Marriott Bonvoy Rewards Program: Fast Track to Elite Status

With more than 7,000 hotels and resorts participating, the Marriott Bonvoy program is the largest hotel loyalty program in the world. Marriott Bonvoy is also known for its popular rewards credit cards, and how easy it is to rack up points for a free stay. Free night awards also start at just 5,000 points, which is a major plus for travelers who want to stretch their rewards as far as they can go.

However, the highest tier Marriott properties can set you back as many as 100,000 points, so it can be difficult to earn enough rewards for a luxury stay in a far-flung destination. In the meantime, earning the highest levels of Marriott status requires quite a bit of travel, and not everyone can get there.

How much are Marriott points worth?

While this value is low compared with flexible rewards programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards®, it's a very good redemption value for hotel loyalty points. In fact, we value Hilton Honors points and IHG Rewards points are just $0.005 each.

Generally speaking, hotel points are valued lower because they're so easy to earn. With an abundance of hotel credit cards and opportunities to earn hotel points, this drives down the value of each point.

But when you use Marriott Bonvoy points strategically, you can increase their value.

Marriott Bonvoy hotels

When you join the Marriott Bonvoy program, you'll quickly find that the program’s 7,000+ hotels range from quaint to luxurious. At each of these brands, you can earn Marriott Bonvoy points for your stay. The points you earn can be redeemed for free nights at Marriott properties, for other types of travel, or for gift cards.

As you explore the Marriott Bonvoy program and all it has to offer, you should familiarize yourself with the various properties you book with your points.

Pros and cons of the Marriott Bonvoy program

While the Marriott Bonvoy program has the largest footprint of any other hotel loyalty program, it definitely has its pros and cons. That said, some of the major benefits and drawbacks depend on the type of traveler you are, whether you want to pursue elite status and how you prefer to spend your points. Here are some of the pros and cons of the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program.

Pros

Cons

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points

There are multiple ways to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. While staying at Marriott properties is the best option to earn points, there are other options for those who travel less frequently.

Marriott credit cards

Marriott Bonvoy has a unique portfolio of credit cards, split evenly between two different issuers: Chase and American Express. These co-branded credit cards are excellent for earning Marriott Bonvoy points on your everyday purchases. On top of the base points you earn through your Marriott Bonvoy account for your hotel stays, you will earn additional points by using one of these cards to pay for your stay.

These cards also offer generous welcome bonuses, which can be worth up to three free nights or more right off the bat.

How to redeem Marriott points

Once you earn heaps of Marriott Bonvoy points through paid stays and rewards card spending, you can begin strategizing how to redeem them. Fortunately, this program makes it easy for Marriott Bonvoy members to use their points.

Free nights

Marriott points are simple to redeem for now due to the fixed award chart, although we already mentioned how the program is moving to dynamic award pricing soon. Either way, you can see the current award chart below, which shows that free nights cost anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 points.

While free nights start at just 5,000 points at the moment, don't let this low starting rate fool you. It's difficult to find properties in desirable destinations in these lower tiers, so you'll likely need to fork over a lot more points for the kind of stay you're hoping for. This is especially true if you're planning to use Marriott points for a real vacation instead of a business trip.

Marriott award chart as of February 2022

It’s important to keep in mind how much your Marriott points are worth when booking an award night. The chart below is a guideline on when to use Marriott points, and when to pay cash. While there is no fixed dollar amount on the left side, the theme is: The higher the cost of the room, the more it makes sense to use your points. Saving money is most important, even if you have to sacrifice a bit of point value.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of Marriott bookings.

First, a modest booking at the Aloft Miami - Brickell.

This room costs $158 after taxes and fees, or 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This equates to approximately $0.0079 per point — below our estimated value for Marriott points. In this instance, you should keep your points and book your stay with cash instead.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a more luxurious night at the W Hotel in South Beach, Fla.

This option is a much better value than the previous one. After taxes and fees, this room will cost $1,076.28. By spending 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night, you will earn a value of $0.012 per point — which is above our estimated value of $0.009 per point.

If you plan on using Marriott Bonvoy points in the future, be very strategic about how you use them. By doing this, you can stretch the value of your points.

Marriott 5th night free

When you use Marriott Bonvoy points for a four-night stay, you will automatically get the fifth night free at any Marriott Bonvoy participating location. This is an effective way to earn more travel for the same amount of points. And this promotion works for stays that are multiple of four. An eight-night stay will earn you two free nights, 12 nights will earn you three free nights and so on.

With this in mind, avoid using points for stays of three nights or fewer. Consider paying cash instead to save your points for a five-night stay.

Upgrade with points

The Marriott Bonvoy program also lets you use your points for upgrades. Generally speaking, you have the option to book a stay with points then use additional points for an upgraded room such an oceanfront room or a suite.

Marriott Cash and Points

If you're a little short on a Marriott redemption you want to make, you may also want to consider using a combination of cash and points. According to Marriott, the Cash + Points program lets you book a stay for as little as $55 and 3,500 points. However, that's for the lowest tier redemption category. If you want to stay in a property that would normally set you back 100,000 points per night, you would need to pay $440 and 57,500 points.

Is this a good deal? It can be, but you'll want to try to make sure you're getting at least the average value for each of your Marriott points, which is $0.009 each. Consider the following example:

The Ritz-Carlton Aruba is a Category 8 hotel that would normally set you back 85,000 points per night or $901 per night (plus taxes and fees) for the dates we searched.

This is a standard award, so the cash and points option works out to $440 + 42,500 Marriott points. When you subtract $440 from the cash price of $901, you can see that you're being asked to pay 42,500 Marriott points in order to save $461. This works out to a redemption value of over 1 cent per point, so this would be a good value in general.

However, keep in mind that, unlike an award night book entirely with points, you still have to pay taxes and fees for a Marriott Points + Cash booking. To know if using cash and points is truly worth it, you'll need to run the math for the hotel stay you want (taxes and fees included) versus the cost in taxes and fees for using the Cash + Points option.

Marriott Pointsavers

You can also stretch your Marriott points further using a promotion called Marriott Pointsavers, which only applies to specific hotels. However, stays with this promotion start at just 4,000 points per night.

Participating hotels change over time, and this program is best for people who are flexible when it comes to where and when they travel.

Transfer Marriott points

You can also transfer your Bonvoy rewards to an array of airline partners, although doing so is generally a poor value due to the lower transfer ratios. For example, most transfer partners offer a ratio of 3:1, which means you only get 1 airline mile for every 3 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer.

Since Marriott points are worth approximately .09 cents each, you would need to get more than 2.7 cents in value for each mile for the transfer to be worth it. With that in mind, you should really only transfer your miles if you're short on a redemption and need to "top up" your account with a few thousand miles.

Marriott transfer partners and ratios are as follows:

Other Marriott redemption options

If you have a large stash of Marriott Bonvoy points and no opportunities for travel on the horizon, there are other ways to use them. You can:

With that said, you should avoid these options if you can since the redemption value is poor.

Marriott elite status

Elite status is a great way to earn extra benefits while staying at Marriott properties, such as upgraded rooms, points bonuses, late checkout, an in-hotel welcome gift and more. Hotel elite status is usually earned through staying at qualifying hotel properties within a calendar year. However, some Marriott credit cards give out automatic elite status just for being a cardmember.

Marriott status levels

Benefits of Marriott elite status

Here are the different elite status levels you can achieve with the Marriott Bonvoy program, and an overview of the perks that come with each.

Fast tracks to Marriott elite status

Marriott status can be valuable for all types of travelers, including people who only take a few trips per year. However, elite status can be difficult to achieve when you only travel for business or leisure infrequently.

One common fast track to Marriott elite status is signing up for the right travel credit card. You can automatically qualify for Silver or Gold status, depending on the card (enrollment required).