Marriott has a ‘no blackout dates’ policy, the old policy read as follows:
3.2.n. The Company has a “No Blackout Dates” policy, which means that, subject to the limitations and exclusions below, Participating Properties have standard rooms available every day for Award Redemptions. These limitations and exclusions are:
i. Participating Properties from the following Brands may limit the number of standard rooms available for redemption on a limited number of days: The Ritz-Carlton®, EDITION®, JW Marriott®, Marriott Hotels®, Delta Hotels®, Autograph Collection® Hotels, Renaissance® Hotels, Gaylord Hotels®, Courtyard®, SpringHill Suites®, Protea Hotels®, Fairfield by Marriott®, AC Hotels®, Moxy® Hotels, Residence Inn®, TownePlace Suites®, Vistana properties.
ii. The following Participating Brands allow only for Points/Miles earnings and do not offer Points redemption: Marriott Executive Apartments® and ExecuStay®.
Iii. The following Participating Properties or Brands either do not participate in or do not fully participate in the No Blackout Dates benefit at this time:
The new policy reads as follows:
3.2.n. The Company has a “No Blackout Dates” policy, which means that, subject to the limitations and exclusions below, Participating Properties have standard rooms available every day for Award Redemptions. These limitations and exclusions are:
i. Participating Properties may limit the number of standard rooms available for redemption on a limited number of days.
ii. The following Participating Brands allow only for Points/Miles earnings and do not offer Points redemption: Marriott Executive Apartments® and ExecuStay®.
Iii. The following Participating Properties or Brands either do not participate in or do not fully participate in the No Blackout Dates benefit at this time:
My understanding is that under the old terms:
- Marriott properties were able to select up to 10 dates to control/limit inventory on. They could also apply for an exception for up to another 60 dates.
- SPG properties were unable to control/limit inventory
Under the new terms:
- Both SPG & Marriott properties will be able to select up to 10 dates to control/limit inventory on. It’s no longer possible to ask for an exception for another 60 days
Keep in mind Marriott already uses peak and off peak pricing that is supposed to solve these high demand periods. This is also yet another Marriott change that was made with zero notice to members and in my opinion is a net negative. I personally don’t think you should be able to claim you have a no blackout date policy when it’s clear that by reading your own terms that is not accurate at all.
Hat tip to VFTW & LoyaltyLobby
In all seriousness, transferring to airlines is now a higher value redemption than using for stays.
Second this! the appropriate valuation is 0.5 for Marriott points, when you factor in competitors like hotels.com
That always the case even with SPG or may be more so. I had a 1 week trip to Dubai couple years ago it was beneficial to book flight with spg transfer and pay for Sheraton in cash!
Wonder if they will ever offer an attractive promotion again? Keep asking myself why I continue to give them my loyalty. My ambassador has fallen of the face of the earth too.
So sure people like to crap on Bonvoy, and this is truly a negative change, but did anyone expect that former SPG properties would have a separate set of rules? And rules that were actually less favorable to the SPG property owner than a MR property?
Throughout the years I’ve received my best values on booking MR properties for skiing. Thanks for including the info on the 10/60 days exception. If the 60 day exception is going away, that might be good for how I use points. Whatever days are the 10 potential blackout days for ski hotels are also the days I want to avoid the slopes completely.
Of course the real issue with some of the higher value hotels is the introduction of ‘mountain view’ rooms as a higher category above standard to limit award bookings. I’ve forgotten if Marriott allows that, but other brands sure do!
they will blackout everyday on reward booking
Can’t wait until they get voted best hotel loyalty program in the TPG shill awards.
LoL!
Another reason I’m glad I abandoned this program
Even I did that, but at its scale, Marriott can afford to lose a bunch of ‘loyal customers’.
This is why is do mostly Hilton. I booked a room at the Hilton time square right on new years eve with points. (standard rate that you see every day, not some inflated peak rate). I even got upgraded to a deluxe room facing times square.
meanwhile all Marriott hotels within viewing distance of times square are blackout out on Dec 31.
They also announced category changes. Not surprisingly, most hotels are getting nerfed.
Why do they try so hard to be the worst loyalty program?!!
I’d assume it’s because their books look terrible after buying SPG.
There is no SPG any more. The “under the new terms” you wrote above should say pre-merger SPG and pre-merger Marriott properties, since there are no more actual SPG properties any more, just brands that used to be in SPG prior to the merger.
One of the articles you credit calls it “ex-Starwood” hotels, the other “legacy SPG” hotels.