On FB MR is saying new award rates will be announced in Mid-JULY!! Unacceptable!!
 

I looked but I could not find any mention here of this but evidently MR is saying on FB that the new award rates will be announced mid-July instead of in June as promised! This is completely unacceptable as it gives us 2 whole weeks to make reservations if a hotel goes up in category. If seen some good things (as promised by MR) announced on this merger but they sure are not playing with open cards on these award categories which has me doubting Marriott's intentions!

To see the comment I am referencing, go to the Visitor Posts on their FB page and there is one from yesterday (6/27) where the Mid-July dating is given in the reply to someone questioning where the heck the list was.

Actually, you have from now until August to make any bookings. And since Marriott doesn't require you to even ring fence the points to hold a reward booking, you can make as many hundreds of award reservations as you like.

If you are interested in hotels ONLY when they are going to increase in price, perhaps you simply should revisit your priorities.

What are you talking about? I think right now the prime focus for anyone is what the new categories will be in the merged program. So I don't get you comment on revising my priorities!

I get that I can make as many reservations as I want but...maybe Marriott should do what they promised and I (and other people) wouldn't have to go through the work of making phantom bookings under the assumption of a award category increase.

https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change

Looks live to me ..

Yes it does appear that way but then why would they say on FB mid-July? Guess their person responding has no clue.

New Marriott Award rates released
 

Think this deserves its own thread as I am sure there will be lots of comments;

https://points-redemption.marriott.com/category-change


Personally was considering Domes of Elounda and see its rises 40k come Aug 1st !!!
Overall though, it seems fair enough at first glance

My first impression is it is fair. I was looking at some properties on LI, NY I stay at for family visits. They used to be between Cat 3. to Cat 6. (15,000 to 30,000) with the Cat 3. property being very undervalued. Now they will all be Cat. 4 (25,000) which seems reasonable. When I have more time, I'll look at some of our common vacation spots and analyze the changes.

--Jon

Quick thoughts...

There are some ugly ones for sure, mostly on the Marriott side as far as I can tell, as I believe many have feared:

Domes of Elonda going from 45K to 85K, although it will be 60K for the rest of the year - definitely book by July 31st if you want this one!
Sheraton on the Falls, Niagara Falls - was a category 2 SPG (Marriott equivalent) at 12K / 9K point on the weekend in March, raised to category 4 (30K), now will be 50K
Fairfield Inn Zion will be 50K points!
Category 8 & 9 Marriott side hotels seem to be going up to 60K in major areas (Hawaii, Caribbean, major cities)
12K SPG (36K Marriott) sees a lot of upward movement.
Marriott Vacation Club spots are going up - only 8 are decreasing in points, and only by 5K.

On the plus side, SPG higher category hotels are looking better, as they had assumed. There's a bunch of 35K Marriotts going down to 25K, but not sure if any of these are destination type places.

I have two reward trips booked for this fall, one a Marriott property and one a Sheraton. Both properties went down by 5,000 points/night.

I'm seeing the same in my research... I would rather pay the cash rate than to give up 50K in points for an average $150.00 a night room.

Yeah I'm not happy about my favorite disney sheraton going up to double the price of points. Will just be booking out the rest of the year before july 31 and call it a day with them.

This is ridiculous! We just left there two days ago...glad I got in while it was reasonable as 85k is just nuts.

Remember that the charts are for standard rates. If you want to travel during peak times (as most of us do, that's what makes them peak), it'll be 5K more. Which means all the ones dropping 5K are really staying the same, and the ones staying the same are really a 5K increase.

Some crazy changes but overall i think it is fair from a first view

Quick glance, Bangkok, Soi 57 FS is now Cat 3 (17,500 a night or 70k for five nights), lower than the similar Marquis, Ren and JW. This is a bargain. The CY is an even better Cat 2 `1.5k/night, 50k for five nights). Quiet hotel, decent CY, great location. The LM with its inferior location, dated rooms and no CL is inexplicably Cat 4 and the kinda dumpy Aloft at Soi 11 is Cat 3.