Marriott Bonvoy Adds Capacity Controls At More Hotels

I am not a road warrior. I book using my own money. I, do, however, spend 50 nights a year in a hotel and book for my friends as well. Once again, there is NO VALUE in any of the hotel loyalty programs. U lose too much flexibility and the price increases too much vs. a third part site. The best options for frequent, recreational travelers are: 1. The FHR program with Amex as it often gives u a $100 property credit, room upgrade, free breakfast and late checkout. 2. Hotels.com: A. 9% off as every 11th nite is free. B. Additional 3% to 7% off if u use aggressive combo of chase ink and sams club discounted gift cards. C. Access to pretty much all hotels. D. The above discounts are for all rooms, including your friends’, not just yours. E. Some properties have “VIP” perks. I can’t see how any of the brand-specific programs compete.

I might overlook this change if: 1) Marriott hadn't just introduced peak award-redemption pricing. What was the point of this then? 2) Marriott was transparent and gave notice. 3) Marriott would enforce its terms and conditions vis-a-vis breakfast benefits and other elite status perks, such as suite upgrades or late check-out. It seems like the only provisions of the terms that are enforced by corporate are the provisions that apply to guests, not properties. But, hey, at the end of the day, we need to remember that Marriott's customers are NOT the guests, aka us. Marriott's customers are the owners and, increasingly, the third-party management companies that operate the VAST majority of all Marriott branded hotels. Maybe that lawsuit by the JW Marriott in Thailand was onto something.

@Lucky, I got confused by this policy, as well, when I tried to book a standard room at a Sheraton that was not available with points. The terms said that "subject to limitations and exclusions" all brands have standard rooms available every day for redemption, although notably NOT that EVERY standard room for sale was available for redemption. The confusing thing was that the Marriott brands were called out explicitly below in the "limitations and exclusions" as being able to limit the number of rooms available on a limited number of days. So what they had, in effect, was a rule with vague language that allowed SPG properties to limit the number of rooms available for redemption as long as they had a standard room available for redemption every day. And there was an explicit limitation/exclusion carved out for legacy Marriott brands that allowed them to do the exact same thing. My thought was that, if it's a limitation/exclusion, then it has to be a limitation on some actual rule. But the rule itself was so vaguely worded, rendering the "rule" and the "limitations and exclusions" to the rule effectively the same. I was surprised when I realized that the rules did not specifically state that every legacy SPG standard room was available for redemption, only that there would be redemptions available each day. Many calls to Marriott, the hotels, and arguments on FlyerTalk brought it to light for me.

@Lucky, the policy quoted above is not explicitly correct. The Bonvoy Terms & Conditions were actually a little more vague in the past few months when it came to legacy SPG brands. All it said was that "standard rooms are available every day for award redemptions." Not that every standard room would be available with points, which is how SPG operated before Marriott, or even under Marriott before Bonvoy. That means that legacy SPG brands could make a subset of their standard rooms for sale with cash also available with points. When that subset of standard rooms was booked, you would get the classic "This hotel is not taking award reservations at this time." There was a further specific carveout that exempted legacy Marriott brands from even this, allowing them to have blackout dates. Essentially, they were exempted from the no blackout date policy. Effectively, the "all standard rooms are available with points" at legacy SPG brands has been dead for a LONG time.

This is so frustrating, but I actually got lucky. I have tickets for 2 different weekends in October to see The Music Man with Hugh Jackman in NYC. Wanted to stay at the St Regis so booked both weekends with points last Sunday. After this news came out yesterday I was curious so tried to book them again. You guessed it!! Even though you could book a standard room for over $1000, there were no point redemptions for either weekend. This is so wrong on so many levels. These 2 weekends can't both be high capacity days for this hotel already.