St. Regis Istanbul rooftop restaurant
I wrote an article about choosing my Annual Choice Benefit with Marriott Bonvoy upon reaching 75 nights last year.
The idea was to pick one that would give me the best value/experience although it is really tempting to just pick the most expensive one! A free night certificate of up to 40,000 points gives me access to Category 6 properties on off-peak nights. I wanted to redeem this certificate during my Europe trip these coming weeks as it is easier to find off-peak nights in Winter. To make the process simpler, I limited myself to only Category 6 properties in Europe.
To view the properties available under this category, I used Marriott Bonvoy’s hotel directory.
From this page, I could browse all 67 Category 6 properties in Europe. As this decision was made very early in the planning stages of this trip, I was open to all cities. But that’s a lot of choices! I started by filtering out brands that I wasn’t interested in. I know the hotels are not categorized solely by brands but what is Moxy doing here?! As much as I wanted to stay in a Ritz Carlton, I know that Titanium members do not get elite benefits like complimentary breakfast. I enjoy my hotel breakfasts, so, I took Ritz-Carlton out.
This further narrowed down my list to 10 properties. I was very keen on Hotel Imperial in Vienna, St. Regis Istanbul and The Bodrum EDITION as I have not been to all 3 cities. I don’t really fancy the “Royal” design of the rooms in Hotel Imperial and The Bodrum EDITION did not have availability for the next 3 months. So, I ended up going for St. Regis Istanbul!
I attached 1 of the 5 Suite Night Awards that I received when I surpassed 50 nights in 2019 after making the booking. The hotel has now upgraded me to a 1-bedroom suite for my stay next week. These 57sqm suites overlooking Macka Park usually go on sale for $700 to $900! Although this property lacks an executive lounge, I am really looking forward to this stay. I will be writing a review on my stay here in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Living area of 1-bedroom suite in St. Regis Istanbul
Did I make the right decision? Which property would you have picked? Comment your thoughts below!
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