Marriott has just announced their category changes for 2020 and its pretty much all doom and gloom.
This impacts all stays booked on or after March 04, 2020. The bad news is that the bulk of them are getting expensive in points as they go up in category. Of all the Marriott properties worldwide, 22% are going up while only 7% are going down.
This is indeed bad, another devaluation, and there is no other way to describe this. And, this comes on the heels of of the recent peak/off-peak pricing. Another punch in the gut with this change will be when you want to apply your free anniversary night certificate as a lot of locations are moving from category 5 to 6 and you wont be able to use the certificate at those locations.
So what do you do?
For properties that are going up, lock in the price by booking now before March 04, 2020. Also make sure, if you book now with “Points Advance” that you apply the points before March 04, 2020. Then, keep an eye on the reservation as last year when this happened, they applied the higher rate and you had to call in to have it adjusted.
For properties that are going down, call after March 04, 2020 and ask for an adjustment and the points will be credited back into your account.
And, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do with the free anniversary night certificate issue as you options for locations will be severely reduced.
To check if your favourite location is going up or down, click here.
Written by Dominic Fernandes aka CanadaPointsGuy.
Image courtesy of marriott.com
