Marriott on The Status Carousel

The Caro-Kann Defence

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 06:26:44 +0000

(e4 c6) A solid, positional defence, similar to the French, but without the hemmed-in light-squared bishop.

I’ve defended Hilton Diamond until 2028.

Debit / credit:

-$752.50 +21 103 points

Average price per stay — $30. Pricey.

Next year I plan to bring the bill down to $500.

Rove, Going All In 📉

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:44:55 +0000

“When I have 100k Marriott points, I won’t tell a soul. But there will be signs.”

I left a comment in the Rovemiles community on Facebook.

For the first time in 20 years, my message was deleted.

You have received 1 warning from the admins in the past 90 days. If you receive more warnings, your activity in this group may be restricted.

Hotel Point Value 🛒

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:34:08 +0000

In recent years, lots of services have appeared for finding hotels bookable with points and working out CPP.

Put simply: is it worth booking a night on points, or better to pay money (cash, as we say).

MaxMyPoint is one of the oldest and best-known of the lot.

Hold the Front Page 🤡🤮💩

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:59:53 +0000

No later than yesterday, some status Samaritans — bless them, I’d kiss their fingers — gave Kal Kalych’s content the rating it deserves.

They showered him with emoji from the heart 🤡🤮💩

Whereupon, naturally, our status dung beetle blew his ~~top~~ bottom.

Marriott Bonvoy “Exclusive Fuck You”

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:35:00 +0000

Marriott has pushed out its targeted offers.

All the good little boys get +10 status nights.

Those who’ve been naughty get two free nights at 35k and a kind wish not to be too upset about it.

Over at LoyaltyLobby, 10 good little boys have reported in.

Kyoto Four Points Flex by Sheraton

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 06:03:32 +0000

The pricing is a Japanese fairground ride.

Monday to Friday — $30.

Friday to Saturday — double.

Saturday to Sunday — triple.

The location is excellent.

Discussing the size of the room at that price would simply be impolite.

I took the $42 rate: breakfast plus 1000 Bonvoy Points for the road.

Strike While the Iron's Hot? Not Quite

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 05:45:42 +0000

We’ll catch up as the shinkansens roll along.

July hotel prices in Japan sprang an unwelcome surprise.

We start in Kyoto.

In high season, Kyoto gives not only Tokyo but Geneva and London a run for their money.

I flew into Osaka from Seoul in the morning and headed straight for Kyoto.

Marriott Bonvoy

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:11:59 +0000

O Marriott, Marriott, wherefore art thou so stingy with the nights? And, while we’re at it, did anyone remember the status match?

Since last year, the British banking market has been busily rolling out quasi-miles products.

Brexit brought not only a new wave of emigration but changes to banking regulation too.

First Semester 2026: 195 Nights

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:03:27 +0000

Nomads come in all sorts: hotel nomads, Airbnb nomads, hostel nomads. And every last one of them needs something to fuss over.

Let’s look at the report card:

141 — Hyatt 41 — Marriott 7 — Accor 2 — Hilton 4 — Booking

Hyatt House Yinchuan 2️⃣

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:40:17 +0000

Second set, going for the points.

Hyatt merges consecutive bookings if you don’t actually check out.

You have to split them with a one-day gap.

That little trick is where Marriott does most of its business.

If Hyatt ever fixes this, the Marriott chain can be closed down as surplus to requirements.

Moneypenny-Bot 🤖

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:34:05 +0000

This year Marriott left its fan base out in the cold on double nights.

They want people not just boozing in W lounges but also finding out what life is like at a Fairfield.

The extra night is only for each new brand. A pub crawl of their own portfolio, essentially.

Hyatt on the Bund 🎀

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 05:38:16 +0000

A famous hotel. Cult, even. On paper it sits in the Grand Hyatt portfolio, but it markets itself under its own name.

At check-in, a trainee under the watchful eye of a senior colleague uttered the magic word “upgrade”. He said it with a Shanghai accent, which drained some of the magic out of it. The room turned out to be perfectly ordinary. I didn’t have the fight in me to go back and argue the toss.