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Marriott has announced that, on 11 April 2016, if will follow Hilton’s lead and offer discounted hotel rates to Marriott Rewards members who book via Marriott.com, Marriott mobile app or through one of their call centers.
Hilton was the first to introduce such rates back in October 2015. The rates were initially only available across the US before they were eventually rolled out across the rest of the Hilton portfolio world-wide so it will be interesting to see if Marriott follows the same model.
It will also be interesting to see just how much of a discount Marriott will be offering Marriott Rewards members book booking directly with them. Discounts at the Hilton properties have often been as high as 10% and, while in some instances that still didn’t necessarily give the best rate, in others it was a very nice discount to have.
Quite a few people have been decrying the Hilton HHonors Member rates and pointing out that the AAA or AARP discounts you can get on rooms often give better savings than the Hilton HHonors Member rate. And, to a degree they have a point, as shown by this Dallas Hilton I chose at random:
These same people are now saying that it’s likely that the same thing will happen with the Marriott Rewards Member rates when they’re released in April.
Yes, that may well be the case but that’s still missing one point.
Hilton has been known to offer “Flash Sale” rates that are only open to Hilton HHonors members and that can’t be found anywhere else (at least that’s what Hilton says…I can’t say I’ve tested this to any great degree).
There’s one of these sales on right now and, while the “Flash Sale Member Rate” isn’t flexible…it’s still the cheapest rate that can be booked at this property. It’s cheaper than anything on Kayak/Expedia etc… and it’s cheaper than any AAA/AARP rate.
Not everyone has the need to book flexible rates so, if the introduction of a members only rate at Marriott means that we occasionally see prices lower than anywhere else, then that’s good enough for me.
Bottom Line
I’m not with the naysayers on this one – I like the fact that Marriott is introducing Members only rates in April. Sure, if they operate exactly like the Hilton rates then the times when they’re useful won’t be as plentiful as I’d like….but they will still have their moments when they’re the better option.
And there’s always the chance that Marriott will do something slightly different to Hilton. The truth is that we don’t really know (yet) what Marriott’s new Member Rates will look like so there’s a chance (an outside chance) that they may be a better alternative that a lot of people are expecting. I guess we’ll know on 11 April (or earlier if it gets leaked!).
