Marriott is bucking the trend of making negative changes to best rate guarantees (see: Hyatt & IHG) by making an improvement. Previously they gave you 25% off the matching rate. Now you have the option of that or receiving 5,000 points. The change isn’t listed on their best rate guarantee page yet, but it is listed on the claim form. How useful this change is will really depend on how much you value Marriott points and the room rates you’re booking. If you value Marriott points at 0.5¢ each then this new option is worth a flat $25, meaning a room rate would need to be under $100 for this to be a better option than the $25 off.
SPG has a simlar option, but it awards you 2,000 SPG points. That would normally convert to 6,000 Marriott points so it looks like Marriott has adopted this SPG policy but made it slightly worse.
Hat tip to Loyalty Lobby
Have to submit 24 hours after you book and/or 24 hours before your arrival for the claim to be valid. No more “before 10pm on arrival date” language. It’s pretty crappy.
i hope nobody values marriott pts at 1/2 cents each. even the most respected name in the game, TPG, who everyone should learn from and trust, and read all of his highly accurate and favorable posts with tremendous unsurpassed knowledge, values marriott at $0.007
Hopefully that’s sarcasm that I detect there.
It’s NinjaX, of course it’s sarcasm. 😀 I like the sarcasm because it causes people to think about the comment rather than just gloss over it.
I generally get .9 – 1.2 cents/point for Marriott redemptions and won’t use my points if I can’t get that. I’ll pay cash or book a different hotel. So, 5000 points is nearly half a room night for me and a lot better than $25 cash.
I value Marriott points at 1.5 cents