By your logic then Marriott wouldn't price hotel rooms in a Marriott higher than rooms in more upscale brands like the J.W. Marriott or Edition. But they do. In fact, for a random summer weekend the Marriott Park Lane in London is $832 per night. It's a category 9. For another random weekend, it's $602 per night. The Edition was $566 per night and the J.W. Marriott Grosvenor House was $519 per night.

The Sheraton Maui is currently a category 6 hotel and requires 20,000 points a night, what would be your guess on the amount of points you would need per night once the program changes? Under 60,000?
I'd like to book a room there, but I'm not sure if I should wait. If it goes to 50,000 a night I would be better off waiting until my Starpoints triple and save 10,000 points. Any thoughts?

20,000 Starpoints maps perfectly to 60,000 new Points (new Category 7), so it's possible that the point requirements will effectively stay the same.

It's also possible that the Sheraton Maui will go down. The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, will also be Category 7, because Category 7 is the highest category for the rest of 2018. It would be strange for the Sheraton Maui to require as many new Points as the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua.

The Marriott Wailea Beach Resort on Maui is currently 40,000 Rewards Points. There is not a new August 2018 category at that level, so the Marriott Wailea will have to go up or down.

I would not rely on anyone's guesses here to predict the future. Unlike a few people here, I don't expect a "massive devaluation" in August 2018. In fact, I think Marriott will try to delight us with the new category assignments -- but that ongoing category creep in future years will slowly take its toll over time (as it has in past years).

Why not book now on Maui, and then cancel and rebook if you see something better when the new requirements are released?

Can't you book it now at the current rate then if the rate gets better, cancel the reservation and rebook it at the new rate?

I'd guess most will be roughly the same.

I'd suggest booking it now, as you'll almost certainly have the option to cancel and rebook later, if it drops.

"But what if it's sold-out later and (s)he can't rebook?" Well, then waiting would have resulted no room at all.

I see no downside to booking now (assuming you check and there's not a never-seen-before cancellation deadline)


(just read all the way through - a bit of redundant and repetitive advice....)

I appreciate your response. I will book before the change. If canceling and rebooking after August is needed, would my points going back into my account be tripled? They should be, but you never know.
I didn't see where they said when the new award charts would be coming out, but I hope soon.

All Starpoints will be converted to the new Points currency in August. I wouldn't consider anything to be "tripled" even though 1 Starpoint = 3 Rewards Points = 3 new Points.

A 20,000-Starpoint reservation made before August will be a 60,000-Point reservation when Starpoints go away as a separate points currency in August. If you cancel such a reservation, 60,000 new Points will be returned to you balance.

Marriott has not announced when the new point requirements for each property will be released, but it has to be before August -- and I hope it would be at least 2 months before August.

How much you want to bet?

I guarantee the RC Cat 5 and these London properties will be at the top of the charts for peak season (summer) redemption (95k), if not on August 1 than certainly by the time the next revaluation occurs in early 2019.

The whole Marriott/SPG/RC program realignment is just providing a smokescreen for what is essentially a massive devaluation for all of the expensive high demand properties, and there is no reason to put lipstick on it or extend false hope. Book your award nights now, you can always cancel down the road in the unlikely event I am wrong.

Thank you. I do hope they post the new hotel points requirements soon. Would love to know how things will shake out.

I imagine most of the high demand SPG properties will stay more or less the same and the high demand Marriott properties will be brought up to that level. Just look at the example in this thread above with the Maui Sheraton the same price in points as the Ritz. How does that make any sense?

I willing to bet 95k points that none of London properties will cost 95k new points come August 1 (for any date in the future). Deal?

Marriott just released the top award destinations and their new redemption rates for Bali, New York, Paris, Caribbean, and Mexico, and Dubai.

Looks like more hotels are dropping in rate than increasing. So the unfounded paranoia is shown to be what it is...

https://members.marriott.com/tophotels/

I think there's going to be a lot of pain for the existing category 8+9 Marriott hotels (more going up to 50k than going down to 35k). I expect much of the drops to come from SPG cat 6.

Reserving judgment until I see the full list . I want to see the new levels for hotels in cities such as DC, Los Angeles , San Francisco , Chicago , London , Tokyo , Hong Kong , Rome , Boston , and certain Florida resorts.

Exactly. A few hotels in Bali, Puerto Rico and Mexico dropping mean nothing when you consider the situation in each of those places.