Marriott is making quite a few hotel category changes this year. There are 1,083 hotels increasing in categories and 248 hotels dropping. The new changes come into effect on March 6, 2018.
In Canada, there are 46 hotels increasing and 17 decreasing. If you are planning any upcoming trips, you will want to take a closer look at which hotels are being affected to help determine when to make your reservation, whether before or after March 6, 2018.
It is that time of the year when most hotel chains readjust their categories. Some hotels go up, some goes down. Today’s post is the changes that Starwood Preferred Guest is doing. There are 276 hotels that are affected, of which 13 are increasing by at least 1 category in Canada, while 2 are decreasing. This is quite surprising to me since the Canadian dollar has been fairly week the past year.
Winter may feel cold for some of us in Canada. Some people enjoy it, some people cannot wait till the spring/summer time. Either way, Valentine’s Day is deep into winter, which can range from being a dreaded time or one of the most fun day of the year. Either way, if you have not yet figured out what you are doing yet, Marriott has some bonus promotion options if you are making some online purchases.
If you are looking to make purchases on Marriott’s shopping portal, Marriott Rewards More, there are two bonus offers to watch for:
Earn 1,000 bonus points after completing the first purchase (minimum of $25USD, $25CAD, or £25GBP)
Earn 25% bonus points when using your co-branded Marriott Rewards credit card
You may have seen this offer already, but the official email just came in today. American Express Canada is offering an exclusive Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card to existing Chase Marriott Rewards credit card customers. As you know, the co-branded, grandfathered, Chase Marriott credit card are being terminated on March 15, 2018.
Chase offered a few parting tokens of appreciation
You have probably already read from other bloggers that IHG hotels has revamped its Pointsbreak program, which runs from January 29, 2018 – April 30, 2018. In the past, the promotion offers a reduction in the number of points required to redeem for a free hotel night. Hotels that required 30,000 or 40,000 points per night can be redeemed for 5,000 points per night if they are listed in the promotion. I believe that this is an incredible offer that I have been able to take advantage of on many occasions.
It has been almost 2 years since I last update the hotel hotel expiry policies. There have been a few changes ever since, so I thought I’d give my list a quick update.
For the list below, I have grouped the hotels into three different categories: (1) Never expire; (2) Never expire with activity; and (3) Strict Expiry Policy.
The situation continues to deteriorate with the recent closure of grandfathered Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa. Last year, I wrote a post about the Best Hotel Loyalty Program for Canadians to Collect, but with another shift in the industry, it looks like that post was due for an update.
In the past few years, I have exclusively redeem hotels points for all my stays. Rarely have I had to pay for a hotel night. However, as hotel partnerships continue to terminate with credit card companies in Canada, this trend will be very difficult to continue in the near future.
Below are the top ways to earn hotel points without actually staying at the hotels to accumulate points.
IHG Rewards is one of my favourite hotel chains. I feel that they offer decent value, especially during their Pointsbreak promotions where you can redeem 5,000 points for any of the hotel rooms on the list. I have personally taken advantage of these offers many times.
Unfortunately, it has been slim pickings for Canadians trying to earn IHG Rewards since the discontinuation of the amazing Capital One co-branded credit cards.
Marriott’s is jumping on the Cyber Monday Sale ahead of time. Between November 23, 2017 and November 27, 2017, you will be able to book exclusive low rates at over 3,500 Marriott hotels across the Americas, which includes Canada, Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.
You will be able to find member rates starting at $89 at:
Marriott Rewards has launched its own shopping portal, Marriott Rewards MORE, just in time for any holiday shopping season. Members from Canada, the United Kingdom and United States only can now earn Marriott Reward points when making purchases online.