Question on no blackout redemption
 

Does Marriott rewards program have the "no blackout redemption" policy?

Trying to redeem free nights at Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club, and found the days I want are not available for redemption. If I search with cash rate, "Guest room, 1 King, Sofa bed, Mountain view, Balcony" is available. Compared with other days that are available with redemption I found the same room type. So should Marriott let me redeem with points as long as this room type is available to book? Thanks in advance...

MR does have no blackouts. However, two things going on here.

1) The inventory can be limited based on demand. When that inventory is gone, no more reward stays.

2) MVCI properties are not subject to this policy. Marriott does not own these units. If the timeshare units are owned by the owners, Marriott does not have the rooms to offer on points. Several recent threads on extremely limited MR avail at MVCI.

I suspect you're running into the MVCI problem.

While Marriott isn't *quite* the same "any standard room..." program that Starwood is, at most normal Marriotts it works pretty well. You see the standard room for cash or points and make your pick.

But the MVCI's have gotten flat out tough in the past couple of years. It didn't used to be this hard.

black outs? New to Marriott
 

I'm trying to book JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa over New Years? Basic Garden View "No Bed Type Preference, Guest room, King or Double" are available for cash but not points?

Can a Marriott Resort blackout awards?

I'm SPG and accustomed to Platinum Ambassador- does Marriott have someone I can chat with about this? Or I just call regular number?

Thanks!

You can call the regular number, or the PLT line if you've matched status. But Marriott does not have the "room available = award available" policy of Starwood.

No blackouts just means that at least one room was available as an award at some point. If the available award rooms are gone, they're gone.

As rooms look to start at $700+ for a lowest-level Garden room, 3x the typical rate, the odds of award inventory freeing up is pretty small, IMHO.

Wow
 

thanks so much. Wow, as an SPG Plat 100, this is shocking. I guess we're all learning. The no blackouts seems a bit misleading.

And it is a bit when you come in comparing it to SPG. Historically, though Marriott has had a different approach to award room availability.

Marriott didn't used to have the "No Blackout" policy but added that maybe 8 to 10 years ago (my memory for exact dates is horrid). Before that they used to require hotels to only provide a smaller % of award rooms per any night and even none for some nights. To compensate Marriott had a "rule-buster" type of award that was something like twice as expensive points wise. When Marriott changed their program, they did away with those "rule-buster" awards, instituted the "No Blackout" policy and required hotels to offer a significantly higher % of standard rooms for awards (what that % is no one outside Marriott knows.) Marriott does allow hotels to greatly reduce that % on a few nights per year. So there may be some nights (i.e. the Saturday night before Superbowl Sunday) that the hotel will only have to offer a much smaller % of standard rooms for awards.

It was about 10 years ago and the availability is simply night and day compared to what it used to be. It was horrid and just about useless, say March in Florida. Not perfect now but much, much better.

I will agree that availability is much better than it used to be. I don't have to try to plan a MR redemption 360 days in advance.

But peak periods are still sell-outs, unlike SPG. I fear this will be the one big loss of the combined program.