mahasamatman

As far as I've seen, you must have the certificate in your account to even book the room.

mahasamatman

That assumes the supply : demand ratio is constant, which is unlikely to be true.

Cledaybuck

Why do you assume that? With inflation hotel prices go up and people earn more points. Stands to reason it will cost more to redeem them.

fifteenhandicap

Well The Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove FL went from Cat 3 to Cat 2 ---> so we have that in our favour....

CJKatl

MasterGeek

Hereby entering multiple speculative rewards bookings there at Cat 5 level, until I know when I want to stay there !

hhoope01

Exactly. This is one of the features I've really liked over the years about Marriott's program. Having the ability to make an award reservation without having the points (or a certificate) in my account allows me to use points in high occupancy situations that I wouldn't otherwise be able to. ^

travelbugging

So I can book it now and use my certificate in April? Thanks CJKatl, you've been so helpful with all my Marriott questions. Wrong thread for this but my family and I enjoyed our stay at the Ren Bangkok which you recommended over the other Bangkok Marriotts!

sdsearch

Because not everyone needs to redeem only in major tourist destinations. And, also, not everyone is equally picky about brands either.

Everyone should make the decision themselves, depending on their travel patterns. Me, I never have a problem finding a place to use a Cat 1-5 cert within a year, so I keep the cards. Sometimes it's a better value, sometimes it's less of a value, but always it's well over the annual fee of the card ($85 for the personal, $99 for the business card). If you have a problem, you can dump the cards.

For example, one year I used it for a hotel next to BUF airport when I was arriving late (midnight-ish), on my way to Niagara Falls the next day. The airport hotels were expensive on cash, but there were multiple choices at cat 5 or below. Who cares that BUF airport itself is not a "major tourist destination"?

Srisarin

but don't be overly surprised when this prop comes back with point stretcher dates

joshua362

Except hotel rates generally don't follow inflation's somewhat gradual 3% yearly incline, they swing wildly as to what the market will bear and gouge when they can. With the inflation logic, what cost 25,000 points to redeem one year should cost 25,000 x 1.03 = 25,750 the next, not 30,000.

These theories are interesting but I think there is more logic in bitcoin pricing then trying to ascribe rational behavior to these annual devalutions other than they can because its unregulated funny money that we are invested in and treat them as not.

controller1

I see five of them on the list. One is going up and four are going down.

Hint: Similar to "Westin" being named "The Westin", look under "The Ritz-Carlton".

GoPhils

GoPhils

CJKatl

Earning versus spending:

Earning: There are several factors at play here, including status, possible welcome points, cc usage and number of nights in your stay. As a gold/plat at an SPG property, you earn 3 pts per dollar spent. If you spend one night at $100, received the 500 welcome gift points and did not use the cc, you will get 800 points. If you convert those to Marriott points you get 2,400 points. If you stayed at a Marriott and spend the same, you would receive 1,250 + 500 or 1,750 points for gold or 1,500 + 500 or 2k for plat. If you are a 75+ plat at SPG you would actually earn the equivalent of 2,700 Marriott points. Either way, you come out better earning at an SPG hotel. Of course, the more nights in your stay the more diluted the welcome gift points become.

Spending: Hard to say since SPG does not have a chart. IME, Marriott has more availability at better prices, but that's been my limited random experience. SPG does not have the Travel Package, which many of us find to be the best redemption opportunity. Choosing a random night (April 1) in Bangkok, the LM Silom, Sheratons and W are each 10k SPG points, equivalent to 30k MR points. The Aloft is 4k, or 12k equivalent. The FS Marriott hotels are 20k, the Ren is 25k, which are better bargains for similar hotels. The CY is 20k, much higher than the Aloft, but the CY is a much nicer hotel in a quieter location.

I checked a couple other cities and found all over the place results. In Raleigh, where there are very similar Sheraton and Marriott next door to each other, each was the same price. (10k SPG vs 30k MR) In FLL, you could stay on the beach for 35k Marriott points, but there were not SPG options available. So the bottom line is you really cannot definitively stay which is the best option on spending.