I wouldn’t be surprised by this, since SPG points being worth three times as MR/RCR points makes the award redemptions for Marriott and Ritz Carlton properties far better values! Those Tier 5 Ritz Carlton redemptions at 70,000 MR points/night are only 23,333 SPG points/night, lower even than a Category 6 SPG hotel. Work the math and it’s pretty obvious.

Of course, what Marriott really wants to see is how its most profitable customers are behaving—not its average customers. As SPG Plat100 who stays most often at StR, LuxCollection, W, Le Méridien, and Sheraton, with the occasional Renaissance and Courtyard where SPG isn’t available, not to mention being SPG Pro and booking hundreds of rooms at SPG (and occasional Marriott) properties, I’m pretty confident that I’m a pretty high value customer. Thus far, in almost 2 years, I’m booked for only 2 awards with MR/RC: 1 night at the Tier 4 Ritz Carlton Boston in April 2018 and 2 nights at the Tier 5 Ritz Carlton Kyoto in May 2018.

And yet I still booked the SPG Category 7 Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho for May 2018 (not the RC), the Suiran Kyoto for 5 nights (with the 2 nights at the RC Kyoto), and the StR Osaka (not the RC). In the last year, I’ve booked awards and stays at the StR San Francisco (not RC), the StR Bahia Beach (not RC San Juan), the StR Washington (not the RCs), the StR Rome, the Hotel Imperial Vienna (not the RC), and the Prince de Galles Paris (nothing remotely as good with Marriott). I just paid to stay at the StR Houston, and I’ll be paying to stay this coming weekend at the StR San Francisco, and in Jan at the StR Punta Mita, and in March at the StR New York and StR Atlanta.

For high value customes like me, despite the often better value of awards at the higher end RC, many of us still prefer the benefits and suite upgrades at the top StR and LuxCollection and occasional W properties. Those perks are pitiful at the Ritz Carlton properties...even as a matched Platinum. So StR and Luxury Collection get my cash. That’s what average consumers for Marriott don’t understand and generally are oblivious about, and what Marriott almost certainly recognizes.

There’s a reason Marriott gave us 3 MR points per 1 SPG point. Marriott knows SPG customers spend more on average than Marriott customes...especially in the brand profiles for the higher end and more costly brands in which SPG excels. Marriott wants customers like me to stay with Marriott. If they want me to stay and not spend my money with Four Seasons and Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula and Aman and Park Hyatt, then Marriott better keep us happy.

The higher spending SPG customers are who Marriott covets...and desperately wants to make happy. Those aren’t sending as many points to Marriott, I’m willing to bet.