Marriott Bonvoy Rewards: How To Redeem Points For The Best Value

I write a lot about the value of hotel loyalty programs, and in this post, I’d like to specifically look at the best ways to go about redeeming points issued by Marriott Bonvoy, and share how I typically go about redeeming my points to maximize value. Separately, I’ve written guides to redeeming Hilton Honors points and World of Hyatt points.

Basics of redeeming Marriott points

Let’s start by talking about the basics of redeeming Marriott points — how much should you expect to pay for free nights, are there blackout dates, how much are Marriott points worth, etc.?

I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each

Personally, I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each. There’s no science to that, but rather, I think that’s a fair, conservative valuation for what the points are worth. In other words, I won’t redeem my Bonvoy points unless I can get well over 0.7 cents of value per point. This also accounts for the ability to convert Bonvoy points into airline miles at a fair ratio.

It’s important to come up with a points valuation for yourself (it can be different than mine), so that you can decide whether to pay cash or redeem points for a hotel stay.

Marriott Bonvoy has dynamic award pricing

Nowadays Marriott Bonvoy no longer has an award chart, but rather has dynamic award pricing. That means that the number of points required for a free night stay can vary based on how much a stay would cost in cash, and there’s no longer a minimum or maximum number of points that a free night reward will cost.

Unfortunately we’ve seen an absolutely massive amount of inflation at the top end of properties. Going back several years, stays were capped at 100,000 Bonvoy points per night, while now you’ll find some top properties going for over 200,000 Bonvoy points per night. This inflation is one of the things that makes hotel loyalty programs much less worthwhile, in my opinion.

Marriott Bonvoy award blackout dates policy

Every hotel loyalty program has a different policy when it comes to blackout dates. Generally speaking, hotel loyalty programs let you redeem points for a stay as long as a standard room is available for sale. Unfortunately in the case of Marriott Bonvoy, there is a limited blackout dates policy.

What does that mean? Marriott Bonvoy doesn’t have blackout dates, but there are some capacity controls at times. On most days, most Marriott properties will make all standard rooms available for awards, though on a limited number of days, hotels can limit the number of standard rooms available for awards.

In other words, it’s possible that a hotel could have standard rooms available for sale if paying cash, but not with points. That should be the exception rather than the norm, though. The bigger question is how many rooms are actually categorized as being “standard,” but that’s a whole different story.

Marriott Bonvoy offers a fifth night free on awards

If you want to maximize your Bonvoy points, I recommend redeeming for hotel stays in five night increments. Marriott has a fifth night free policy for awards, or more accurately, it’s called “Stay for 5, Pay for 4.”

When you redeem points for five consecutive nights at a property, you’ll only be charged the points for four nights. The cheapest of the five nights won’t be charged. You can use this back-to-back for multiple stays, so if you stay 10 nights, you could get two nights free.

Bonvoy points can be converted into airline miles

One cool thing about Marriott Bonvoy is that points can efficiently be converted into airline miles. Marriott Bonvoy has around three dozen airline partners, and points transfer at a 3:1 ratio. With most partners, you get a bonus of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points you transfer, meaning that 60,000 Bonvoy points will typically get you 25,000 airline miles.

While this isn’t how I’d personally generally prefer to use my points, it’s not a bad use of points if you’re struggling to get good value with them otherwise.

Marriott Cash & Points usually isn’t a great value

Marriott has a Cash & Points program, whereby (as the name suggests) you can redeem part cash and part points toward a hotel stay. This comes with significantly more capacity controls than standard free night award redemptions, so it won’t always be available. Also note that the cash component paid doesn’t accrue points, so it’s not as rewarding as regular Marriott spending.

To see if Cash & Points is available, just search for regular free night award availability, and if it’s available, you’ll see it listed as an option. You can crunch the numbers with each redemption, but more often than not, I find that this doesn’t represent a great value.

Essentially you’ll typically find that Cash & Points is sometimes a good deal compared to outright redeeming points, though often redeeming points at these hotels isn’t a good deal to begin with, since the revenue rates are typically low. Why? Cash & Points is capacity controlled, and typically only available when the hotel isn’t forecasted to be full, so those are also situations where cash rates might not be that high.

That’s because the way hotels are reimbursed works differently for these rates, and hotels only offer Cash & Points if they want to, which they wouldn’t want to do if they anticipate being full.

The Marriott Bonvoy award calendar is useful

I find Marriott Bonvoy’s calendar feature to be incredibly useful for deciding when it’s a good deal to redeem points. When you search a destination, just select the “Flexible Dates” tab, and then you can choose the month where you want to search availability.

You’ll then see award pricing for an entire month at a time, which is an easy way to see when you can get the best deal.

You can then also switch between the award calendar and the pricing calendar, to see when you’re going to get the best value.

For example, in the case of the hotel I was searching, it’s interesting how on August 30, the rate is either 1,378 EUR or 131,500 Bonvoy points, while on October 1, the rate is either 618 EUR or 125,500 Bonvoy points. Obviously the former is a much better value redemption than the latter.

Earn Marriott Bonvoy elite status to get more value

When you do redeem points, you’ll of course want to get as much value on-property as possible. That’s where having elite status really helps, especially if you can earn Bonvoy Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite, or Ambassador Elite status. This is where benefits really start to get valuable, in terms of getting suite upgrades, receiving complimentary breakfast, and having access to Choice Benefits.

Keep in mind that Marriott Bonvoy status is pretty easy to earn in the United States with credit cards. For example, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) offers Platinum Elite status for as long as you have the card, along with a slew of other perks.

On top of that, you can easily earn up to 40 elite nights per year just for having two co-branded Marriott credit cards, including the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review) and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review). Those elite nights can help you qualify for Bonvoy Choice Benefits, including Nightly Upgrade Awards.

Pool Bonvoy points to maximize value

While not as generous as the policies of Hilton Honors or World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy does let you pool points between accounts. You can do this with any other member, though you’re limited to transferring up to 100,000 points per calendar year, and you can receive up to 500,000 points per calendar year.

The best ways to maximize Marriott points

With the basics of redeeming Bonvoy points out of the way, how do you get the most value from your points? Unfortunately this isn’t nearly as straightforward as it used to be. Back in the day when Marriott had a published award chart, it was easy to extract outsized value by redeeming at hotels during peak periods.

That isn’t so simple anymore, with Marriott having dynamic award pricing. Not only that, but I’ve found that peak period pricing at top properties has increased massively in the past couple of years.

Now, I continue to redeem my Bonvoy points for free night redemptions in standard rooms, ideally for five nights (so one night is free). There’s no longer a consistent sweet spot in the way that there was before, but rather I’m finding some value with Bonvoy points for all kinds of redemptions.

Here’s how I generally think about it:

• The most luxurious hotels during the highest demand periods generally still typically represent a great use of points, at least compared to the cash cost, assuming you value the stays as high as the rates that Marriott is charging
• Beyond that, you’ll often find the best value using points in markets during quieter periods, where the cash rates don’t shift hugely by season; this comes down to the economics of Marriott Bonvoy, as the program pays a lot less when members redeem points at properties that aren’t close to being full

Let me use the St. Regis Aspen as an example, as this is a popular ski resort. In the peak of winter, I can find a five night award stay for 598,000 Bonvoy points (including one free night), which comes out to an average of 119,600 Bonvoy points per night (which I value at ~$837).

The cash rate, meanwhile, would be $2,200 per night. Suffice it to say that redeeming points is quite a good value.

Another aspirational destination is the Maldives, so let’s also use the Ritz-Carlton Maldives as an example. During the busiest time of year (near festive) I can find a five night award stay for 880,000 Bonvoy points (including one free night), which comes out to an average of 176,000 Bonvoy points per night (which I value at ~$1,232).

The cash rate, meanwhile, would be over $6,400 per night, so that’s an amazing use of points, in terms of the value per point.

Even with Marriott Bonvoy no longer having a cap on how much redemptions can cost, I’m still finding the most value when redeeming at luxury properties. As I see it, there are two main issues with extracting value from Bonvoy points for luxury properties:

• The great value is in comparison to the outrageously high cash costs, and I know many people (including me) wouldn’t ordinarily pay these very high costs for these hotels; so whether you choose to value redemptions that high is up to you
• Unlike programs like World of Hyatt, there are limited ways to efficiently rack up Bonvoy points, and at some point, one has to wonder how realistic these redemptions costing 500K+ points are on the earnings side

Bottom line

Marriott Bonvoy is a popular hotel loyalty program, which I’ve been participating in for well over 15 years. While the program isn’t nearly as useful as back in the day (especially compared to Starwood Preferred Guest), there’s still value to be had.

Nowadays Marriott Bonvoy has dynamic award pricing, so there’s no longer an award chart, and no maximum to how much an award redemption could cost. Even so, I continue to find the most value with Marriott Bonvoy to be booking luxury hotels in standard rooms for periods of five nights, especially hotels that would otherwise retail for $1,500+ per night.

What has your experience been with redeeming Bonvoy points?