Checking out 52 Marriott brand hotels going down March 19, 2015 in reward night category

When I look at the 35-page Marriott PDF listing over 1,400 hotels in a list with no geographic descriptors, my thought bluntly is

“What a bunch of assholes at Marriott to post a list of 1,400+ hotels, in no geographic or other kind of order except up or down, as the primary source for hotel reward category changes impacting Marriott Rewards members worldwide on March 19, 2015 .”

There are something like 375 hotels going down in category. Most are in the USA. I looked over the list and focus on around 50 international hotels going down on March 19, 2015.

Ritz Carlton Wolfsburg drops to RZ1 at 30,000 points per night for this hotel near Volkswagen world HQ. Germany also has two Courtyard hotels in Bremen and Cologne dropping category.

One of the biggest surprises to me is seeing the highly touted MOXY at MXP Milan Malpensa International Airport Terminal 2  in Italy is dropping to category 1. Years of media hype on Marriott’s millennial hotel brand and the first hotel to open in the brand is kicking the category gutter at 7,500 points per night.

Russia ruble woes sees 8 hotels in Russia drop category. Moscow hotels were the world’s most expensive a few years ago. Rates have dropped and hotel reward category drops make Moscow and St. Petersburg far more affordable if closer proximity to Putin does not put you off.

Canada oil profits are down along with the Loonie. The dramatic drop of the Canadian Dollar relative the US Dollar in 2014 is still impacting the currency with news stories today on whther the CAD will drop below the 80 cents level against the USD.

2015 is a good year for lower cost Canada travel. I am planning to take advantage of the low value Canadian Dollar next month in Vancouver with my free Alaska Airlines ticket earned in January from the Ski The West promotion.

Mulu Marriott Resort at Gunung Mulu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sarawak, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, opens this month and the hotel has already dropped from a category 3 to category 2 Marriott Rewards hotel at 10,000 points per night. Borneo is one of the best deals globally for low category name brand hotels with all modern conveniences in the tropical rain forest.

Tegucigalpa Marriott Hotel Honduras is another upper upscale hotel dropping to only 10,000 points per night.