Marriott Bonvoy has decided to do away with its award charts, and move to dynamic pricing of awards. The transition to the new pricing structure will occur in March 2022.
The Current Award Chart
At present, the Marriott Bonvoy award chart looks like the following:
| Hotel Category | Off-Peak | Standard | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5,000 | 7,500 | 10,000 |
| 2 | 10,000 | 12,500 | 15,000 |
| 3 | 15,000 | 17,500 | 20,000 |
| 4 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 30,000 |
| 5 | 30,000 | 35,000 | 40,000 |
| 6 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 60,000 |
| 7 | 50,000 | 60,000 | 70,000 |
| 8 | 70,000 | 85,000 | 100,000 |
So, if you know the Hotel Category, you can easily find a range for the number of points you need per night. For example, the Ritz-Carlton Perth is a Category 6 hotel. As a result, you would be able to redeem an award night for 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, as the standard rate. It can range, however, from 40,000 – 60,000 points.
The Changes
Come March 2022, all that changes. At that time, Marriott will begin a transition to its new flexible points redemption rates. From March 2022, Marriott is expecting the number of points required at 97% of the hotels to range between the current peak and peak price points. To put it another way, the hotels that fall within the 97% should have award prices in line with their current award prices.
All that sounds ok for 2022, but in 2023 things change again. From 2023, the limits on award pricing will be removed altogether. That means that the award prices could move up and down in tandem with the cash price of the room. We will have to wait until 2023 to find out what that means in practice, but I would think that the average points rate will increase overall.
There is some good news though. The current Stay 5, Pay for 4 offer will remain in place. So basically, if you stay five or more nights, you won’t have to pay for the night with the lowest points value.
Thoughts
Marriott isn’t the first hotel group to move to dynamic award pricing, and likely won’t be the last. It remains to be seen just how high award night pricing will go.