Marriott has announced what hotels are changing categories for 2020. The new pricing will go into effect on March 4th, 2020. Almost one third of properties are changing category this year (29%) with some increasing in price and others decreasing in price. Last year we saw 5% of properties change price, but that was somewhat misleading as they also introduced peak and off peak pricing last year as well. The break down is as follows:
- 1687 will increase in price
- 507 will decrease in price
When Marriott announced they would be taking over SPG, I always said that actions would speak louder than words and Marriott’s actions show the program losing value and losing value fast. It was just announced that more properties would have access to capacity controls that allow them to black out dates, despite having a no blackout date policy. It’s also important to remember that Marriott doesn’t automatically refund you if you’ve booked a property that decreases in price so you’ll need to manually request a refund. For properties that increase in price as long as you book before the March 4th, 2020 you’ll secure the current pricing.
