Marriott Bonvoy announced in early February its 2021 award category changes that will occur this Wednesday (March 3, 2021).
It is unfortunate that Mariott, despite crashing paid and occupancy rates, will only lower the number of points required at 150 hotels and will require more at 51.
You can access Marriott’s page for changes here.
READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
Note that there are often last-minute changes for hotels moving up and down in categories between when Marriott has released the list and when these changes occur.
Marriott Bonvoy members can buy points with a bonus until March 22, 2021/
Marriott Bonvoy Buy & Gift Points With 50% Bonus Through March 22, 2021
Here’s the list:
Only one hotel moves two categories up from 3 to 5: Schloss Lieser, Autograph Collection.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Marriott didn’t move more hotels down in categories despite paid and occupancy rates crashing due to the pandemic.
Let’s hope that Marriott Bonviy is as conservative when rates recover and occupancy rates return to the usual levels.
Marriott is horrible dynamic pricing on points bookings and their annual certs are just about useless… Don’t expect any hidden gems here and the massive devaluation the past two years is very noticeable as I see rooms that were 35,000 points now at 60,000-70,000 pts…
Quite a few in my area actually raised theirs a bit.
Some who were let’s say 37,500 for 2 nights are 50k now.
I absolutely can’t remember a category 8 or 7 being dropped until after the property has eroded so badly (often many years). Marriott absolutely protects high end destinations and properties.
I use Westin Dublin as a great example. Nice little hotel but no where near the rating it is given. I was told that they factor in total revenue to determine rating not the quality of the property. I’ve seen this with substandard beachfront properties that carry “resort” tags and need refurbishing and should have been ratings dropped years ago