Starwood Preferred Guest 2013 annual hotel award category reassignments are effective March 5, 2013. You can book hotels for 2013 dates using current rates through March 4, 2013.

218 hotels go up and 48 hotels go down. Starwood Hotels pdf link.

The end of this post contains Loyalty Traveler’s complete list of the Starwood Hotels changing award category ordered by hotel award number from category 1 to 7.

It is common for a few hotels to be added and some of the posted hotels to be removed from the changes list in the final changes.

The announcement and pdf link were posted by SPG representatives on FlyerTalk and MilePoint.

In a consumer-friendly pdf, SPG lists the hotels changing category with geographic descriptors so you can identify where the hotel changes are happening. Hilton and Marriott listed their hotel category changes by brand with no geographic information for country or city other than hotel name.

My contribution to the Starwood pdf is a list of the changes organized by category with State and Country list. I was too lazy to add the city. You can check the SPG pdf link for city names. Read More…

Hilton HHonors is the biggest hotel loyalty shock yet in 2013 with today’s announcement of changes coming March 28.

• 10 hotel award categories ranging in per night price from 5,000 points to 95,000 points.
• 5th night free for elite members. I assume this means the end to VIP awards since it makes no sense to offer 5th night free to elite members when that discount is currently already the norm.
• Seasonal award rates.

There are many program changes to HHonors award stays so I will give a preliminary analysis now and update as more information is clarified.

10 Hotel Award Categories

The new HHonors program will place hotels in ten categories. The main impact will be many of the current category 7 hotels will rise to category 8, 9 or 10.

The good news is Hilton HHonors has published the new HHonors award categories for all hotels globally in this pdf. You can book hotel awards at the current and most likely lower rates through March 27, 2013. Read More…

15 of the 23 hotels rising one tier level in Ritz-Carlton Rewards hotel category reassignment May 16, 2013 are located in the USA.

Ouch!

There are 78 Ritz-Carlton hotels globally. 39 of these 78 Ritz-Carlton hotels are in the USA.

The good news is Ritz-Carlton Bahrain is dropping by one tier level from RZ2 (40,000 points per night) to RZ1 (30,000 points per night) when new Marriott Rewards hotel award category reassignments take effect May 16, 2013.

The worse news comes with the 10,000 points increase for award nights at 23 Ritz-Carlton hotels rising in hotel award reassignments.

Link to the Marriott Rewards/Ritz-Carlton Rewards announcement of 2013 tier changes.

Link to Marriott Rewards pdf of 1,300+ hotels rising in hotel award category May 16, 2013.

Historical Perspective on Ritz-Carlton Rewards Read More…

Priority Club Rewards has posted new category assignments at 4,500+ InterContinental Hotels Group properties worldwide. Supposedly 30% of hotels went down. Those hotels apparently are not in my neighborhood and much of California has seen a deleterious devaluation of Priority Club points with numerous hotels rising by 40% in reward night cost.

I primarily travel the coastal corridor of California along Highways 1 and 101 in central coast and north coast California, and Interstate 405 and 5 in southern California. Looks to me like any IHG hotel within 10 miles of the Pacific Ocean coast went up in points required for a reward night. Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn hotels in California seem to be the biggest devaluation with many hotels rising from 25,000 points to 35,000 points per reward night.  Read More…

Finally Priority Club gets in line with other hotel loyalty programs by organizing its hotel awards by categories rather than brands. The new Priority Club Reward night chart will parse out the 4,500+ InterContinental Hotels Group properties in nine categories from 1-9.

Changes will take effect Friday, January 18, 2013.

Members can book hotels at the current brand award category points cost until March 18, 2013 for properties that increase in point cost January 18, 2013.  Read More…

Club Carlson announced last week that a major hotel reward category reassignment will occur May 31, 2012. The full list of 264 hotels changing reward category and organized by geographic location with state and country has been published.

137 hotels going up in reward category. Read More…

The 117 hotels dropping reward category April 30, 2012 are mostly from the two mid-tier HHonors categories 3 and 4. 49 category-4 hotels currently at 30,000 points per reward night will drop to category-3 at 25,000 points per reward night. Another 47 hotels will drop from category 3 to category-2. These new category-2 hotels will require only 50% points at 12,500 points per standard reward night in May 2012 compared to the reward rate now. Read More…