Marriott Bonvoy seems to have raised award costs at some of its more expensive properties, which members certainly won’t be happy about.
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Marriott Bonvoy devalues points at some properties
For a few years now, Marriott Bonvoy hasn’t published award charts. The program has dynamic award pricing — the number of points required for a stay isn’t strictly revenue based, but rather varies depending on a variety of factors. However, historically there has been an unpublished cap on how many points you’ll pay per night for a stay at a particular property, even in peak season.
Well, as flagged by View from the Wing, that cap seems to have been lifted at some properties. For example, aside from Ritz-Carlton Reserve properties, the nightly cap up until this point has been 150,000 points per night. That’s before the fifth night free benefit that elite members get.
Unfortunately that cap now seems to be well over 200,000 points per night. For example, at the JW Marriott Masai Mara, you’ll now find nightly rates of up to 224,000 points per night.
At the Ritz-Carlton Maldives, I see rates of up to 198,000 points per night.
At the St. Regis Maldives, I see rates of up to 166,000 points per night.
At Al Maha Dubai, a Luxury Collection property, I see rates of up to 152,000 points per night (so just slightly above the old limit).
These are of course just a limited number of examples, and a vast majority of properties haven’t gone up in cost at all. But still, it’s noteworthy, because once you get rid of the cap on how many points a property can cost, it becomes a very slippery slope.
My take on this Marriott Bonvoy devaluation
Marriott Bonvoy stopped publishing award charts in 2022. I’ve gotta say, for the most part, the changes in points requirements haven’t been that bad. Or at least they weren’t as bad as I was expecting from Marriott Bonvoy, a program that in many ways takes loyalty for granted, due to the size of its portfolio.
I was expecting that we’d eventually see a significant increase to award costs at top properties, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing here. It’s of course super frustrating. Yes, dynamic award pricing is largely supposed to reflect the cost of stays at a property, and you’re still getting outsized value for these properties.
However, there’s something to be said for a cap on redemption rates, so that aspirational redemptions feel within reach for members, and they can accrue points thinking that they could get them to some incredible property in the Maldives.
In some situations, like at the JW Marriott Masai Mara, these changes are really rough. The good news is that as of now, I’m not seeing widespread changes. So I guess the question is whether Marriott just drastically increased the cost of redemptions at a handful of properties that were disproportionately expensive for redemptions, or if this is the start of a bigger devaluation. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Bottom line
Marriott Bonvoy appears to have increased award costs at some of its top properties. While many properties were previously capped at around 150,000 points per night, we’re now seeing some hotels go for around 200,000 points per night, or even more.
Fortunately this seems to impact a limited number of properties as of now, so we’ll mark this as “developing.”
What do you make of this Marriott Bonvoy devaluation?
When I visited the Ritz Carlton Maldives, I had a chat with the resort manager at the weekly manager's cocktail reception. I noted my surprise at how many Americans were in attendance given the remote location in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She replied, "Well, the Americans like to come and redeem their points!" I could have added, "And free cocktails, especially in Maldives," but figured the devaluation goose was cooked at that point.
At least with Accor you never have to worry about devaluations - 1000 points is always redeemable for 20 EUR.
It's really shocking how few f--ks Marriott gives about its customers. Let's say you spend $35k annually at Marriott properties, as I did last year. The earn on that is roughly 612,000 points (and forget about bonus points, which have been nearly non-existent for years). For spending half the year on the road and spending 35 grand, you're rewarded with 3-4 nights at a high end property. What absolute garbage.
You shouldn't spend a penny above and beyond $23,000.
Maybe, maybe not. But my point still holds.
Should get the card with free Platinum and voila, most of the benefits of $23k Ambassador spend
Once again, not really the point. The point is the points are worthless and even if you spend a ton, you get nothing in return.
Not sure what to say. I saw the coming downfall of Marriott in 2019 and dropped mid-Ambassador status to run to Hyatt. So glad to have made the decision.
Your money is better spent elsewhere.
I don't understand. Can someone kindly explain the points to $$ conversion/equivalent that I often see mentioned.
Thanks.
My guess is someone at Marriott actually did a pareto analysis of their where the program was spending $$ and did some revenue/cost work. Masai Mara and Maldives are pretty much always at 100% occupancy and if the program was paying 90% of actual rates they were taking a bath. The arbitrage opportunity was too enticing. Buy 400K pts for $3400 and receive 12-15K worth of stays, 70-80% discount.
They have all the data for...
My guess is someone at Marriott actually did a pareto analysis of their where the program was spending $$ and did some revenue/cost work. Masai Mara and Maldives are pretty much always at 100% occupancy and if the program was paying 90% of actual rates they were taking a bath. The arbitrage opportunity was too enticing. Buy 400K pts for $3400 and receive 12-15K worth of stays, 70-80% discount.
They have all the data for each redemption they can analyze to the individual redemption the revenue they received vs the cost. The new rates are just their pricing algorithm reverse engineering the breakeven on the last X months of redemptions.
The new reality to this game is that really large value arbitrage opportunities are not going to last for long periods of time because data and tools are available to the programs to close them much quicker than in the past.
100K is the most bonvoy pts you can buy in a year
This is infuriating in light of my 85k certificate
I was in Paris last month, December 2024. I booked about two months out. Starting a month out, the number of points needed for a 5-night stay dropped by 3,000 to 7,000 points per night almost every week. I had to keep rebooking and getting refunds. It was absurd. Lesson learned. Always, always monitor prices after you make a reservation because with dynamic pricing of award redemptions it can go both ways. Yes, it can...
I was in Paris last month, December 2024. I booked about two months out. Starting a month out, the number of points needed for a 5-night stay dropped by 3,000 to 7,000 points per night almost every week. I had to keep rebooking and getting refunds. It was absurd. Lesson learned. Always, always monitor prices after you make a reservation because with dynamic pricing of award redemptions it can go both ways. Yes, it can get expensive, but it can also get cheaper.
Right now, looking at Paris for 5 nights using random dates in December 2025, all of the desirable full-service properties are 331,000 to 476,500 points per night. That's insane. Two of the less-desirable Renaissance properties are 260,000 to 271,000 points.
I'm fortunate in that I have 6 million-plus Marriott points, but how is someone just starting this supposed to accumulate enough points for a 471,000-point stay?
At 331,000 or 471,000 points, I'm inclined to start paying cash.
Well if the rooms are above $550/$780/night on those redemptions a person could still buy points and get a discount. I am guessing that the 476.5 one is Prince De Galles, which looks to have about a $1100/night rate right now. So about 1.15 cents/point with the 5th night free. Still not a bad redemption, and even if you bought the points it would still be a 25-30% discount. The real value of using points is the 5th night free and ease of canceling.
Marriott points (or Hilton points, for that matter) have (almost) only been valuable on a few expensive properties like the ones mentioned in this piece. This type of value proposition has always been highly risky, as we've now seen.
Let this be a warning to all. The airlines have effectively eliminated tier-status-based complimentary upgrades by offering discounted paid upgrades (which are too attractive to pass up). At one level or another, Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott have started to do the same. While upgrades will technically still be a benefit, for practical purposes, don't be surprised if complimentary upgrades become fewer and fewer.
I read this all the time, but quite honestly as an AA Executive Platinum I get complimentary upgrades all the time. Might depend on airports, time of day, day of departure, dunno. I’m surprised how often upgrades come through. Most recent for me YUL/CLT/MIA, last week.
Ben, while you have highlighted a few high-end properties, the point-price increase is hitting low/moderate properties quite hard on a percentage basis. Indeed, I'm seeing Hilton-like redemption values at some. And, as a practical matter, 35k Free Night Certificates granted to cardholders (even when topped up with 15k) have become unusable at so many properties. But, 85k FNCs are still good Aloft and Springhill Suites.
Exactly. The primary reason we will be canceling four Marriott cards (Chase 2 - AmEx 2) on renewals. Even though P2 is lifetime platinum, Marriott is fading fast.
Been Ambassador for number of years and last year I didn’t intend to requalify but a last min trip in late Dec earned me the nights.
Things like this plus just overall inconsistency and bad service/ROI from the Ambassador/support team is why I switched to booking hotels with cc that give 10x points and use those points for business and first class tickets. This year I’m actually making it a goal to avoid Marriott properties.
Same here plus lifetime status. Adding to what you said has been the erosion of benefits. I forgot about upgrades after so many instances of "we're not going to simply give you an upgrade but we'll sell you one." No lounge access at virtually all luxury brands. Too many exceptions to the breakfast benefit. There are even exceptions to the WiFi benefit. What's left? So, like you, I took a different path.
Redeeming Marriott points at hotels is the worst use of points. Transfers 60000 points to United for 30000 ua miles. Do that 3 times and you have 90000 miles. 88k gets you a lie flat Lufthansa Swiss Austria to Europe or Eva air to Asia. That $4000. Tell me where you can redeem 180000 points for a $4000 stay
Where? How about Masai Mara (at least before this devaluation). We spent 468,000 Bonvoy points for a five night trip next June. The cash rate was in excess of $24,000 for two people. That's more than .05 per point compared to your .02 cent redemption! Mike drop.
Absolutely, a skilled hobbyist can find a great redemption. I have one in my hip pocket. But, for the vast majority of people . . . perhaps not as skilled or adventurous . . . there's too little value in redeeming points for a hotel stay. For these people, transferring points to an airline results in higher value . . . even after a rotten transfer ratio.
*Mic
At the St.Regis Bal Harbour right now for 95k points/night versus $2,450/night cash rate. Also using a free night redemption using 10k more points. Then the free upgrade to a suite going for $3,200/night. Good value for me.
I was only pricing up the JW Masai Mara for November 2025 a couple of weeks ago and I could get 5 nights for under 550k.
Try now