I started out writing today wanting to argue a point about hotel loyalty program comparisons. Quite often a hotel program comparison will state how much spending is needed to earn a free night. Frequently, a table will show how much spending is required to earn the points for a free night at the lowest category hotel in the hotel loyalty program.
I made a comment on a Budget Travel article and my comment received a Budget Travel editor’s response.
One of the points I wanted to make is the lowest category hotel redemption level is not all that practical in real travel simply due to the small percentage of hotels in the lowest category.
Hilton HHonors Opportunity Hotel Redemption is 7,500 points per night, but only 2% of USA Hilton properties are in the Opportunity Points Redemption Category.
Marriott Rewards Category 1 Hotel Redemption is 7,500 points per night, but only 12% of USA Marriott properties are in the lowest Category 1 Points Redemption Category. While this is a much higher percentage of hotels in the lowest free night redemption category than Hilton HHonors, I anticipate a major shift of Marriott Rewards hotels to Category 2 in 2009.
Hilton HHonors Hotel Categories in the USA of 2,673 Hotels in November 2008
|
HHonors Hotel Category |
Number of HHonors Hotels |
Percentage of Total Hotels (2,673 HHonors Hotels in USA) |
|
Opportunity |
49 |
2% |
|
1 |
153 |
6% |
|
2 |
944 |
35% |
|
3 |
940 |
35% |
|
4 |
408 |
15% |
|
5 |
124 |
5% |
|
6 |
55 |
2% |
The numbers shown here for Hilton HHonors are based on a quick HHonors spreadsheet sort and count. The exact number of hotels in each HHonors category may be slightly lower or higher.
Marriott Rewards Hotel Categories for the 2,663 hotels in USA in November 2008
|
Marriott Rewards Hotel Category |
Number of Marriott Rewards Hotels |
Percentage of Total Hotels (2,663 Hotels in USA) |
|
1 |
308 |
12% |
|
2 |
691 |
26% |
|
3 |
963 |
36% |
|
4 |
441 |
17% |
|
5 |
187 |
7% |
|
6 |
61 |
2% |
|
7 |
12 |
<1% |
Good for Consumer = Marriott Rewards Redemption Table Weighted Heavily to Lower Category Hotels
Today I played around with numbers and the startling observation to me is the alignment Marriott Rewards has taken to emulate Hilton HHonors in free night redemption. And the 5th free night is just a little edge on HHonors VIP elite 6+ night discounts and matches Starwood’s 5th Night Free.
Marriott looks surprisingly consumer-friendly at the present time with most hotel properties in the lowest half of the categories. I expect the second big Marriott Rewards announcement is going to be a major category shift in its USA hotels for 2009.
|
Corresponding Hotel Category Low to High |
Marriott Hotels (2,663) |
Hilton Hotels (2,673) |
|
1 |
308 |
49 |
|
2 |
691 |
153 |
|
3 |
963 |
944 |
|
4 |
441 |
940 |
|
5 |
187 |
408 |
|
6 |
61 |
124 |
|
7 |
12 |
55 |
All categories for Hilton were bumped up a level to correspond with Marriott’s 7 lowest levels.
The level of the HHonors Category has been increased by one level for comparisons of relative hotel distribution among points redemption categories between Hilton HHonors and Marriott Rewards .
Hilton Opportunity = 1; HHonors Category 1 = 2; and so on to HHonors Category 6 shown as Category 7 in charts and tables.
Hilton HHonors is weighted much more heavily to the higher end hotel redemption categories than Marriott in 2008. The number of hotels compared here is almost identical for Hilton (2,673) and Marriott (2,663) and they are both divided into 7 categories.
I predict category shift will be the knockout punch for Marriott Rewards members in the 2009 changes. The shift from Category 1 and 2 hotels into Category 3 and 4 hotels will be a major shift to align Marriott categories more closely with HHonors. The introduction of a new Marriott Rewards Category 8 in January 2009 will likely create a major shift of hotel properties upwards into Categories 5, 6, and 7.
Marriott currently has 1 of 8 USA hotels in its lowest Category 1 redemption level, whereas, Hilton HHonors has only 1 in 50 hotels in its lowest category of Opportunity Hotels.
Marriott currently has 26% of its hotels, 1 out of every 4 hotels in the USA, in the second to lowest Category 2 redemption level, whereas, Hilton only has 6% or 1 of every 16 USA hotels in its corresponding level.
Comparison of Marriott Rewards 2008 Stay Anytime to 2009 Award Nights
|
Category |
NIGHTS |
||||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
|
1 |
15,000 Anytime 7,500 2009 Award |
28,000
15,000 |
40,000
22,500 |
50,000
30,000 |
60,000
30,000 |
70,000
37,500 |
80,000
45,000 |
|
2 |
20,000 10,000 |
38,000 20,000 |
54,000 30,000 |
70,000 40,000 |
86,000 40,000 |
100,000 50,000 |
110,000 60,000 |
|
3 |
30,000 15,000 |
56,000 30,000 |
82,000 45,000 |
104,000 60,000 |
126,000 60,000 |
146,000 75,000 |
164,000 90,000 |
|
4 |
40,000 20,000 |
76,000 40,000 |
110,000 60,000 |
140,000 80,000 |
170,000 80,000 |
190,000 100,000 |
210,000 120,000 |
|
5 |
50,000 25,000 |
92,000 50,000 |
130,000 75,000 |
160,000 100,000 |
190,000 100,000 |
210,000 125,000 |
230,000 150,000 |
|
6 |
60,000 30,000 |
110,000 60,000 |
156,000 90,000 |
190,000 120,000 |
220,000 120,000 |
240,000 150,000 |
260,000 180,000 |
|
7 |
70,000 35,000 |
130,000 70,000 |
180,000 105,000 |
220,000 140,000 |
260,000 140,000 |
280,000 175,000 |
300,000 210,000 |
|
8 |
na 40,000 |
na 80,000 |
na 120,000 |
na 160,000 |
na 160,000 |
na 200,000 |
na 240,000 |
The elimination of Stay Anytime awards is a significant point saver for the consumer, but quite a loss for Marriott for hotel stays using points requiring the large number of points for a No Blackout Stay Anytime Redemption. I have no idea what percentage of Marriott rewards redeemed are Stay Anytime Rewards.
Most of my lifetime Marriott stays have been through Priceline.
I expect a significant category shift for Marriott Rewards points redemption will take place in 2009 to recoup more of the points and revenue being lost to the new award schedule with the concurrent elimination of blackouts and Stay Anytime awards. A comparison of Hilton and Marriott, two chains with almost identical numbers of USA hotels, indicates to me a major shift upward will be coming from Marriott in Category Redemption Level to more closely correlate with Hilton HHonors hotel category distribution for USA hotels.
I hope I’m wrong about my prediction of a major Marriott Rewards hotel category shift upwards. But, I think it will happen.
A shift upward in hotel category is inflation and devalues your earned points. Opportunities for getting sufficiently more bonus points to compensate for higher prices of room night redemption may not happen. The bottom line is your points buy less with changes each year and that seems to be a principle of travel loyalty programs.
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