Marriott expands in China, surpassing 500 hotels

https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...ng-500-hotels/

Good luck!


Got my first US hotel chain stay in China next year, if a mini-trip goes through.

Shanghai Edition is the only Marriott property.

Rest are Hyatts and Hiltons. Do have a stay at urCove - which to me seems like a China only chain in a way...as I don't think it exists outside China. [Turns out it's a joint venture of sorts with Hyatt]

Hyatt and BTG Homeinns
https://www.urcove-hotels.com/en/destinations&hotels

Hering that the club lounges at some Marriott brands (Courtyard) are closing in 2024. Seems the China hotel properties are struggling with costs & inflation.

I'm not sure if lounges are being closed but we are facing massive deflation, resulting in cutbacks across the board to benefits and portion sizes

As a note on the deposit question I posed last year, I finally made it to Qingdao. I never sent in any prepayments nor was my credit card charged before arrival - and my reservation remained valid :-)

In China now after 2 stays in the last 10 days mostly in the Beidaihe area. The Marriott Resort on the beach there has actually improved since my last stay 2 years ago, probably could be a JW luxury brand now.
The Qinhuangdao CY has its good CY hospitality, but the EL has only beverages/snacks, and was told for any evening snack/foods just to order off the menu.
Next week off to Sanya for a month, we booked only 3 Sanya hotels in 2 different bays. With this new weak Mrt Q4 promo, decided to try the 'benefits' of the Flying pig app (Fliggy.com) It's an Alibaba travel service platform. The prepaid deal (ya, hard to modify) where one gets 5000 Mrt points per day, along with the Mrt weak Q4 points & nights. Only did this with the Taikang resort in Haitang bay, not our Sheraton arrival resort. Updates later on Fliggy, but was told that this travel ap is more for the Chinese Gen Z types who like AI.

1-The new Fliggy 'flash sale is out & in 2nd day. Some BJ Marriott sales are 1k-3k points per day + all the Mrt stay nights + normal points. Sanya hotels are similar but the Tribute Portfolio is %k points per day stay. + all the so called Fliggy benefits. Also saw some Hilton bonus points. As mentioned before, it's a prepay, with a possible refund or modification with Fliggy. In October we did get all our Mrt benefits from Sheraton 5 day stay & the Tribute Portfolio 8 day stay. The total points from TP was 40k + 9K + 4050 for the 4th qtr Mrt 2025 promo. Thus about 53K points. amazing. TP rate was similar to AAA, or AmX rates, maybe 3% more on the weekend. Using Fliggy now at JW in Dadonghai bay for a 2 week stay (This JW has a nice EL with great afternoon tea & tasty evening food, with free beverage bar after 5pm)

More on how Fliggy works , Points are only on calendar day sales, Not on package deals. This Alibaba app has a focus on gen Z clients with a tailored level rewards system that tops out at F6, we are only at F4 now.. (ie, lots of coupons)

2- The Taikang hotel is a Mrt brand from Tribute Portfolio. Mrt has nearly 200 of these around the world, currently only about 4 TP's in china , about a dozen in Asia. somewhat of a boutique hotel brand similar to the Autograph collection. This TP has 340 rooms in 2 buildings. Its very modern with unique architecture, such as several open patios on floors 6-8. Building A is 6 stories & B is 8 stories, both L shaped to give a lot of rooms an ocean view balcony. Huge pools for adult & children. their is a path across the road that gives one an ocean access. The hotel opened in 2022, thus a new property for Haitang bay, MRT review ratings average about 4.5, mostly in Chinese. CTrip has a variety of comments, some say it's like a college dorm in a poor bay location, yes, IMO, unique architecture, with 4 different restaurants.
Website pics are good. Hospitality was very good for us; adult pool was truly nice.

Can you confirm that you need to be a Chinese citizen (have a shenfenzheng) for this? I've heard of these deals but I also thought you have to be a Chinese citizen.

If that is true, which of the following would be better?
- Platinum member that does not have access to these deals
- No status or Gold status member with access to these deals

To above post, Im not sure, MY Chinese GF uses a lot of Alibaba aps & pays most bills with Alipay or her CITI credit card. Alipay is probably the key to the log-in to Fliggy.

On all the calendar Fliggy reservations ( about 10 in 30 days) in Sanya & Beijing from the flash sale's ( 3 days ) the total so far is 79,000 Marriott bonus points have been added from the 4 respective hotels. Truly amazing from this 3rd party, but its china, where there are many deals on Alibaba. Next is to try a few more brands in Beijing . (new Fairfield's, Renn's, and those old Sheratons)

IMO, the old Sheraton's in Sanya China (4), have some great locations, But never really did the improvement renovations that one would see in the North America Sheratons. They are "dated" , and also mediocre hospitality in the food/beverage areas.

The 1st Fairfield short review, Fliggy bonus points posted on the prepaid reservation. Haidian country location, Its NW Beijing & NW of Summer Palace on 6th ring road. Fabulous breakfast buffet, and even a free evening buffet starting at 6:30-9 pm. No alcohol & not really an EL, but tasty chinese buffet. This is a very new & modern Fairfield built in a growing IT park. 188 rooms tech-enhanced for the 6-6-9 type workers ( Huwei folks). 2 robots deliver food and mini bar amenities, plus free laundry machines with provided detergent were very convenient. Subway line 16 nearby with free hotel shuttle available to the subway station.

Stayed at Beijing Daxing Airport on December 1st. A new modern Fairfield in the park area by this modern 'country' airport. Room was only 400 RMB, but no heat in the building other than room space heaters. Similar design to the 6th ring Haidian Fairfield, & there is an free airport shuttle every 30 minutes to the PKX departure level, gate 3 (pickup is also there if you call them when arriving) A very good breakfast buffet from 6:30-10:00 with quality fruits, noodle station, pastry's,& beverages ,etc . A basic Gym on 1st floor of this 6 story hotel, and start of a food court in the basement tunnel area. Oh, BTW, the fliggy flash bonus points from Marriot were 3000 points a night, how they do this on a US$ 55 a night room with the other Mrt points ( about a 1000 a day) is still a wonder to me...

Interesting drive back to core city area of Beijing. The south side of BJ housing ghost city on the 5th & 6th ring is obvious. Real estate market crash of about 50-70% in this area. Probably why the hotel rates are also so cheap!.

Sheraton Langfang Chaobai- Hebei province, near border city Yanda. 45-minute taxi from PEK. A 2-night stay at this economical 'old' Sheraton in early December, and they still have not turned on the heat, another cheapscape owner that just provides a portable space heater. But nice gym & pool on the top 21st floor, good views of the nearby ghost city building of apartments. I could see 4 complex's of about 40-50 building's each that were 25-30 stories high, each of the 4 complexes had about 10k-20k apartments, and empty, ( No night lights)

The EL on 19th floor was only open from 6-8 pm & did have the 3 minimum hot dishes + a few cold veges, Breakfast (so-so) was on 1st floor from 6:30-10am. I asked for coffee midday, and they said the robot would bring it to the room for a fee...Rooms were clean, but dated furniture, actually had a nice desk!. We did use Marriott points & NUA's for an upgrade. The Mrt rating of 3.9 is kind for this Sheraton.

One might say why Heibei: We did visit the Yanda Nursing home, which is an amazing, assisted living place for seniors. About 20k seniors live in 40 high rise apartments, with a 2500 bed hospital also in the complex. It's only a 10-minute taxi ride from this Sheraton. One can Google this place & their english website has more info- (Yanda Nursing home, Hebei, China). On the return to Beijing there is an ID/passport road checkpoint at the Beijing province border on all vehicles.

Posting my 3 Beijing December 2025 stays at Marriott brands, all were Fliggy reservations with extra Mrt bonus points.
1-Capital Renn, 3 days at this recently renovated CBD hotel, Great breakfast area on 4th floor with tasty selections, also on 4th floor is the temporary EL as the R lounge on 24th floor is being renovated. The large gym on the 27th floor has good city views, And free 24 hour coffee. ( Luv those modern coffee machines!) Rooms are now modern with the recent renovations, including the updated sports channels on the tv. They would not honor the EOY soon to expire NUA's but did give us a large corner room, Fliggy bonus was 3k Mrt points per night, & did post within 2 days of checkout. Oh, subway line 10 is about a block away.

2- Weston Chaoyang, 3 nights (including Xmas) My favorite EL here since they are also open for breakfast, a fabulous pastry Tea time at 2:00 and a great dinner buffet with good 'beverage' options at 6 pm. (yes free Black label !) The EL on the 34th floor has excellent views of Beijing in all four directions. Large pool and two gyms are on the 5th floor, and this hotel is on line 10, the entrance about 30 meters away on the 3rd ring road. They did honor the Mrt NUA's, and we did get a very large suite with two tvs, and 2 bathrooms, which were recently renovated, but still had some dated furniture in this suite. Hospitality here has always been great, even with the Fliggy reservation of 3k Mrt points per day. Per the EL supervisor, about 20-25% of their reservations are from Fliggy.

3- Fairfield PEK, A one night stay at this NEW two-month-old Fairfield. (Only 330rmb per night) Rooms were small, but good efficient economy type design. A quality 3* free breakfast here for all stays. The NUA was not accepted for an upgrade here, and the Fliggy Mrt bonus was only 1K points. Airport shuttle (Coaster bus) is free every hour if scheduled 2 hours ahead. But the driver will NOT help load or unload bags and drops at the PEK lower bus level at PEK.

These December stays did get the GF to 75 nights and Mrt status of Titanium. IMO, in China there are a lot of Taobao plats, which hampers good upgrades, but also the Titanium status helped us more with some of the NUA upgrades. Fliggy reservations were not a problem with this upgrade issue, nor the posting of Mrt daily -calendar- bonus points.

Concludes my fall China stay of 80 days, stayed at 14 different hotels, 12 stays were at Marriott brands + a Hyatt & Crown Plaza stay. About 1/2 were totally new China hotel stays for us. Interesting trip