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 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
- Courtyard Hyderabad Cat 1 (2016) Cat 2 (2017)
- JW Marriott Hotel Bangalore Cat 3 (2016) Cat 4 (2017)
- JW Marriott Mussoorie Cat 5 (2016) Cat 6 (2017)
- Kochi Marriott Hotel Cat 2 (2016) Cat 3 (2017)
Hotels moving down by one category
- JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar Cat 5 (2016) Cat 4 (2017)
- Renaissance Lucknow Cat 3 (2016) Cat 2 (2017)
- 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 ?
JW Marriott Bangalore was a bargain at category 3. Sorry to see it changing. I really like that property.