200 Marriott hotels change category, and for Milan there is excellent news
Once a year Marriott updates the categorization of its hotels, we are not talking about stars but the internal classification of the [...]
Marriott
Once a year Marriott updates the categorization of its hotels, we are not talking about the stars but the internal classification of the chain.
In this article:
The Marriott Bonvoy Program divides its facilities into categories, from 1 to 8, where category 1 indicates the cheapest facilities and 8 the most expensive and luxurious ones. This year there are 201 hotels changing, going up or down in category.
What does this change mean
Quite simply if a property goes up in category starting at midnight on March 3 it means that booking an award night will become more expensive, so if you plan to stay using points (but also euros) in one of these hotels you'd better book now before the change becomes effective.
The best bonuses
If, on the contrary, the hotel falls into a lower category, this means that, from the same date, it will become cheaper to stay using Bonvoy points and therefore it is better to wait until the morning of March 3 to book.
What changes for the Italian market
The full list of hotels changing categories is available on the Marriott website, once in a while change brings good news for Italian users. The only hotel on the list is the Sheraton Milan San Siro moving from the fourth category to the third, resulting in a lowering of the points needed to book and not pay for the stay.
The news leaves me really surprised since the hotel is very nice, brand new and compared to other facilities in the Milan area it even deserved to be in a higher category than the fourth.
In terms of savings staying one night in the period of low season will cost 13,500 points instead of 18k, but in peak season, such as when people return to the stadium or during busy periods for Milan, it will cost 10k points less.
But the good news doesn't stop in Milan. An iconic property such as the Grand Hotel Suisse overlooking Lake Geneva also becomes cheaper; it goes from 7 to 6.
Last year, just days before the outbreak of the pandemic, Marriott reclassified nearly a third of its 7,500 hotels, in most cases raising the category. This year the changes affect only 3% of hotels, and of the 200 properties affected, less than a quarter are seeing room rate increases.