Hotel Review: AC Hotel by Marriott Colón, Valencia

The AC Hotel by Marriott Colón Valencia markets itself as a “four-star lifestyle hotel in the center of Valencia.” Earlier this year, my wife and I spent five nights at this property during the annual Las Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain.

The AC Hotel by Marriott Colón, Valencia is located in the heart of Valencia’s commercial and financial district. | Photo courtesy of Marriott.com

The festival is a celebration of art, religion and satire that culminates on March 19, when the neighborhoods get together to burn massive, brightly colored papier-mâché structures.

When Should You Buy Points?

Many airline and hotel loyalty programs allow you to purchase their points or miles currency. As a member of that particular loyalty program, you can go online and buy points or miles with a few clicks. Many of these programs even have high purchase limits, meaning that you can buy a six-figure amount every calendar year. 

Let’s say that you have 40,000 points in your Marriott Bonvoy account and you want to purchase a hotel stay that costs 100,000 points.

Marriott Eliminating Award Charts; Extending Status & Certificates

Marriott has announced major changes to its Bonvoy program. There were a couple of good things in today’s announcement, but overall, the changes aren’t positive ones with the announcement that they are eliminating their award chart in March 2022, and award pricing will instead be fully dynamic. 

The short story is that award pricing is likely to go up in most cases.

How I Earned Marriott Titanium in 2021

In years past, hotel or airline elite status was something unattainable for me. It was also something I didn’t particularly desire. For someone who prefers to stay at a cheap hostel rather than a five-star hotel, it just wasn’t a priority.

However, everything changed in 2020 when the thought of staying in a multi-person dorm while traveling made me want to sanitize every door knob I’d touched that day.

In 2020, I earned Marriott Platinum Elite status without much effort, and in 2021, I became Marriott Titanium Elite (to my own surprise).

Elevate your Top-Tier Elite Status with Marriott and United’s Preferred Partnership

Many people, myself included, are finding themselves with a number of top-tier status with different hotel loyalty programs. Given the pandemic, most major hotels groups reduced the requirements for earning status.

Marriott’s Maldives Madness: The Le Meridien Maldives


In case you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of the Maldives. To me, there’s no better holiday than being on a secluded island in the middle of the ocean with plenty of great diving and privacy.

I know for some of you that may sounds like a nightmare, but if you’re feeling the beckoning of the Maldives then I’ve got some exciting news for you.

Marriott is opening a new property in the Maldives later this year.

Marriott Post-Merger Travel Package Updates

Right after the Marriott/SPG merger this past weekend, Marriott announced how hotel certificates from travel packages bought before August 18 would convert in the new travel package pricing system, at least for the remainder of 2018.

Travel Package Hotel Certificates bought before August 18Conversion
Category 1-5 (Good at hotels that cost up to 25k points per night)Category 1-4 (Good at hotels that cost up to 25k points per night)
Category 6 (30k)Category 1-4 (25k)
Category 7 (35k)Category 5 (35k)
Category 8 (40k)Category 5 (35k)
Category 9 (45k)Category 6 (50k)
Ritz Tier 1-3 (50k)Category 6 (50k)
Ritz Tier 4-5 (70k)Category 7 (50k)

Your hotel certificates must be redeemed at its converted category (in other words, they aren't worth x amount of points to use at whatever property). The points pricing I listed to the right of the converted categories is standard, to represent the more accurate translation.

Marriott Award Booking Now Live

(1:30 am on August 19): You can now book Marriott awards--which also includes SPG properties--online at marriott.com.

Quick SPG/Marriott Merger Prep Checklist

August 18--the day Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott Rewards are merging into one unified loyalty program--is Saturday. Below is a checklist of things to make sure you've done before then, as well as some things you should wait to do on merger day/as close to it as possible (whenever their award booking reservation system comes online).

Identify SPG and Marriott hotels you want to book, and check if they are going up in price with the merger book before August 18.

Marriott Travel Package Hotel Certificates Will Be Unusable For One Month

**Update: A document containing the apparent terms and conditions of the new merged loyalty program was leaked over the weekend, and in it says that members will not be able to book pre-merger SPG hotels via Points Advance.