Guide to the Marriott Bonvoy program

Like most travel loyalty programs, Marriott Bonvoy lets people earn points and redeem them for hotel stays and other benefits. However, a significant value of the Bonvoy program can be found in its elite status tiers. Depending on how many nights you’ve stayed at Marriott properties, you can earn all sorts of perks including free breakfast, bonus point gifts, discounted rates and room upgrades.

Here’s how Marriott assigns elite status and what travelers receive at each level:

Member (awarded to those staying 0-9 nights per year)

• Free in-room internet access
• Member rates on hotel stays (in other words, Marriott wants you to book through their websites and apps, and not other travel sites)
• Mobile check-in and mobile key option (you can use the app to check in and out, and your smartphone can be your door key, which is… well, pretty cool).
• No blackout dates

Silver Elite (awarded to those staying 10-24 nights per year)

Includes Member benefits, plus:

• Earn 10% more bonus points on stays and eligible Marriott purchases
• Ultimate Reservation Guarantee which promises compensation or alternative accommodations if a reservation cannot be honored
• Receive priority late checkout
• Access to a dedicated elite reservation line

Gold Elite (awarded to those staying 25-49 nights per year)

Includes Member and Silver Elite benefits, plus:

• Earn 25% more bonus points on stays and eligible Marriott purchases
• Free enhanced in-room internet access
• 2:00 p.m. late checkout based upon availability
• Welcome gift of 250 or 500 bonus points (varies by brand) when you arrive for your stay
• Room upgrades based upon availability

Platinum Elite (awarded to those staying 50-74 nights per year)

Includes Member, Silver Elite and Gold Elite benefits, plus:

• Earn 50% more bonus points on stays and eligible Marriott purchases
• 4:00 p.m. late checkout
• Welcome gift of points, breakfast or other amenity – varies by brand
• Room upgrades including select suites, based upon availability
• Lounge access
• Guaranteed room type
• Annual gift from the following: five Suite Night Awards, give the gift of Silver Elite status, 40% off your favorite mattress, five Elite Night Credits, or a $100 charity donation

Titanium Elite (awarded to those staying 75-99 nights per year)

Includes Member, Silver Elite, Gold Elite and Platinum Elite benefits, plus:

• Earn 75% more bonus points on stays and eligible Marriott purchases that could be charged to your room, like dining or a spa visit
• Enhanced room upgrades
• Additional annual gift from the following: five Suite Night Awards™, give the gift of Silver Elite status, 40% off your favorite mattress, five Elite Night Credits, or a $100 charity donation
• 48-hour guaranteed room availability

Ambassador Elite (awarded to those staying 100+ nights per year and spending at least $20,000)

Includes Member, Silver Elite, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite and Titanium Elite benefits, plus:

• Ambassador Service offering personalized assistance with stays
• Your24 which offers travelers the flexibility to choose their 24-hour check-in and checkout time. In other words, if you check in at 9 p.m., and want to stay 24 hours and check out the next day at 9 p.m., you can do that.

There is also the option to earn lifetime elite status in the following ways:

• Lifetime Silver Elite – awarded after 250 lifetime nights + five years of Silver Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Gold Elite – awarded after 400 lifetime nights + seven years of Gold Elite status or higher
• Lifetime Platinum Elite – awarded after 600 lifetime stays + ten years of Platinum status or higher

There were eight hotel categories and redemption rates classified as Off-Peak, Peak or Standard. Since that no longer exists, there’s really no point in doing a deep explanation of what you used to get with Marriott Bonvoy.

Now, Marriott Bonvoy has something called Flexible Point Redemption Rates.

As Marriott Bonvoy’s website explains it, “This means the amount of Marriott Bonvoy Points needed to redeem a stay will be more flexible and more closely align with hotel rates – based on availability, seasonality, etc. If you’re traveling somewhere with a lot of availability, you can expect to use fewer Marriott Bonvoy Points. And if the destination you love is busier during your preferred dates, the redemption amount may increase.”

In other words, Marriott Bonvoy has switched to what’s known as dynamic pricing. That means when it’s a really popular time of year, and the location is really popular, you’re going to pay more.

Is that an improvement for the Marriott Bonvoy Program? Well, it depends on your point of view. If you’re staying somewhere really cool and amazing, like Hawaii, New York City or near the Grand Canyon, your points are not going to go as far, and that stinks. On the other hand, if you’re more of an “off- the-beaten-path-during-off-season” type of traveler, you’ll likely be using fewer points to get a free night, which means your points will go further, and that’s great.

Regardless, it does make it more challenging to predict how much you can redeem your points for, and so that’s a negative for the guest.

Travel websites typically peg the value of Marriott Bonvoy points around 0.7 cents to 1 cent apiece, depending on how they are redeemed. At Marriott properties, Bonvoy points can be redeemed in the following ways:

• Free nights: Basically, if you use the Marriott Bonvoy website or app, you’ll search for a hotel and find out how many points each night is worth. Some hotels may cost 66,000 points a night. Others might be more like 27,000 points. If you’re staying in New York City, expect those rooms to cost far more points than a room in a town just about anywhere else. But if you’re going to stay at a hotel for five or more nights, that’s when the value of these points become exciting because you’ll be able to redeem the points from those first four nights and get the fifth one for free.
• Cash + Points: This award option lets you pay less for hotel stays by using a combination of cash and Bonvoy points. If you like to stretch your points and not use them all up at once and pay cheaper hotel nights, this can be a helpful strategy.
• Instant redemption: While staying at a Marriott property, you can use your Bonvoy points to pay for meals, drinks, spa treatments and golf. The current rate for instant redemption is 250 points per dollar. So if you have 125,000 points stored up, you could redeem that for $500 worth of drinks and spa treatments.
• Room upgrades: At some properties, you can use points to upgrade to a bigger and better room at no out-of-pocket cost. Redemption requirements for this option vary.
• Flights or car rentals. Marriott Bonvoy points can also be used to book travel packages that include airfare and hotel accommodations. Expect to pay anywhere from 255,000 points for a seven night stay at a budget property to 750,000 points. Other travel redemptions include using points to rent cars, book airfare or schedule a cruise. Some of the best redemption value might come from transferring points to a partnering airline. Through RewardsPlus, Bonvoy members get a 10% bonus on points transferred to the United MileagePlus program.
• Shopping. Other redemption options include gift cards, merchandise and Marriott Moments. The latter allows Bonvoy members to use their points for exclusive experiences such as VIP access to concerts, meet and greets with celebrities and special entertainment packages.

Next up in this Marriott Bonvoy review is how to earn points. There are three main options:

• Stays at Marriott Bonvoy properties
• Travel with Marriott Bonvoy partners
• Purchases made with Marriott Bonvoy credit cards

At most properties, when you book a room, Bonvoy members will earn 10 points per dollar spent.

However, earnings drop to 5 base points per dollar at Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites and Element brand hotels. If you stay at Marriott Executive Apartments or ExecuStay, only 2.5 base points per dollar are awarded, and those points are only for the room rate and not for any additional purchases.

But, remember, you also get bonus points based on your elite status (i.e., silver, gold).

So let’s say that you’re a Titanium member, and you spend $200 for a night at a Ritz-Carlton (put aside the fact that you probably won’t find a night any Ritz-Carlton for $200). If you spent that much, you’d earn 2,000 base points ($200 multiplied by 10), but you’d also receive 1,000 bonus points (those 2,000 base points multiplied by 50%). Grand total, that adds up to 3,000 points.

“Holy cow,” you might think. “I’ve got 3,000 points. This is the happiest day of my life!”

Well, dial back your emotions a bit. Because you will then take those 3,000 points and consider how much they’re actually worth. If the points are worth 0.7 cents, and they may be worth a little less or a little more, like a penny, your 3,000 points will be worth $21. That’s not nothing, though. It’s maybe not as much of a reward as you’d like for doing all that math, but you can see how if you have a week or two-long vacation at a Marriott Bonvoy, where you’ll be staying at their properties for a week or two, compiling a slew of points a night, you could really clean up.

Points can also be earned through special promotions offered by Marriott Bonvoy or by booking travel through partners such Hertz. If you would rather earn miles instead of points, you can credit your stays toward the loyalty programs of more than 40 airline partners. Generally, three Marriott Bonvoy Points are converted into one frequent flyer mile, and it’s worth noting that you can transfer your Marriott Bonvoy Points into miles, but you can’t transfer miles into Marriott Bonvoy Points.

Using a Marriott Bonvoy credit card not only earns you points on purchases but can also come with perks such as complimentary elite status. But what credit score is a needed for a Marriott credit card? This is an important topic to cover before diving into card details.

Marriott credit cards require good or excellent credit. A good credit score is generally considered 670 or higher, so if your credit score falls in this range, you have a higher chance for approval. If your score falls below 670 though, you should hold off on applying until you can bring your score up. Keep in mind, too, that additional factors from your application and credit history could also be considered in the approval process.