Marriott Rewards gives 10 MR points per dollar spent (exclusive of taxes, etc.). For overseas stays where the rate is denominated in a non-dollar currency, they use an exchange or conversion rate to calculate how many dollars is equivalent to what you paid, and then apply the 10 points per dollar (plus any elite bonus).

The question I have is where they get the rate they apply? I've been following this for about three years now, and it seems (with few rare exceptions) that they use a rate that is artificially low.

I got to calculating the other day for three recent stays in Euroland. (It's easy to calculate "after tax" since the tax has to be shown separately on the bill.)

The following table (if it works out) shows the results:

Column 1 is the date of the transaction;
Column 2 is the exchange rate (dollars per euro) my credit card billed me;
Column 3 is the basic interbank rate for that date according to www.oanda.com ; and
Column 4 is the rate applied by Marriott Rewards.

12-22-03 . . 1.27 . . 1.23 . . 1.18
01-11-04 . . 1.31 . . 1.28 . . 1.255
02-13-04 . . 1.31 . . 1.28 . . 1.24

As you can see, no apparent rhyme or reason to the calculations, except that the Marriott rate is always significantly lower than the actual rate paid, or even the interbank rate.

So, where are they getting their rate? And why is it so much lower than what the MR member is actually paying? Over the last couple years, I've lost thousands of points because of that.

I've done a "search", and although the question has been asked, in one form or another, various times, no answer has been provided.

(It would be really nice if we could persuade Marriott to use the same conversion rate their hotel properties use, wouldn't it? )

I have the same problem. I send my bills to MR to get them to add the additional points. A stay last year in UK was out by 45% but it is usually somewhere between 15 to 25%.

I mainly stay in the UK marriotts but have had this problem in Oz as well.

I am wondering if they use the hotel rate to calculate the number of points.

No, because the "hotel rate" is *really* bad (lower amount of local currency per dollar).

For instance, the other day the place I was staying at was giving 73 euro cents per dollar according to the sign posted at reception, while the credit card rate for that stay was the equivalent of 79.5 cents per dollar, and even converting cash in the local bank got you about 79 cents after deducting the commission. That stay hasn't posted to my account yet, so I don't know how many points the hotel will give me for that transaction.

If they would use the hotel rate, our number of points would increase something like 10%

I just call and get the difference posted to my account. I usually get about 10% less than what I should based on current exchange.

The worst was one stay in the UK where they used the euro rate. I was told by Cust Svc in Salt Lake that they use a web-based currency exchange program and use the average for a whole month. The clerk must have plugged in euro instead of sterling.

I have had similar problems too for stays in the UK, Euroland and Pakistan. Each time I have faxed/e-mailed and had my points adjusted.

For the UK stays it appears that they have simply taken the figure in sterling as dollars (ie exchange rate of unity).

I have asked Marriott to investigate why I have to apply for the remaining points. I received the following reply
"I have forwarded your account for review to see if there is a problem in the point posting process."