How Much Are Marriott Bonvoy Points Worth?

How much Marriott points are worth depends on the redemption method you select. In most cases, the value of one Marriott Bonvoy point varies from 0.7 cents to 0.9 cents. However, you may get better or worse value in some instances. For example, transferring your points to an airline partner may fetch a good value, but not always.

The Marriott Bonvoy rewards program, catering to guests across its 30-brand portfolio in 139 countries with over 8,000 properties, offers various earning and redemption options. You can earn point through stays, activities, partner spending and co-branded credit cards. They can be redeemed for hotel stays, experiences, gift cards, or transferred to airline partners.

Since March 2022, Marriott has shifted from a fixed redemption chart to dynamic pricing for award nights, impacting point values. With six membership tiers, Marriott Bonvoy offers greater benefits as you move up the ladder, including bonus points from Silver Elite status. Overall, its value is comparable to other hotel loyalty programs.

Marriott has designed the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program for people who wish to capitalize on staying at any of its properties. The group comprises 30 brands spread across categories such as luxury, premium and select. With a presence in 139 countries and territories, Marriott International has more than 8,000 properties in its portfolio.

Members can earn Marriott Bonvoy points in different ways. These include staying at Marriott properties, booking through Marriott Bonvoy Tours & Activities, spending with partner merchants and using co-branded Marriott Bonvoy credit cards.

Your options for redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points include using them for hotel stays, experiences and gift cards. You may also transfer Marriott points to the program’s partner airlines.

The Marriott Bonvoy rewards program manages to offer better value than a few hotel loyalty programs, but there are others that do better. However, given its widespread global presence, Marriott manages to provide options for just about every type of traveler. There are other aspects to consider as well.

If you're part of the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program, your points are worth 0.7 cents to 0.9 cents per point, on average. But given its large global footprint, members have more options — including a significant range of luxury properties — than any other hotel loyalty program when deciding where to stay. If you redeem points for stays of four nights, you get a free night.

Your travel dates and the property you select affect how many points you need for a free night. For example, a free night at the Courtyard Bilaspur in India during the first week of March would require 6,000 points. If you book the same hotel for a night on New Year’s Eve, you’ll need 6,500 points.

If you wish to check in at The Ritz-Carlton NoMad in New York City on New Year’s Eve, a free night will set you back 104,000 points. During the first week of March, you'll need 98,000 points.

Alternatively, use Marriott's website to determine just how many points you'll need for a free night based on the Marriott dynamic pricing system.

Marriott Bonvoy members can earn points in different ways. These include staying and spending on eligible purchases at Marriott properties, booking any of Marriott’s local experiences, purchasing with the program’s partner cruise and car rental companies or participating restaurants, and using co-branded Marriott Bonvoy credit cards.

Becoming a Marriott member is fairly simple. You may apply for membership online by providing your first and last name, email address and location. Once you join, you can enjoy member rates and free Wi-Fi. You will access more perks as you move up from one membership level to the next. These include the ability to earn bonus points and get room upgrades. The fact that you get several Marriott brands and properties to choose from across categories is also a plus.

You earn Marriott Bonvoy points each time you stay at a property that's linked to this program and when you make qualifying purchases. These may include, but aren't limited to, dining, beverages, spa services and golf.

The number of points you earn depends on the brand you select. For example, you can earn 10 points per dollar at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Edition, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, JW Marriott, Sheraton, Le Meridien, Westin, Renaissance Hotels and more. You get** 5 points per dollar** at Homes & Villas, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites and Element. Eligible charges at Marriott Executive Apartments earn 2.5 points per dollar.

You may get a co-branded Marriott Bonvoy personal credit card through Chase or American Express. American Express offers a card for business owners, too. You may use any of these cards to earn Marriott Bonvoy points through category-based spending. Earning spend-based welcome bonuses is possible. Depending on the card you select, you may also get complimentary Silver, Gold or Platinum Elite status and Elite Night credits towards higher levels.

In addition to offering cards to consumers in the U.S., Marriott Bonvoy also offers co-branded credit cards for residents of Canada, the UK, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, South Korea, China and Saudi Arabia.

It is possible to buy Marriott points, and the standard rate for 1,000 points is $12.50. The number of points you wish to purchase does not affect the price you pay per point. For example, if you purchase 100,000 points, you need to pay $1,250. That means you pay 1.25 cents per point.

Given that the average value you stand to receive when redeeming your points is noticeably lower than how much you need to pay for them, buying them might be worthwhile only if you need to cover a deficit while claiming a reward with great value.

Occasionally, the program offers opportunities to purchase points at discounted prices. These discounts may vary from 25% to 50%, giving you considerably better value for your money. Remember, however, that you may need to buy a minimum number of points to get the offer.

The maximum number of Marriott points you may purchase or receive as a gift during a calendar year is limited to 100,000. However, you may buy up to 100,000 points more per year when making a booking via marriott.com.

The Marriott Bonvoy program allows you to earn points by spending with its partner merchants from across different categories.

• Dining out: Using the Eat Around Town platform to pay at participating restaurants, clubs and bars, you can earn up to 4X Marriott points per dollar. Marriott Bonvoy Elite members earn 6X points per dollar.
• Renting a car: Booking a Hertz rental car through Marriott Bonvoy earns you 500 points per rental at participating Hertz locations globally. Similarly, renting a car from Dollar or Thrifty via Marriott Bonvoy, you earn 250 points for each rental at participating Dollar and Thrifty locations worldwide. These offers are subject to terms and conditions.
• Buying a mattress: If you buy a mattress from Marriott Bonvoy’s retail online stores, you get 10,000 bonus points.
• Going on a cruise: You earn Marriott points using the Marriott Cruise With Points platform to book cruises. You may get up to 6X points per dollar depending on the room category and how you pay for your booking.
• Tours and activities: You can earn Marriott points when you use the Tours & Activities platform to book different types of experiences around the world.

Transferring points from participating airline loyalty programs to your Marriott Bonvoy account is possible. Existing transfer partners that let you do this include Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Korea Air SKYPASS and United MileagePlus.

Redeeming your Marriott Bonvoy points for free stays at properties that participate in the program is fairly straightforward. You may begin the process by logging in to your Marriott Bonvoy account and looking for properties based on your requirements. You can view just how many points you need for an award night by using the “Use Points/Awards” option when carrying out your search.

The PointSavers option allows you to enjoy up to 20% savings on regular point redemption rates, although bookings remain subject to availability. If you, on the other hand, don’t have enough points to redeem for a free stay, you may pay using a combination of cash and points.

You can also use Cash + Points awards and PointSavers Awards when booking. You can also redeem Nightly Upgrade Awards (previously called Suite Night Awards) by using Cash + Points stays. These bookings only guarantee the availability of rooms. You find out the exact number of points you need to make the booking during the confirmation stage.

A distinct benefit of the Marriott Bonvoy program is that when you use your points to book five consecutive nights, you get the lowest-point night free. So, if you use points to book a stay for 10 consecutive nights, you’ll only be charged for eight nights. The program considers nights with the lowest points cost to be free nights.

The program had suspended the expiration of points until December 31, 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy where you stand to lose your points if there’s no qualifying activity in your account for 24 months came back into effect in 2023.

If you don’t want to use your Marriott Bonvoy points for free nights, you still have a few other ways to redeem your points.

You have multiple options for using your Marriott Bonvoy points for shopping. For starters, you may redeem points for merchandise across categories such as electronics, home and garden, fashion, health and subscriptions.

Using your points to make purchases through Marriott Bonvoy Boutiques is an option. Some of the brands you can choose from include Courtyard by Marriott, JW Marriott, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Ritz-Carlton and Westin.

When you use them for shopping, your Marriott points have no fixed value, so you’ll need to determine that on your own on case-by-case basis by comparing a product's price to points value. More often than not, using your points for shopping provides less-than-average value.

This program also lets you use your points to get gift cards. The worth of your Marriott Bonvoy points typically depends on the gift card's value. For example, you get a $25 Adidas gift card for 10,000 points and 30,000 points to get a $100 gift card from the same brand. In this case, the value of each point is 0.25 cents and 0.33 cents, respectively. You may get a $250 Delta gift card for 65,000 points, valued at 0.38 cents per point.

Transferring Marriott points to any of the program's airline partners' loyalty programs is relatively easy. In most cases, you get a 3:1 transfer ratio, meaning you get one airline mile for three Marriott points. If you transfer 60,000 points, Marriott Bonvoy adds a 5,000 miles bonus, although this does not apply on transfers to Delta SkyMiles, American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles and Korean Air SKYPASS. Further, you may transfer anywhere from 3,000 to 240,000 points per day.

Transferring your Marriott points to an airline partner may or may not fetch as good a value as you would receive when using them for hotel stays. However, you may want to consider using this redemption method if you have a particular airline reward in sight and wish to make up for a deficit in the miles needed to redeem it.

The top Marriott Bonvoy airline transfer partners include Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, United Airlines MileagePlus, American Airlines AAdvantage, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Etihad Guest. United Airlines provides an additional 10% bonus when transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to United MileagePlus, which can help your points go even further.

Marriott Bonvoy members may also transfer their points to the Rakuten Rewards program. However, don't expect to get a good deal for your points because of the poor 3:1 transfer ratio.

>> More: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Transfer Partners

The Marriott Bonvoy program comprises six membership levels, and you gain access to various benefits as you move up from one status to the next. This happens by staying at participating hotels for a minimum number of nights each year. All members benefit through member rates, free Wi-Fi and mobile check-in/services.

Regular

• Qualification - Not applicable
• Bonus Points - None
• Lounge Access - No
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - No
• Room Upgrade - No
• Late Checkout - No

Silver

• Qualification - 10 nights per year
• Bonus Points - 10%
• Lounge Access - No
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - No
• Room Upgrade - No
• Late Checkout - Yes

Gold

• Qualification - 25 nights per year
• Bonus Points - 25%
• Lounge Access - No
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - Yes (250 or 500 points)
• Room Upgrade - Yes Late Checkout - Yes

Platinum

• Qualification - 50 nights per year
• Bonus Points - 50%
• Lounge Access - Full access at hotels that have lounges, along with complimentary breakfast
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - Yes (points, amenity or breakfast)
• Room Upgrade - Yes
• Late Checkout - Yes

Titanium

• Qualification - 75 nights per year
• Bonus Points - 75%
• Lounge Access - Full access at hotels that have lounges, along with complimentary breakfast
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - Yes (points, amenity or breakfast)
• Room Upgrade - Yes
• Late Checkout - Yes

Ambassador

• Qualification - 100 nights per year and spending $20,000
• Bonus Points - 75%
• Lounge Access - Full access at hotels that have lounges, along with complimentary breakfast
• In-Hotel Welcome Gift - Yes (points, amenity or breakfast)
• Room Upgrade - Yes
• Late Checkout - Yes (flexibility to choose Check-in and Checkout time)

Review answers to other questions about how much Marriott Bonvoy points are worth based on how you redeem them, and then determine the best way forward.