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Marriott Bonvoy has announced that category changes are coming on March 3, 2021. My first-glance take is that the changes don’t actually look that bad. I see a lot of properties decreasing in price and relatively limited circumstances where increases will put properties out of reach of free night certificate stays, so as category changes go this looks about as good as one could expect. Of course, during a global pandemic in which travel has seen such a drastic decrease, one might not expect any hotel category increases, but the truth is that we see these every year and this year’s are mild.
Want to see the news visually? Here’s our spreadsheet
Greg created a handy spreadsheet that is easily searchable / sortable and visual. Here is a link to open it and play with it as you see fit or have a look through below:
Again, a first glance there shows a lot more green “down” boxes than red “up” boxes, so the news really isn’t bad here.
Only two USA Category 1 hotels move up to Category 2
Those intent on mattress running toward Marriott elite status will be happy to know that only two US Category 1 properties are moving up to Category 2: The Fairfield Inn & Suites Jasper and the Fairfield Inn & Suites Williamstown. Not surprisingly, both are located in outdoorsy locales which are likely seeing an increase in interest given the current environment. I believe that the Williamstown location is newly-opened this year (I don’t know about Jasper). The Williamstown Fairfield is reasonably close to a Simon Mall and as such I was thinking that it might replace the Category 1 Marriott I used to stay at sometimes on weekend mall runs that moved up from Category 1 to Category 2 last year, but alas it wasn’t meant to be.
If you were intending a mattress run involving either of those properties, you’ll want to book now to lock in the rate (and then keep an eye on your reservation and make sure you don’t get overcharged).
Category 5 to Category 6: Bye-bye 35K certificates
One of the category changes that interested me the most was to see which properties are increasing from Category 5 to Category 6 since these properties will move from 35K standard pricing to 50K standard pricing, which is both a huge jump (43% higher) and puts them out of reach with the 35K certificates that come with many Marriott credit cards.
I was happy to see that only 4 properties in the USA are making this move, with two of them in Ocean City, Maryland.
- Aloft Ocean City
- Residence Inn Ocean City
- Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach Resort
- The Lytle Park Hotel, Autograph Collection
Out of the other two, one is the Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach. That one hurts. We had previously reported this as a Category 4 25K property in 2019. Then, it increased to Category 5 in October 2019 (35K standard). Now, it is moving to Category 6 (50K standard). That’s an increase of double the number of points per night in less than a year a year an a half. That’s disappointing to see as someone who was saving up points a year and a half ago for this property (and who likely had to put off a stay during the pandemic) is now looking at needing double the points for that trip. Ouch.
Category 6 to Category 5: Hello 35K certs
The good news is that there are more properties moving down from Category 6 to Category 5, including a couple of Autograph Collection properties in the US. Of course, that looks good on the surface but won’t mean much practically if they price them at “peak” 40K rates. But in the current environment, it should be possible to get some nice places on your 35K certs.
Here are the US properties that move from Category 6 to Category 5:
- Charleston Kiawah Island/Andell Inn
- Fairfield Inn & Suites Augusta Fort Gordon Area
- Fairfield Inn & Suites Virgin Zion National Park
- The Glenmark, Glendale, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel
- The Opus, Westchester
A couple of non-US hotels that move down from Cat 6 to Cat 5 that may be of particular interest include:
Bad news: Book these properties with 50K certs while you can
Only 3 properties move up from Category 6 to Category 7, with none of them in the US. This category change means that these three hotels will no longer be bookable with the 50K certificates that come with the Ritz-Carlton credit card or Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. You can book these before March 3rd for stays after March 3rd at the current rates (though any subsequent change after March 3rd will re-price).
- Las Alcobas, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Mexico City
- Mesm Tokyo, Autograph Collection
- The Langley, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Buckinghamshire
That’s not such a painful list.
At the other end of this spectrum, two properties move down from Category 7 to Category 6, the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic, Autograph Collection and the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, so you will soon be able to book those with 50K certs. I haven’t looked at cash rates at either, but a 50K cert to stay on a lake in Switzerland sounds like it’s probably pretty good based on my experience with Swiss prices.
Bottom line
The new Marriott category changes aren’t really bad at all. Sure, there are some properties going up and it’s always painful to see a property you like or visit often go up in category. But as a whole, this is a mild set of category changes. That should be expected in the current environment. Truthfully, I’d prefer not to see any increases in category given the current circumstances and I think that many more properties should decrease in award rate, but it’s rare that we have a category changes post with 3 or 4 properties making key changes that affect free night certificate status and as such I take it as a net win that we didn’t lose more. Overall, I’d say the news here was as good as one could reasonably expect — or at least as not-bad as one could hope for it to be.
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If a property will be moving to a lower category, can you book now, then get the excess points rebated?
Frankly I’m kind of angry that travel bloggers are pretty much all saying some version of “could be worse”. We’re in the middle of a global pandemic that has crucified travel outside of China. Marriott should be dropping award categories drastically across the board. It’s not like they won’t continue their practice of jacking award rates through the roof anyway when business improves. Giving them a pass is simply ignoring the premise that rates go up in good times and down in bad. Now we’re supposed to accept increases in bad times too?
It’s not that I don’t think more properties should go down in category, but if we think about it from Marriott’s perspective, I can understand why more didn’t. When properties change category, they are essentially committing to that new category for two years of travel. They generally only announce category changes in March, so the new categories that take effect on March 3rd will likely by and large be in place until March of 2022. Then, before properties change categories again in March of 2022, members will have a chance to book travel into January/February/early March 2023. Reducing a hotel in category right now means committing to that lower price until spring of 2023. While occupancy is abysmal right now, committing to today’s pricing for late 2022 and early 2023 travel based on the current environment probably feels short-sighted. Marriott likely assumes, as I think most of us do, that travel will have increased exponentially by 2022 — certainly domestically — if the vaccine rollout expands as forecasted. So while the St. Regis Bal Harbour might be empty today and rates may be dirt cheap at the moment (just a random example that may not at all be true), pricing it according to the now-demand for late 2022 and 2023 travel would essentially be short-changing themselves.
Don’t get me wrong — I play this game to win also and I’d like to see better wins in a category-shuffling. But the truth is that hotels changing category almost always means far more properties increasing in category than decreasing. Properties maintaining their current category — i.e. not devaluing and instead remaining constant — is a win in a world in which inflation almost always increases prices of everything from milk and eggs to salaries, rent, and hotel rooms. This year, more properties decreased than increased, which is something we haven’t seen in many years (I think View from the Wing noted it is the first time it has happened in a decade or more).
While occupancy and hotel rates are very low in many parts of the country, there are pockets (particularly in outdoorsy locations) where demand (and therefore prices) continues to be high. I’m not surprised to see Aspen see a hotel category increase because I imagine the room rates warrant it (I haven’t checked, so making an assumption here). But again, there are more decreases here than increases and far far far far far far far more properties that aren’t changing category at all (only 201 or 202 properties are changing out of 7,500 properties worldwide), which feels unfair short-term but will probably be good for us when travel recovers (fingers crossed) in 2022.
Again, it’s not that I wouldn’t be happy to see more decreases or don’t agree that current trends would warranty some category drops, but I could have also seen this going the other way and Marriott figuring that nobody is staying anyway so they may as well increase award rates to where they think it ought to be in 2022 since fewer people are paying attention now than will be in March of 2023. The fact that they didn’t take that perspective is the reason for the sigh of relief that you hear in saying that this isn’t that bad.
Those are my thoughts for what it’s worth.
Fair enough. To be honest I hadn’t considered the 2 year aspect. That said, there are a bunch of things that they could have done besides dropping a huge number of hotels by a category or two. They could have increased the value of certificates by 50% for this year. They could have generated enormous goodwill and positive press if they announced they had zero hotels going up in category this year. They could have offered the equivalent of the old IHG Price Breaks from when they had value. These are just offhand ideas. Surely if they have a marketing department that’s kooky enough to come up with the name Bonvoy, those people could think outside the box in other ways.
Anyway, thanks for the response and some valid points.
Schloss Lieser going from 3 to 5 🙁
Couldn’t find a single night for 35k at the Curacao location. Lowest points cost per night into next year was 36K per night, just out of reach for using 35k certificate.
That’s because the category changes won’t take effect until 3/3. Right now, it’s pricing at off-peak Cat 6 (40K) – 10% off for the current off-peak promotion. It should drop on 3/3.
Given that the Kauai property was an outdated Courtyard, then a major construction site for a prolonged period of time, its not too surprising that post renovation it is getting a bump. Though still disappointing.
OMAAT points out that many of the properties are newer, and are being adjusted after data allowed them to price more accurately. I would think data from 2020 will probably be very different from 2022 or 2023, and many of these decreases will not stick around long term.
That’s a talking point that Marriott shared (that “newer” properties are being adjusted “after collecting data”). I’m not sure one needs a PhD in data science to know that demand is down across the board, whether properties are new or old, so I didn’t mention that justification as it kind of made me shrug my shoulders. But I agree with you that many of these decreases likely won’t stick around when occupancy goes up.
Looking at a specific example, I think it could be true that they mainly focused on new (or newly renovated) properties, and adjusted those, while leaving most properties untouched.
In the Phoenix Glendale/Westgate area (near the stadium), there are currently four Category 4 properties: an Aloft, Springhill Suites, (a tired) Residence Inn and a recently opened Towneplace Suites. The Towneplace usually has highest paid rates (at least for the couple different weeks I will be there), probably because it is new. Given the current times, I am sure all 4 have low occupancy. But they are lowering just the Towneplace to Category 3, and keeping the others at 4. In non pandemic times, the other 3 are probably in the appropriate category. But they seemed to just focus on the new property in this area. Either way, I was going to book the Towneplace, so a win for me!
Vancouver Wall Centre going from 6 -> 5 is really nice. Downtown Van had no (or maybe 1) Cat 5. That has changed and is a big win IMO.
We stayed there on a trip to Vancouver in 2019. Nice hotel/location, and would consider using a FNC if we could on a future trip down the road.
Phew, I was still haunted by the bloodbath the last time Marriot moved things around. Glad they didnt touch the JW Marriot Phu Quoc