Is Marriott Bonvoy the Right Hotel Loyalty Programme for You? One of the Best for Luxury Travellers?

Marriott Bonvoy is the loyalty programme for the hotel chain whose most recognised brands include Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, and Courtyard. Over 9,460 properties (in 143 countries) across 29 brands participate in Marriott Bonvoy. As one of the world’s largest hotel chains, you can usually find a Marriott Bonvoy property wherever you travel. Regarding luxury hotels, it has one of the best selections of the major chains.

How to Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points

Hotel Stays

Marriott Bonvoy members earn 10 base points per US dollar spent and 1 elite night credit per night at nearly all Marriott brands, although this varies depending on the brand’s luxury tier.

• Luxury: and Premium: All of Marriott’s Premium and above brands earn 10 points per $1 spent and 1 elite credit per night.
• Select: Protea, City Express, Four Points Flex/Express and Series by Marriott earn 5 points per $1 and 1 elite night credit per 2 nights; the rest of the Select category earns 10 points per $1 and 1 credit per night.
• Midscale: All brands earn 5 points per $1 and 1 elite credit per 2 nights.
• Longer Stays: This is where it gets a little more complicated. The majority of long stay brands earn 5 points per $1 and 1 credit per night, with the exception of StudioRes, which earns 4 points per $1 and no elite night credits, and Marriott Executive Apartments, which earn 2.5 points per $1 and 1 credit per 3 nights. 

Notes:

• Within the next year, we expect citizenM to be added to the portfolio. We expect it will fit into the Select-Distinctive portfolio.
• Bulgari Hotels & Resorts and select other properties do not participate in rewards. 

You earn points on your pre-tax room rate and other eligible room charges. This includes things like:

• Spa treatments
• Golf course use
• Food and drink

When paying for your room in a currency other than US dollars, Marriott will strip out any taxes included in the rate and convert the remainder to US dollars (at a rate usually to Marriott’s advantage).

You can earn points for up to 3 rooms per night at the same hotel.

To earn points, you must book directly with Marriott Bonvoy. Reservations made via online travel agencies (such as Hotels.com, Booking.com, etc.) are not eligible.

Marriott Bonvoy’s promotions are usually weaker than those of other hotel chains. Marriott also typically leaves a gap between promotions. You need to sign up for the promotions, which can be viewed on the special offers page on the app or website. Not all promotions are available to every member. You will also receive personalised offers. We regularly cover the best Marriott offers in our news articles.

An example of a past promotion is 10,000 bonus points on all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean and Latin America in the summer and fall. Another recent offer was double points on Marriott Homes & Villas.

Elite Status Bonuses

As you start climbing the status ladder, you will receive more points when you stay at Marriott properties:

Gold receives a small welcome points credit (usually 250–500, brand-dependent); the guaranteed Welcome Gift choice (points/amenity/breakfast) begins at Platinum. The bonus points vary from 500 to 1,000 depending on where you stay. 

Note: Certain non-traditional brands (e.g. Marriott Executive Apartments, Homes & Villas) don’t offer elite Welcome Gifts or breakfast benefits.

Buying Marriott Bonvoy Points

You can buy Marriott Bonvoy points. 1,000 points are priced at $12.50. Marriott runs regular 30-50% discount promotions that reduce this price even more. You can buy up to 150,000 points each calendar year. This has the potential to increase during an offer (usually 200,000).

It only makes sense to buy points if you need a few extra points for a high-end reward night, the redemption rate is favourable, or the hotel’s cash value is lower.  

For example, looking at a night at The Ritz-Carlton Osaka priced at £738.90, a standard room can be purchased for 89,000 points, making the cost of buying with points more favourable (£549-£634 with a 30-50% bonus).

However,  this redemption would be better value paying in cash than points. The points rate would vary from £691 to £797, depending on the bonus you’re offered, compared to the £636 cash option.

Points can also be convenient for Marriott’s Stay for 5, Pay for 4 benefit on award bookings.

You can purchase Marriott points here

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

The main UK card for earning Marriott points is the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card, which gives you 2 points per £1 spent and 6 points per £1 at Marriott hotels (room rate and qualifying purchases).

There’s a signup bonus of 20,000 points when you spend £3000 in the first 90 days. You will also receive a Free Night Award voucher of up to 25,000 points per year when you spend £25,000. AMEX often run signup bonuses where this is increased to up to 60,000 points!

Owning the card also gives you 15 elite night credits annually, getting you immediate Silver Elite status. You will be upgraded to Gold Elite status when you spend £15,000 in a card year.

You can also convert your points into Avios or points with over 40 airline programmes, with a redemption rate of 3:1.

The card has an annual fee of £95.

Representative APR Variable: 53.3%

Purchase Rate: 29.7%

Other Marriott Credit Cards

Marriott Bonvoy is an American Express Membership Rewards partner (in the UK) with a conversion rate of 2 Amex : 3 Marriott. These are all American Express cards, which offer more flexibility in how you spend your points. 

American Express: The Platinum Elite Card

• 50,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 in the first 3 months. There are often bonus offers of up to 80,000 points.
• £650 signup fee
• 1 Membership reward point per £1 spent (x2 points with AMEX Travel).
• Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into Avios, Virgin Points, and other airline and hotel schemes.
• Elite status in 4 hotel loyalty programmes, including Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold
• Car rental benefits
• Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits
• Comprehensive Worldwide travel insurance: This policy covers trips of up to 90 days for you, supplementary cardholders, and children under 12. It’s worth noting that Medical assistance and expense benefits are not available for people over 70.
• £100 cashback 2x per year in the UK and 2x abroad. View the list of participating restaurants here 
• Prestige Priority Pass membership grants you free access to over 1,600 airport lounges across 140 countries. Read our guide to lounge access with credit cards here.

Representative APR: 691.7% APR variable (29.7% variable for purchases)

Read our AMEX Platinum guide here

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

• 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within 90 days. There are sometimes welcome bonuses offering up to 30,000 points.
• Free for the first year, then £195 in year 2. 
• 1 Membership reward point per £1 spent. 
• Up to 12,500 bonus points each year based on your total spending.
• 2 points per £1 on all airline and selected overseas spend
• Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into Avios, Virgin Points, and other airline and hotel schemes.
• Get four free airport lounge passes per card year. 
• £120 of Deliveroo credit each year (24 x £5 credits)

Representative APR: 86.8% APR variable (29.7% p.a purchase rate)

American Express Rewards

• A free card
• Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £2,000 within 90 days
• 1 Membership reward point per £1 spent. 
• Points transfer at 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and many other airline and hotel schemes

Representative APR: 29.7% variable (29.7% variable for purchases)

Pooling Your Marriott Points

You can pool your Marriott Bonvoy points with anybody, subject to an annual cap of 500,000 points per receiving account and 100,000 points per sending account. 

• To transfer points, each account must be at least 30 days old (active) or 90 days old (inactive).
• You can transfer out: up to 100,000 points per calendar year.
• You can receive: up to 500,000 points per calendar year from others.
• The minimum number of points you can transfer is 1,000
• Transfers have to be in increments of 1,000 points
• The maximum number of points your account can receive is 500,000 per year

There are often transfer bonus offers for transferring Membership Rewards Points into Marriott points.

Car Rental

• Hertz: Earn 500 points per qualifying rental. Available on bookings in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, and New Zealand (and most other global locations).

• Dollar and Thrifty: 250 points per qualifying rental.

 Marriott Bonvoy Elite members earn an extra 200 points per rental with Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty.

Note: Points are awarded per rental (not per day or per pound spent) and only on qualifying rates booked through Marriott’s car-rental partners.

Marriott Events

Organising events in most Marriott hotels, such as birthdays, weddings, and business events, can earn you up to 60,000 points (2 points per $1). Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite members: Earn up to 105,000 points per event (with the elite bonus added).

You will earn 1 Elite Night Credit for every 20 room nights you book — up to 20 Elite Night Credits per event.

The number of points you earn depends on your membership level:

Converting Airline Miles to Marriott Bonvoy Points

You can convert miles from nine airline programmes into Marriott Bonvoy points, but each has its own eligibility criteria, minimums, and annual caps.

Airlines include:

Converting Nectar Points to Marriott Points

1 Nectar point = 2 Marriott points. You can also convert the other way for less value (1 Marriott Point = 2 Nectar Points).

There’s a minimum transfer of 500 points in either direction, in multiples of 100 after that. Daily transfer caps are 50,000 Marriott Points and 100,000 Nectar Points. Transfers can take up to 48 hours to complete.

If you link your accounts, you’ll also receive 500 bonus Nectar Points for each of your first three stays in each programme year (17th July to 16th July). These are awarded on top of your usual Marriott Bonvoy earnings. Only cash stays qualify, not award nights.

Invite Friends to Join Marriott Bonvoy

If you invite friends to the Marriott Bonvoy programme, you can earn 2,000 points per stay for their first five stays. You can refer up to 5 friends. That’s up to 50,000 bonus points.

The stays must be paid stays at participating hotels.

How to Redeem Marriott Bonvoy Points

Standard Room Rewards

Marriott Bonvoy no longer uses fixed award categories in the traditional sense. The programme switched to dynamic award pricing in 2022, meaning free night costs now fluctuate with cash rates rather than fixed off-peak, standard, and peak bands.

The number of Marriott points for a free night ranges from 5,000 to 100,000+ points or more per night. Some hotels (e.g. select hotels in the Maldives) often charge upwards of 200,000 points per night.

You can read my review of this hotel here >>>

All Marriott Bonvoy members receive the cheapest night of a five-night award booking free of charge. When a standard room is available, it should be available using points (unless the hotel has limited the number of rooms available for redemption).

To find out how many points you will need for redemption, make sure you tick use points/awards and that you are logged in when you search on the Marriott website.

Marriott Award Nights

Marriott Award Nights can be earned through Elite status levels. If you earn 75 elite night credits in a calendar year, you will get an annual choice benefit. The Free Night Award redemption value is up to 40,000 points.

You can also get a free night award via the Marriott Bonvoy AMEX Credit Card after you spend £25,000 in an anniversary year (capped at a value of 25,000 points).

You can also book award nights the same way. Award nights are for a one-night stay in a standard room at participating Marriott hotels, including room rate and taxes. You can top this up with up to 15,000 points.

Cash & Points

If you have insufficient points for a full award night(s), you can also book rooms using a combination of points and cash. 

This reward option does not offer the fifth-night free benefit, and you will not earn points on the cash portion.

Airline Miles

Marriott Bonvoy offers an attractive conversion rate when converting points into airline miles. 38+  airline programmes are available, including The British Airways Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

3 Marriott points can be converted into 1 airline mile, with a minimum conversion of 3,000 points. (a few exceptions apply, including Air New Zealand, which has a redemption of 200:1).

When you transfer 60,000 points, you will receive 5,000 complimentary miles with most partners. As a result, you should almost always convert exactly 60,000 points to receive 25,000 miles. The bonus does not apply to some airlines.

If you’re a United MileagePlus member, you’ll get 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points you transfer due to the Marriott Rewards Plus partnership. If you convert Marriott Points to United Mileage Plus, you will get a 10,000-mile bonus when converting 60,000 points. 

You will usually receive your miles within 2-5 business days, although with some airline programmes and in some cases, it may take longer.

You can only transfer Marriott points to an airline account using your own name. Once you have converted points into miles, you cannot reverse or cancel the conversion.

Marriott Moments

Marriott Moments is a great way to spend your Marriott points on concerts or other unique experiences. You can redeem points (or in some cases bid) for special experiences. These include events such as concerts, sports, culinary experiences, VIP access, and lifestyle packages. Click here to see the latest experiences on offer. 

Because Marriott inherited SPG’s suite at the O2 arena in London, you can bid or buy seats for most, if not all, events at the O2.  Occasionally, you can find events that include a hotel stay for fewer points than booking the hotel directly.

The Bright Side…  I have used my SPG and Marriott points for concerts in London and Berlin. I’ve also managed to see an NFL game at Wembley. Michele had a once in a lifetime experience seeing Take That and others at British Summer Time Hyde Park where she got to go backstage and also stand on the side of the stage during one of the songs! The only difficulty is reminding yourself to keep checking back regularly, as Moments doesn’t allow you to set up notifications for specific events that might interest you.

Do Marriott Points Expire?

Points expire after 24 months of account inactivity. Tools such as Award Wallet allow you to track expiry dates.

If you have points in danger of expiring, you can:

• Convert the 3,000-point minimum to miles in most partner airline programmes
• Earn points for completed stays
• Buy 1,000 points for $12.50 

The Points expiration policy does not currently affect Marriott Bonvoy Points in a Lifetime Elite account.

Receiving points from another Marriott Bonvoy member (or sending them) does NOT count as an activity. Neither do any free points received from social media promotions.

How Do I Earn Elite Marriott Status?

Marriott Bonvoy has several levels of elite status: Ambassador, Titanium, Platinum, Gold and Silver. The most attractive benefits kick in at Platinum status and above.

Elite status qualification runs on a calendar year basis – 1st January until 31st December. To reach elite status, you must complete:

• Ambassador Elite – 100 nights and $23,000 in Qualifying Spend
• Titanium – 75 nights
• Platinum – 50 nights
• Gold – 25 nights
• Silver – 10 nights
• Member – 0-9 nights

Reward stays count for elite status purposes.

Marriott Bonvoy Membership Levels and Benefits

Lifetime Elite Status

If you stay enough nights with Marriott (and meet additional criteria), you can receive a status that never expires. This includes:

• Lifetime Silver Elite – 250 qualifying nights and five years of Silver Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Gold Elite – 400 qualifying nights and seven years of Gold Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Platinum Elite – 600 qualifying nights and ten years of Platinum Elite status or higher

Shortcuts to Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status

• Instant Gold status with the AMEX Platinum card. Read our guide to AMEX Platinum hotel status for more details.
• Silver Marriott status with the AMEX Marriott Bonvoy and Gold status once you meet the spend threshold
• Instant Silver status during rare Barclays Premier Banking Concierge offers. 
• Instant Gold status for Miles&More Senator  and HON Circle Members 
• Choosing 5 elite night credits as a choice benefit.
• Earning an elite night credit with a free night certificate
• Once every three years, you can apply for a Platinum Challenge by calling Marriott Bonvoy. You will be required to stay 16 paid nights within 90 days. (Michele completed this – you can get an extra month if you start your challenge on the 2nd of the month). There is also a Gold Challenge where you need to stay 8 paid nights.

Can I Earn Cashback? Or “Milesback”?

The major cashback websites in the UK—Topcashback and Quidco offer a minimum of 3.15% cashback on Marriott paid stays. Frequent promotions increase the amount of cashback offered.

You can earn 4 Avios per £ by booking via the British Airways Executive Club e-store. You can get 3 Avios per £1 via Marriott Homes and Villas.

Through their Shops Away platform, you can earn 3 miles per £1 from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Marriott is excellent at tracking your cashback correctly and paying promptly.

To avoid doubt, you still earn points, elite status credit, etc., when clicking on the Marriott Bonvoy website from a cashback or “milesback” website.

The 30-Second Lowdown

As might be expected from a hotel company offering over 30 brands, Marriott Bonvoy covers the entire spectrum from high-end luxury hotels to cheap and cheerful ones. Several hotels are highly aspirational and some of the best you can get when using points.

However, many Marriott and Sheraton hotels are bland and boring and in dire need of refurbishment; some of the low-end brands are best suited for 20-somethings who do not actually spend time in their rooms.

Once you have reached Platinum or above, elite benefits are strong. Lounge access is guaranteed (where available), and room upgrades (including suites) are often offered.

Apart from a once-every-three-year Platinum/Gold challenge, reaching elite status is difficult without spending at least 40 nights at Marriott hotels. The lack of consistency across all brands,  especially for the free breakfast amenity, is a major downside to elite member treatment with Marriott Bonvoy. However, there are instant status options available with cards like the AMEX Platinum and AMEX Marriott Bonvoy.

Despite the conventional wisdom that hotel points should be spent on hotel stays, Marriott offers attractive alternatives. The ability to convert hotel points into airline miles at an attractive rate makes Marriott Bonvoy the perfect choice for business travellers who prefer not to spend their holidays in a chain hotel. (but airline miles help get the whole family to a holiday home or Airbnb). Marriott Moments also opens the door to unique experiences.

Find more information and join Marriott Bonvoy here.