A couple of weeks ago, Marriott Bonvoy opened registration for its first global promotion of 2023. Marriott’s previous promotion ended in mid-December 2022, so it’s nice to see a new offer return. I wanted to post a reminder of this offer, as it’s valid for stays as of today.
I’d say this promotion could potentially offer quite a bit of value, though many probably won’t like how easy Marriott is making it to earn status again.
In this post:
Earn bonus points and elite night credits witih Marriott promo
With Marriott Bonvoy’s new global promotion:
- Members can earn 1,000 bonus Bonvoy points per paid night stayed
- Members can earn double elite nights per eligible paid night stayed
Registration is required for this promotion, and as you’d expect, there are some details to be aware of:
- The promotion is valid for stays between February 7 and April 23, 2023, regardless of when they’re booked
- Registration is required prior to your first eligible stay, and registration closes on April 9, 2023
- Only stays paid with cash qualify toward this promotion, so award stays (including Cash + Points stays) don’t qualify
- The bonus points and double elite nights will post within seven business days of checking out of a hotel
- There’s no limit to how many bonus points you can earn
- You must select Bonvoy points as your points earning preference (rather than airline miles)
- All hotels globally are participating, with the exception of stays at Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Executive Apartments, and owner-occupied weeks at Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club, Sheraton Vacation Club Westin Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Club, St. Regis Residence Club, and Luxury Collection Residence Club
Now that the promotion has launched, am I the only one having trouble registering? When I tried to register I get an error message saying that I’m not eligible, and the offer also doesn’t show up in the promotions portion of my Bonvoy account. Yet this offer is supposed to be open to everyone… hmmm.
How valuable is this Marriott Bonvoy promotion?
How useful is this new promotion from Marriott Bonvoy? A few thoughts:
- I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, meaning that 1,000 bonus points per night is worth an incremental return of $7 to me
- The double elite nights will certainly help people with qualifying for status, though it’s interesting to see Marriott making status easier to earn so early in the year
- I at least appreciate that the offer kicks in starting with the first stay, unlike some of Marriott’s past promotions, which only kick in starting with the second stay
- I find it strange how strongly Marriott is discouraging award stays now for the purposes of promotions, as they don’t qualify
On balance I’d say this is a fairly decent promotion, between the moderate number of bonus points each night with few restrictions, plus the bonus elite nights.
Normal Marriott Bonvoy points earning rates
Not factoring in this promotion, Marriott Bonvoy members ordinarily earn:
- 10x Bonvoy points per dollar spent at most brands
- 5x Bonvoy points per dollar spent at Element, Residence Inn, and TownePlace Suites
Then there are elite bonuses:
- Silver Elite members earn 10% bonus points
- Gold Elite members earn 25% bonus points
- Platinum Elite members earn 50% bonus points
- Titanium Elite & Ambassador Elite members earn 75% bonus points
The above doesn’t include the points you can earn for credit card spending at hotels:
- You can earn up to 6x Bonvoy points per dollar spent on most co-branded Marriott cards, including the the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review) and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review)
- Otherwise, you can earn up to 3x transferable points on hotel spending (with Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou)
As a Titanium member with a co-branded credit card, I ordinarily earn 23.5x Bonvoy points per dollar spent. At a valuation of 0.7 cents per point, that’s like a ~16% return on hotel spending.
Bottom line
Marriott Bonvoy has today launched its first global promotion of 2023, so make sure you register. With this, members can earn 1,000 bonus points and double elite nights for every paid stay, starting with the first stay. I value the 1,000 bonus points per night at an incremental $7 return, and then I know some will appreciate being able to earn double elite nights, to help them qualify for status in 2023.
What do you make of Marriott Bonvoy’s new global promotion?
I too had registration issues. A quick Twitter DM to Marriott and they had me registered in under an hour.
Marriott is always throwing that error on many of their promotions. It's annoying and been on going for years. I sent them mail and they added it for me. At least the response was quick less than 2 days.
Titanium lurker here. I don't usually have anything novel to contribute, but I appreciate everyone's help. I registered when I first saw it open in January, so I think it's more about current programming bugs than targeted individuals. I hope they get it figured out for everyone, and thanks again for everyone in the community!
The past two years I was able to take advantage and reached Platinum level quite quickly with these double elite night credits. I have 9 years at Platinum level so hopefully this year I'll hit 10 and then be Lifetime Platinum. While some may feel this isn't a great status anymore, it's been than most and has a very large footprint now, compared to 15 years ago.
Not sure what Marriott messed up with this promotion but I have never had my account set to Airline miles in over a decade of having an account, yet I have been getting the error every day I try to sign up for the last couple weeks since the original announcement. I finally called them today and the agent said a bunch of people are hitting errors and signed me up manually. Very strange
If you're getting an error, chances are it might be down to your account being set to airline miles instead of points. When I called, that was the reason, and they switched me over. Said I could switch back come the end of April.
I received an Error message as well when I clicked on the link so I called the Bonvoy number and the agent helped me register for it. I don’t know when the promotion showed up under My Account but it was there a day later.
Receiving an error. Called the Elite Desk, said it was added manually but pending. Hours later, promotion still not posted. Hopefully this will be fixed automatically by the start date. Never had issues with promotions previously
Receiving the same error.
I also have a question. Once registered, if you pay in cash rather than by a credit card that earns 6X points per dollar spent, wouldn't you be shooting yourself in the foot and earning fewer points for rooms that cost over $167 per night?
I know some other people mentioned it when this article first posted but even more than a week later the registration website is still erroring out for me. "We're sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion." Did they mess up something on their servers with this one? I have signed up for every other global promotion without issue. Wondering if it's worth contacting Marriott or if I should wait until...
I know some other people mentioned it when this article first posted but even more than a week later the registration website is still erroring out for me. "We're sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion." Did they mess up something on their servers with this one? I have signed up for every other global promotion without issue. Wondering if it's worth contacting Marriott or if I should wait until closer to the February 7th start date to see if it fixes itself
The T&Cs say reservations booked through third party or select travel agencies are not eligible for this promo.
What about using the AAA rate when I book through Marriott.com or the Bonvoy app? Will that still qualify?
@ Rusty Nail Rayo -- That would qualify for sure.
I think before people bemoan omg more plat and titaniums coming onboard sound consider something pretty obvious. While people are revenge traveling business travel is far from back to normal. So if you take those elite loses there is probably still a decrease in elite population. Feb to April is low travel season besides spring breakers. I seriously doubt Marriott travelers will make that much of a dent into their run.
Wow double nights thing again this year consider that most people actually start travelling enough to maintain status. Add that to the pool of credit card Platinums.
I guess we should expect to see more Titaniums than even well into next year. Can't wait to stay at a property with 8 suites and 80% occupancy are Platinums and above.
Not sure if that is going to make their customers, aka franchises, happy or mad.
Are there hotels up with the Eskimo?
I get an error when following through the link. It was also interesting to note the promo was on the home screen until I signed in then it vanished. Seems likely it is targeted (maybe to new members?)
Same here.
We're sorry, but there was an error in directing you to this promotion.
The reason for this error could be:
you're trying to access a miles promotion and are a points-earner, or vice versa
You are not eligible for this promotion
This promotion has expired.
???????
same here ...
Marriott promotions always throw that error until all of their servers sync up. Probably some stupid back end workflow where some worker bee has to send an excel file by email to another person who is on vacation.
Terrible. Too many plats and titaniums in the Bonvoy program from my experience. Will personally requalify for Titanium again by end of February with this promotion but it’s way too easy for anyone to qualify these days.
1) My Hyatt promo (3x points) is better, so maximizing that first
2) Not sure how useful EQN really are given Marriott gives out Platinum with a credit card
Nevertheless I will book Marriott when I am done with Hyatt. Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch for ski season.
Marriott discouraging award stays ... have Marriott (or SPG) promotions *ever* applied to award stays? They apply to Hyatt stays but it has always seemed like that is mainly an IT limitation in how Hyatt had to categorize award stays in order to give elite qualifying nights on them, and only started at Hyatt at the time time as they made that policy change.
I have a work trip booked 2/6-9. Anyone know if I need to split this reservation to participate or if I’ll get credit during the days the promo is active (despite having checked in the day prior). Appreciate the tips!
This seems to be somewhat targeted -- I am not targeted
@DCS
Hiltons last fall promotion was much more generous than this up coming promotion by Mariott
Also I don’t think Hyatt has ever done a double night promotion in 2022 and I don’t think they will for 2023.
Other than stating what is mostly factual, what is your point in dragging me into this?
It's not my fault that Hilton's promos are nonstop all year around and mostly lucrative, despite self-anointed "travel gurus" claiming that Hilton Honors needs more frequent and better promos to make up for the program's poor "rebate" (VFTW) or return on the dollar, a demonstrably up-is-down, nonsensical claim.
Just checked out of a Marriott in Miami Beach where they didn't care that I was Titanium at all. I was really looking forward to the ranks getting even a LITTLE thinned out this year. Thank.s Bonvoy!!!
Pretty common knowledge that Marriott benefits in the USA are not as good as those abroad.