Marriott Bonvoy seems to have raised award costs at some of its more expensive properties, which members certainly won’t be happy about.
Marriott Bonvoy devalues points at some properties
For a few years now, Marriott Bonvoy hasn’t published award charts. The program has dynamic award pricing — the number of points required for a stay isn’t strictly revenue based, but rather varies depending on a variety of factors. However, historically there has been an unpublished cap on how many points you’ll pay per night for a stay at a particular property, even in peak season.
Well, as flagged by View from the Wing, that cap seems to have been lifted at some properties. For example, aside from Ritz-Carlton Reserve properties, the nightly cap up until this point has been 150,000 points per night. That’s before the fifth night free benefit that elite members get.
Unfortunately that cap now seems to be well over 200,000 points per night. For example, at the JW Marriott Masai Mara, you’ll now find nightly rates of up to 224,000 points per night.
At the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, I see rates of up to 198,000 points per night.
At the St. Regis Maldives, I see rates of up to 166,000 points per night.
At Al Maha Dubai, a Luxury Collection property, I see rates of up to 152,000 points per night (so just slightly above the old limit).
These are of course just a limited number of examples, and a vast majority of properties haven’t gone up in cost at all. But still, it’s noteworthy, because once you get rid of the cap on how many points a property can cost, it becomes a very slippery slope.
My take on this Marriott Bonvoy devaluation
Marriott Bonvoy stopped publishing award charts in 2022. I’ve gotta say, for the most part, the changes in points requirements haven’t been that bad. Or at least they weren’t as bad as I was expecting from Marriott Bonvoy, a program that in many ways takes loyalty for granted, due to the size of its portfolio.
I was expecting that we’d eventually see a significant increase to award costs at top properties, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing here. It’s of course super frustrating. Yes, dynamic award pricing is largely supposed to reflect the cost of stays at a property, and you’re still getting outsized value for these properties.
However, there’s something to be said for a cap on redemption rates, so that aspirational redemptions feel within reach for members, and they can accrue points thinking that they could get them to some incredible property in the Maldives.
In some situations, like at the JW Marriott Masai Mara, these changes are really rough. The good news is that as of now, I’m not seeing widespread changes. So I guess the question is whether Marriott just drastically increased the cost of redemptions at a handful of properties that were disproportionately expensive for redemptions, or if this is the start of a bigger devaluation. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Bottom line
Marriott Bonvoy appears to have increased award costs at some of its top properties. While many properties were previously capped at around 150,000 points per night, we’re now seeing some hotels go for around 200,000 points per night, or even more.
Fortunately this seems to impact a limited number of properties as of now, so we’ll mark this as “developing.”
What do you make of this Marriott Bonvoy devaluation?
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