Marriott was founded by J. Willard and Alice Marriott and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Since acquiring Starwood Group, Marriott is now the largest hotel group in the world with more than 6,000 hotels in 122 countries and territories. Today Marriott International’s portfolio of 30 exceptional hotel brands span the globe, offering colorful possibilities no matter what your travel style. So how do you get the best deal on a Marriott hotel? How do you become a Marriott member? What are the rules for Marriott hotel points? And many members are concerned about expiration of the points that have been accumulated with great efforts. How long is the validity period of Marriott points? Is there any way to extend the validity of points? If you also got these questions, take a look at this latest version of 2023 Marriott Hotel Points Guide before planning your Marriott hotel stay!
I. Basic Information of Marriott International Hotel
Marriott International, Inc. is the world’s premier international hotel management company, with more than 6,500 hotels and 30 brands in 130 countries and territories. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Marriott employs approximately 300,000 people. It reported revenues of more than $12 billion for fiscal year 2011. Marriott has also been recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the hospitality industry’s most admired companies and one of the best hotel groups to work for.
Marriott International Hotel Group Brands
Marriott Hotels & Resorts, J.W Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, Marriott Don Mansion Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites by Marriott, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Marriott Vacation Club, Ritz-Carlton and more!
Marriott’s Hotel Classification
All brands are categorized in three main dimensions:
Hotel Classification: Luxury, Premium, Select and Longer Stays;
Hotel Positioning: Classic and Distinctive;
Hotel function: Longer Stays and Non-Longer Stays.
In addition, Marriott has a special program called Marriott Homes & Villas, which partners with property companies around the world to distribute Marriott Homes & Villas through their platforms, and these residences are also subject to Marriott’s service standards and can be redeemed for and stayed in with Marriott points.
The minimum stay is 3 nights and members earn 5 Marriott points for every dollar spent.
Premium members get extra points depending on the membership level.
Stays at Home & Villa properties can be counted as qualifying stays to earn Premium Membership.
Guests can use Marriott points to redeem stays or use Marriott points to book activities.
II. Marriott loyalty program – Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott loyalty program, known as Marriott Bonvoy, is a program that accumulates points and valid Stay/Nights by staying at Marriott hotels. Accumulated points can be used to redeem rewards including free hotel stays, and valid Stay/Nights can help you become a premium member and enjoy more perks, including extra points, room upgrades, and other benefits. Benefits. Similar to most hotel chain programs, one stay (1 to many consecutive nights in the same hotel counts as one Stay, repeated Checkout and Checkin will not count as multiple stays).
What’s included
All 30 Marriott hotel brands except Bulgari are included in the Marriott Bonvoy Program.
Membership Benefits Overview
Marriott has more than 6,700 hotels in 129 countries and territories. Whether you’re traveling on business or with the whole family, Marriott hotels are in every major city. By joining Marriott Bonvoy, you can enjoy priority late checkout, guaranteed room reservations, in-hotel welcome gifts, and more.
Marriott Bonvoy Membership Tiers
Member: 0-9 nights per year
Silver Elite: 10 nights per year
Gold Elite: 25 nights per year
Platinum Elite: 50 nights per year
Titianum Elite: 75+ nights per year
Ambassador Elite: 100 nights/year + $20,000 in qualifying spend
Marriott Bonvoy lifetime elite status
Marriott Bonvoy has a pretty robust lifetime status program, in the sense that you can earn either lifetime Silver, Gold, or Platinum status.
Below are the qualification requirements for each status, which is based on a combination of a certain number of elite nights plus a certain number of years of elite status.
Lifetime Marriott Silver status: 250 lifetime elite nights+Five years of elite status
Lifetime Marriott Gold status: 400 lifetime elite nights+Seven years of Gold or above elite status
Lifetime Marriott Platinum status: 600 lifetime elite nights+Ten years of Platinum elite status
Lifetime Marriott Titanium status: 750 lifetime elite nights+Ten years of Platinum elite status
Marriott Bonvoy Elite Benefits
III. Marriott Hotel Points Tips
How to earn Marriott Hotel Points
- Stay at hotels
You can earn points every time you make qualified spendings in a hotel. In most of the Marriott hotels, you can earn 10 Marriott points for every $1 spent. For long-term stays such as Residence Inn, Towneplace Suites, or Element, you can only earn 5 Marriott points per dollar spent. For Marriott Executive Apartments or Execustay (Oakwood’s apartment brand), you only get 2.5 Marriott points per dollar spent.
On top of the base points, you earn points plus bonus points by tier:
Member: none
Silver: 10%
Gold: 25%
Platinum: 50%
Titanium & Ambassador: 75%
- Promotions
Each year, Marriott will make 3-4 promotions: Generally, extra points will be given for staying in the hotel, and the more you stay in the hotel, the more points you will get, and you can get one or two thousand points for one night, which is suitable for those who are planning to travel. - Co-branded credit card spending to get points
To obtain points through co-branded credit card spending is also a very fast way. You basically get 6 points for $1 spent at Marriott hotels, 3-4 points for dining and traveling, and 2 points for other things. - Credit card transfer points
Credit card points transfer is also a way to get Marriott points. For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards & Amex Membership Rewards points can be directly converted to Marriott with 1:1 ratio, and basically it will arrive soon.
Besides UR/MR transfer, Marriott also allows you to transfer points between different accounts, with a limit of 100K points for outgoing and 500K points for incoming per account per year, and you don’t need to have the same address to do so. The system will automatically block your new transfer request after exceeding the limit. You need to call customer service to complete the transfer between accounts.
- Earn bonus points with promotions
Marriott promotions can be the best way to quickly boost your account balances and unlock some outstanding awards.You can see your eligible promotions by heading to Marriott’s promotion page and signing in to your account. You should see all public and targeted offers on this page. Enroll in promotions by clicking the “Register” button located to the right of the promotion’s name - Best Rate Guarantee
When you apply for the BRG, you can choose either a rate of -25% or an additional 5,000 points. If the rate is cheap enough, 5,000 points is a good deal. If you are a BRG player, you can get a large amount of points while completing the just-needed stay through BRG! - Reward a Friend, Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points
When you tell your friends about the Marriott Bonvoy program and they stay at a Marriott property, you’ll earn Marriott Bonvoy points. Be sure to have your friend sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy program before staying.
Here’s how the Reward a Friend program works:
Send invitations to your friends.
They receive 2,000 points per stay, up to 10,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
You receive 2,000 points for each time they stay, up to 10,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a maximum of 5 referrals per year. That’s 50,000 extra Marriott Bonvoy points!
- Other Point Earning Ways
Event Points: Participate in 100,000+ events to earn points and receive discounts on vacation packages around the world.
Car Rental Points: Earn up to 2,000 points when you rent a car from Hertz with special offers.
Cruise Points: Earn 3 points per dollar spent on trips with Marriott’s exclusive partner Cruise with Points.
How to use Marriott Hotel Point
- Redeem points for hotels
Redeem points for free nights at more than 7,000 hotels and resorts around the world. Typically Marriott points are valued at 0.8cents/point.
Marriott has a fifth night free policy for awards, or more accurately, it’s now 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.
Some hotels will participate in PointSavers for less than normal points redemptions, saving up to 30%. As you can see the lower the CAT, the better the deal.
- “Cash + Points” Redemption
Marriott has a Cash & Points program, whereby (as the name suggests) you can redeem part cash and part points toward a hotel stay. If you are short on points, this will be a good option.
How do I book a Marriott hotel with Cash + Points?
Check “Use points/certificates” in the hotel search box and select “Find Hotels”.
Click on “View Rates” for the hotel of your choice.
If “Cash + Points” is available, you’ll see it listed as an option.
Book with “Cash + Points”.
- Transfer to airline miles
As a bonus, Marriott will add 5,000 airline miles for every 60,000 points converted to airline miles in the frequent flyer program. Specific information is below:
Most programs have a 3:1 points-to-miles conversion ratio.
More than 40 airlines participating
Convert 3,000 to 240,000 points per day
Most airlines require that the member’s first name in the Frequent Flyer Program account matches the first and last name in your Marriott Bonvoy account.
- Redeem Hotel + Air Packages
Marriott has a partnership with United called Rewards Plus which offers a 10% bonus on all miles transferred:
Redemptions made under this chart will receive 55,000 United Miles for the small and 110,000 Miles for the large package.
For all other airlines there is the regular chart:
- Points sharing (transfer points)
To transfer points, you must have 1,000 points or more, with a maximum of 100,000 points per year. That is to say, you can transfer up to 100,000 points from one account to another account every year. An account can accept 500,000 points per year. What do you see here? If you really need a lot of points, you can create a few accounts to buy them and then transfer them to your main account with a premium membership. Just call Marriott customer service, It doesn’t matter if it’s the same address, you can transfer them.
Reminder: do not buy points from sources unknown to you, which may cause your account being blocked.
- Auction with points.
This is a relatively not so popular way of using points, which is suitable for those who have a large amount of points, Rewards Moment is originally an activity of SPG, which was inherited by Marriott after its acquisition, and it simply means that you can redeem points or bid for some activities, which mainly include the following four categories: food and beverage, life, sports, and entertainment. You can often find some interesting activities here, but the price is often that you need to pay a lot of points to successfully win your favorite activities.
- Redeem points for merchandise and gift cards
You can also redeem your Marriott points for gift cards and merchandise through their shopping portal for popular retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Nordstrom, or purchase merchandise in various categories like entertainment, apparel and dining.
How to Get and Use Marriott Free Rewards Certificate
- How to get Free Rewards Certificate
There are several ways to get Marriott Free Rewards Certificate
New members can get a free room for 2 paid nights
75 Nights Choice Benefits with Titanium Elite Status
(1) Stay 2 Get 1 Free for New Members
New members who sign up through the Stay 2 Get 1 Free link will receive a 25k free room certificate for completing 2 paid nights stay
(2) 75N Choice Benefit
A 40k free room certificate is awarded for 75 nights per year.
2.Recommendations on the use of Free Rewards Certificate
According to the points limit of the Free Rewards Certificate, you can find very good hotels in your country. Therefore, it is also a very practical way to save money by registering new numbers for your family and friends to get some free certificates.