Warning: You’re Not Going To Be Booking Bora Bora For 20,000 Starpoints

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One of the things we learned last week when Marriott announced its plans for the merger of Marriott Rewards and SPG is that we can expect a short transition window between the beginning of August and the end of December.

During this time a number of Marriott Rewards and SPG features will run side by side as travelers get used to the new combined program (e.g SPG members will still be able to qualify for elite status on stays) but the major part of the transition surrounds the new Marriott award chart.

As of August 2018 all Starpoint balances will be converted to Marriott points at a ratio of 1:3 and a new award chart will be in place which will cover most Marriott & Starwood properties.

We know from this award chart that, between August and December 2018, most of the more expensive award night redemptions will cost just 60,000 Marriott points (20,000 Starpoints).

In 2019 a new higher category will be introduced and peak/off-peak pricing is coming too but, for the last 5 months of the year, most of the top-tier properties will see their award nights priced at 60,000 Marriott points (equivalent to 20,000 Starpoints).

Right now Starwood’s most desirable properties cost considerably more than 20,000 Starpoints per night so the news that they may soon be bookable for just 20,000 Starpoints has caused quite a stir in the miles and points world….but some are getting a little too excited and missing a major point.

I’ve seen suggestions (in more than one place) that we should be looking forward to booking some of the most aspirational properties in the world for the equivalent of just 20,000 Starpoints/night but I’m here to tell you that, in some cases, that’s simply not going to happen.

Some of Starwood’s more expensive properties are designated as “all-suite” hotels and these include, amongst others, the St. Regis Bora Bora, the St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort and the Al Maha Desert Resort in Dubai.

Al Maha Desert Resort, Dubai – Image Starwood

These are the properties that a lot of people would love to book but those who are suggesting that they’ll be bookable for 20,000 Starpoints in August are missing a big piece of news.

Marriott has confirmed that the all-suite properties in the Starwood portfolio are not accounted for in the new award chart so we don’t actually know how many points these properties will be charging for an award night….but it certainly won’t be 20,000!

I’m very aware that you can buy Starpoints with a 35% right now and I’m extremely keen that no one is tempted into buying them because they think they’ll be able to spend them at properties that cost $1,000+ a night and overlook an azure blue sea (or beautiful Arabian dessert).

Yes, there should be some great properties for us all to book at reduced rates come August but they won’t include the iconic properties that I’ve seen people mentioning elsewhere.

What Will We Be Able To Book?

I’m not going to list out every single highly desirable Starwood property here but there are a few that immediately spring to mind.

The Gritti Palace in Venice is a SPG Cat. 7 property which currently costs 35,000 Starpoints per night. This property doesn’t appear to play too many games with award night availability (there’s good availability right now) so this should be bookable for  60k Marriott points/20k Starpoints come August.

The Gritti Palace – Image Starwood

The St Regis New York is another category 7 property costing 35,000 Starpoints per night that I’m expecting to see cost just 20,000 points for bookings made between August and December. Right now it’s even easier to find award nights at this property than it is at the Gritti but expect that to change if it becomes bookable for 20k.

St. Regis New York – Image Starwood

The property I’m probably most looking forward to trying to book is Las Alcobas in Napa. With just 57 rooms and suites this could be a tough one to book (especially in peak season) but I’ve wanted to visit ever since I wrote about its opening back in 2014 so I’m definityely going to try.

Las Alcobas in Napa – Image Starwood

Naturally it won’t be just top-tier properties that are available at reduced rates but these seem to be the ones causing the most excitement.

You can see all of Starwood’s top-tier hotels listed on this webpage.

Bottom Line

There should be some very nice deals avail;able to book between August and December but bear in mind that this isn’t exactly secret news so there will be a LOT of people looking to book a limited number of rooms at the more desirable properties – be prepared to be flexible and be prepared to book early.

The main message I’d like to get over however is that no one should be expecting to book the most aspirational properties in the Starwood portfolio for 20,000 Starpoints/night and no one should be stockpiling Starpoints in the hope that this will be an option – it won’t be.

Enjoy the fact that some of the more ridiculously priced SPG properties will be a little more reasonably priced for a while and make the most of this if you can – come 2019 they’ll all be expensive all over again.