Marriott Rewards changing hotel categories in March 2017

Effective March 7, 2017 about one-fourth of Marriott hotels will undergo reward category changes. Marriott International currently operates 5700 hotels worldwide and about 1300 of these properties will be changing categories soon. 60% of the hotels will move up and 40% will move down.

Marriott Category Changes

Marriott currently categorizes all its hotels under 9 categories, apart from the Ritz Carlton Hotels :

Hotel Category Reward Points Required per night
Category 1 7500 Points
Category 2 10,000 Points
Category 3 15,000 Points
Category 4 20,000 Points
Category 5 25,000 Points
Category 6 30,000 Points
Category 7 35,000 Points
Category 8 40,000 Points
Category 9 45,000 Points
* Redeem 4 nights and get the 5th night free

The changes are mostly coming in the US of A, and other countries are following with a few changes here and there.  Make sure you that you go through the entire list before you consider redeeming points between now and March 7, 2016.

The India Impact

As a result of this, a total of 7 hotels will change categories in India. 4 will become more expensive while 3 are going to become cheaper to redeem nights. Sadly, our favorite hotel, the JW Marriott Mussoorie is going up by one category. Essentially, it jumps from a Category 4 hotel to a Category 6 hotel in 2 years.

Hotels moving up by one category

  1. Courtyard Hyderabad                    Cat 1 (2016)      Cat 2 (2017)
  2. JW Marriott Hotel Bangalore      Cat 3 (2016)      Cat 4 (2017)
  3. JW Marriott Mussoorie                 Cat 5 (2016)      Cat 6 (2017)
  4. Kochi Marriott Hotel                      Cat 2 (2016)     Cat 3 (2017)

Hotels moving down by one category

  1. JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar          Cat 5 (2016)      Cat 4 (2017)
  2. Renaissance Lucknow                     Cat 3 (2016)      Cat 2 (2017)
  3. Renaissance Mumbai, Powai         Cat 3 (2016)      Cat 2 (2017)

Here are a few other hotels outside the Indian sub-continent that you should consider redeeming points before March 7, 2016.

  • JW Marriott Cancun (moving up from category 8 to 9)
  • JW Marriott Hotel Cusco (moving up from category 7 to 8)
  • Rayong Marriott Resort, Thailand (moving up from category 4 to 5)
  • The New York EDITION (moving up from category 3 to 4)
  • JW Marriott Macau (moving up from category 7 to 8)

Looking at the entire list I see that most hotels are going up a category rather then coming down though fortunately there isn’t any hotel that jumps 2 categories. If you want to stay at a hotel where the prices go up, maybe now is a good time to make a redemption already. However, if you want to stay at a hotel where the award prices go down, wait up for a few days and you get it cheaper!

Are any of your favourite hotels changing categories this year ?

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