Marriott Confirms Delta Hotels Joining Marriott Rewards

On January 27th this year Marriott announced that it was purchasing Canadian Hotel chain Delta Hotels & Resorts for around $135m – at the time that was subject to government and regulatory approval.

On 1 April this year Marriott went on to announce that the purchase of Delta Hotels had competed and that they now owned the 37 hotels and nearly 10,000 rooms that Delta has spread across over 30 Canadian cities.

The transaction was an important one for Marriott as it made the company the single largest full-service hotelier in Canada and increased their portfolio by nearly 50%.

There are a few interesting hotels that this brings into the Marriott family:

Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge (picture above) – Rated 3 out of 31 Hotels in Banff by Tripadvisor

Delta Bow Valley – Rated 27 out of 102 Hotels in Calgary by Tripadvisor

Delta Whistler Village Suites – Rated 12 out of 52 Hotels in Whistler by Tripadvisor

Delta Toronto (picture above) – Rated 8 out of 140 Hotels in Toronto by Tripadvisor

Delta Montréal – Rated 32 out of 162 Hotels in Montréal by Tripadvisor

Delta Vancouver Suites – Rated 29 out of 96 Hotels in Vancouver by Tripadvisor

The good news for Marriott Reward Points collectors is that, today, Marriott made a change to their terms and conditions which confirmed the inclusion of all the Delta Hotels & Resorts in Marriott Rewards from 2016.

The new paragraph which appeared in Marriott Rewards T&Cs reads:

“Delta Hotels and Resorts – all locations will fully participate in Marriott Rewards in early 2016.

• Members will receive recognition benefits during their stays at Delta Hotels and Resorts until early 2016. For more information on these benefits please click here. Members will not earn Points, Miles* or Elite night credits for stays until early 2016. Members will not be able to redeem Points toward free stays at Delta Hotels and Resorts until early 2016.
• For more information on the participation of Delta Hotels and Resorts in the Marriott Rewards program prior to early 2016, *including the ability to earn Aeroplan miles for qualifying stays during the transition period, please see the FAQs.“

So, from the links here and here (mentioned in the T&Cs) it appears that:

1. Delta Privilege Members will receive Marriott Rewards status benefits commencing 18 June 2015.

2. Delta Privilege Members will continue to earn 500 Aeroplan Miles per stay until February 2016.

3. Points earning and redemptions at Delta Hotels & Resorts will commence in February 2016

The relevant paragraph (click to enlarge):

Full FAQs for Delta Privilege Members are HERE.

While, overall this is good news (more hotels to choose from is always good) I’ll reserve final judgement until I see the categories that Marriott allocates to these hotels. Having seen some very ordinary Marriott Cat 4 & 5 hotels leap up to Cat. 6 and higher in the past couple of years I fear that the hotels I highlighted above won’t be particularly cheap redemptions.