas as a percentage of Marriott hotels.

Which markets are strong? I would say the DC metro area is one. Several higher end hotels in the DC area are going up one category. I stay in the DC area a lot, and room rates are going up here on the weekends. Last year, a couple of FS properties went down from category 4 to 3. I expect those properties to go back to category 4. They are the Gaithersburg Marriott and the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, VA.

Actually, it would be fairly easy to look at the hotels that went down one category last year and ask if business has gotten better this year. If it has, you should expect the hotel to go up a category. I recall someone on FT wrote a list of all the property changes in the prior year in their blog (satori IIRC).

The other safe assumption is that any lower category property outside the United States (category 4 for instance) has a good chance of getting bumped up to category 5. The US dollar has been going down in the past year (especially against the Canadian dollar and Swiss Franc), and the economy (and hotel markets) have recovered faster outside the United States. It stands to reason that those properties have seen higher RevPAR increases (especially in terms of USD).

I would reserve any award for properties in Canada that are category 4 or lower if you want to stay on points in the upcoming year. The somewhat higher room tax in Canada (versus some US based hotels) combined with the loonie being worth more than the greenback is going to push up a lot of these properties in category.

Thank heavens, two voices of reason........

May I please add - they are Marriott properties. It is Marriott's program. They can tell us what they wish...or not. We can then choose to spend our money with them...or not.
IMO the benefits I get from the program FAR OUTWEIGH the slight annoyance of not seeing a complete list up front that may not even affect me...'cause I can always find somewhere to go for a free weekend where these things are accepted.

First laugh I have had all day......:D

A.

Both answers are crap, but I really hate it when questions to MC are ignored or, even worse, when an answer is promised and never comes.

Oh come on. It's not like the information isn't going to be publicly available at some point. So what's the hold up? Starwood has already announced their changes — their ENTIRE list of changes, just like they do every year.

The only reason to not announce the full list is if Marriott fears there will be a rush of redemptions at the old rates in the next week that they're wishing to avoid.

Furthermore, what's so special about the handful of hotels that you did announce the changes to? What makes them different from the hundreds of others you're being so secretive about?

Bogus--are you kidding me. Reminds me of a recent increase with DISH network. No notification. I see an increase in my monthly bill and call to find out what is going on. We increased your package however you have STARZ package free for the next year--who gives a crap--I don't need these channels. Why didn't you alert me of this price increase--we sent out 11 million letters--yea well I don't get snail mail from you only e-mail. Blah Blah Blah what a bunch of crap. Stop jerking us around and list the complete changes--this is a joke. Shame on Marriott.

I heard back from Marriott (not directly Ed French, but a Senior Director). They said in an email that they would be posting the full list on FT soon. Not sure what soon means, but probably in next day possibly.

They did give me the full list as a courtesy, but I will allow them first crack at providing it to the masses.

Cheers.

I guess I will give my #marriott twitter campaign a 24-hour rest.