Marriott Bonvoy is the loyalty program of Marriott International, the largest hotel chain in the world. It came about as a result of the Marriott–Starwood merger of 2016, which eventually witnessed the legacy programs of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest combining into a singular program in August 2018 and taking on the Marriott Bonvoy name in February 2019.
Marriott’s vast international footprint, composed of over 8,500 properties, means that there’s something in the Bonvoy program to cater to every type of traveller out there, whether you’re looking for luxury resorts or roadside inns.
And for North American travellers, it’s is one of the easiest and most accessible hotel loyalty programs for obtaining free hotel stays and taking advantage of elite perks and benefits. Let’s take a closer look at how you can get the most out of Marriott Bonvoy.
Earning Marriott Bonvoy Points
Fortunately, there are many ways to accumulate Marriott Bonvoy points in Canada and the United States.
Canadian Credit Cards
The easiest way to rack up a large number of points is through welcome bonuses and daily spending on co-branded credit cards.In Canada, there are two co-branded credit cards: the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. Both cards come with similar welcome bonuses of up to 80,000–90,000 points at best, while the base offer is typically for around 50,000 points.Both cards also offer the following benefits:15 elite qualifying nights per calendar year
An anniversary Free Night Award worth 35,000 points
Gold Elite status when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year
The return on daily spending on these cards will also earn Bonvoy points. The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card earns:
5 Bonvoy points per dollar spent at Marriott hotels
2 Bonvoy points per dollar spent on all other purchases
Meanwhile, the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card earns:
5 Bonvoy points per dollar spent at Marriott hotels
3 Bonvoy points per dollar spent on gas, dining, and travel purchases
2 Bonvoy points per dollar spent on all other purchases
Transferring from American Express Membership Rewards
Another way to earn points via Canadian credit cards is to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points over to Marriott Bonvoy at a ratio 1:1.2. In other words, for every 1,000 American Express MR points, you'll get 1,200 Marriott Bonvoy points.
Since the welcome bonuses on the Amex MR credit cards tend to be much larger than those on the Bonvoy credit cards, this represents a good way to supercharge your Bonvoy earnings. However, there are also more valuable potential uses of Amex MR points out there (such as transferring to airline frequent flyer programs), so that’s the tradeoff you'll need to consider.
US Credit Cards
By diversifying into US credit cards, you can gain access to an even wider pool of Bonvoy bonuses. The cards you can potentially apply for include the following:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card
- Generous welcome bonuses
- Free Night Award worth up to 85,000 points
- Instant Platinum Elite status
- Earn 6 points per US dollar spent at Marriott properties
- Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express Card
- Generous welcome bonuses
- Earn 6 points per US dollar spent at Marriott properties
- Earn a Free Night Award upon spending $15,000 year year
Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card
- Moderate welcome bonus
- Earn 6 points per US dollar spent at Marriott properties
- Earn a Free Night Award each year worth 35,000 points
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
- Generous welcome bonus
- Earn 6 points per dollar spent at Marriott properties
- Free Night Award worth 50,000 points every year
- Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card
- Moderate welcome bonus
- Earn 6 points per US dollar spent at Marriott properties
- Earn a Free Night Award every year upon spending $15,000 (USD)
- Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card
- Moderate welcome bonus
- Earn 3 points per dollar spent at Marriott properties
- No annual fee
The Amex US cards in particular are easy for Canadians to obtain by way of initiating an American Express Global Transfer, as long as you have a Canadian Amex card that’s been open and in good standing for at least three months.
It's worth noting that there's also the Marriott Bonvoy Bold American Express Card, which can only be obtained by downgrading from the other Amex cards, as well as the Chase Ritz-Carlton Card, which you can only upgrade to after having another Chase-issued card for more than a year.Staying at Hotels
Outside of credit cards, the primary way to earn points is through spending at Marriott hotels (room rates, dining, on-property incidentals, etc.). The amount of points you’ll earn depends on your elite status with Marriott (we’ll cover this below).
Base-level members will earn 10 Bonvoy points per US dollar spent at Marriott properties, unless they’re staying at Element, Residence Inn, or TownePlace Suites, where the earning rate is only 5 Bonvoy points per US dollar spent.
From that baseline, Silver Elite members will earn a 10% points bonus (11 points per US dollar spent), Gold Elite members will earn a 25% points bonus (12.5 points per US dollar spent), Platinum Elite members will earn a 50% points bonus (15 points per US dollar spent), and Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite members will earn a 75% points bonus (17.5 points per US dollar spent).
In order to maximize your earning potential, be sure to combine your elite status with the best possible earning rate on a credit card, as you’ll be getting the most out of the money you’re spending at hotels.Promotions
Marriott regularly runs promotions to incentivize member activity. The rules for each promotion are different, but usually you’ll earn a solid chunk of promotional points (think 1,000 to 10,000 points) based on your stay activity with Marriott.
Promotions are rarely generous enough to go out of your way and plan stays just for the sake of them (a practice known as “mattress running”), but they’re usually worth keeping an eye on and seeing if you can plan some of your upcoming travel around them.
Host an event at a Marriott hotel
You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by hosting an event at a Marriott hotel. Examples of events can include meetings, weddings, conferences or any other type of happening.To begin, you’ll earn 2 points per US dollar spent on rooms, food, drinks, and other charges. If you happen to also have elite status, you’ll earn the corresponding bonus on these charges, too.Additionally, you can earn one elite qualifying night per 20 room nights booked when you host an event. This really only applies to large-scale events; however, it could get you closer to the next status tier, or to qualifying for lifetime elite status.Redeeming Marriott Bonvoy Points for Hotel Stays
Naturally, as a hotel loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy points are generally best used towards free nights at one of the program’s 8,500+ participating properties worldwide.
All Marriott hotels are priced dynamically, depending on the season, and even the day of the week. That being said, there are some general ranges you can expect hotels to price at:
Low-end hotels: 5,000 points – 15,000 points per nightMid-tier hotels: 20,000 points – 60,000 points per nightHigh-end hotels: 70,000+ points per nightKeep in mind that the "tier" the hotel falls into is also highly dependent on the market it's in, so you can expect the Fairfield Inn and Suites near Disneyland, California to price at mid-tier levels even though it's a limited-service brand.“No Blackout Dates"
Marriott has a “No Blackout Dates” policy, which means that as long as a hotel has a standard room available on a certain date, then it can be booked using either cash or points. In other words, hotels can’t control points inventory separately from cash bookings – if a standard room is available, then either form of currency must be accepted for it.
This policy works decently well, and means that you generally won’t have too much trouble finding availability for points bookings on your travel dates.
However, keep in mind that each hotel is free to determine what they consider a “standard room”, so once all of its standard rooms are booked up, then any higher-tier room (such as a Deluxe Room, Executive Room, junior suite, and full suites) may be capacity-controlled when it comes to points bookings.
Stay 5, Pay for 4
When you redeem points for five consecutive nights at the same hotel, you can make use of the Fifth Night Free benefit and only pay for four nights. With dynamic pricing, this is less of a "Fifth Night Free" and more of "Cheapest night free when you stay for at least five".
When booking a stay of at least five nights, the cheapest night will be free; when booking for ten nights, the cheapest two will be free, etc.
Along this logic, it may make sense to break longer stays into increments of five nights to increase the value of your free night.
For example, if the cost in points for a five-night stay is 50,000 points per night, you'd only pay 200,000 points for the entirety of the stay with the Fifth Night Free benefit.Cash + Points
There's also a Cash + Points redemption option, which highly depends on each property and what they choose to offer, and it also won't be available at every hotel. Sometimes, you'll be allowed to use Cash + Points for the base room, while other times, it'll be for premium rooms (i.e. a cash upgrade supplement to an overwater villa).
Generally, Cash + Points makes sense in two circumstances: when you don’t have enough points to pay for the full points redemption, and when the cash rate is disproportionately high.
Say you’re looking to stay somewhere on New Year’s Eve, or when there’s a major conference or sporting event in town. In these circumstances, redeeming points for the room will be a great deal, but if you don’t have enough points to do so, then Cash + Points represents a way to capture some of that value and save yourself a chunk of change.
However, note that just because a room is available to be booked on points, doesn’t mean that it’s available at the Cash + Points rate. In fact, Cash + Points availability tends to be rather scarce, so the occasions on which you’ll be able to make use of it will be rather limited.
Transferring Marriott Bonvoy Points to Airlines
Besides redeeming Bonvoy points for hotel stays, the other valuable way to use points is to transfer them to one of 40+ airline frequent flyer programs, such as Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, and more.
The full list of participating programs can be found on the Marriott website. Basically, if it’s a major frequent flyer program with potential sweet spots, then you’ll likely be able to transfer Marriott Bonvoy points over in order to earn miles with the program.
The transfer ratio is 3:1 for most programs, and Marriott will also give you a bonus of 5,000 airline miles when you transfer in chunks of 60,000 Bonvoy points. This means that the optimal strategy is to transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points into 25,000 airline miles.
The exceptions to the 3:1 ratio are Air New Zealand AirPoints (200:1), JetBlue TrueBlue (6:1), and United MileagePlus (60,000 Bonvoy points = 30,000 United MileagePlus miles).
Additionally, American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, Korean Air SKYPASS, and Delta SkyMiles are all excluded from the bonus of 5,000 miles when transferring 60,000 Bonvoy points.Depending on the program, transfers typically take at least three business days to complete, so you’ll want to leave enough buffer time if you’re planning to book an award flight using your airline miles. Additionally, the name and address should match between your Bonvoy account and your airline account, in order to prevent delays in the process.
Transferring points from Marriott Bonvoy represents the easiest way that Canadians can earn miles in “hard-to-reach” programs like Korean Air SKYPASS, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. They can also be a great way to top-up your earnings in programs like Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or American Airlines AAdvantage if you’re chasing a big flight redemption.
Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status
Elite status plays a significant role in the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program, as the perks and benefits you receive as an elite member go a long way to making your stays at Marriott hotels more enjoyable.
Qualifying for each tier of elite status is based on earning elite qualifying nights. Every night you stay at a Marriott hotel (whether paid with cash or points) will earn you one elite qualifying night. The status levels are as follows:
Status levels are granted based on how many nights you stay during a calendar year. Unlike other loyalty programs, there are no separate qualification criteria for “stays” vs. nights.
Once you earn a certain status level, it's valid until the February two years later. Essentially, the status begins when you earn the required number of nights during a calendar year, and is valid until 14 months after the end of that calendar year.
For example, let’s say you earn Platinum Elite status in 2023 by staying 50 nights during the year. Then you’d enjoy your Platinum status benefits until February 2025. Once January 2024 rolls around, a new qualification period has started, meaning that you’d need to achieve 50 nights in 2024 to renew your Platinum status for the subsequent year. Doing so would extend your status validity until February 2026, and so on.
A detailed listing of all the elite benefits can be found in our guide to Marriott Bonvoy Elite status. Essentially, Silver Elite status delivers minimal benefits, given how easy it is to earn simply by holding a co-branded credit card. Gold Elite benefits are also not too exciting, with the 2pm late checkout (based on availability, not guaranteed) being the most appealing one.
It’s really at Platinum Elite that the real benefits start to kick in: lounge access, free breakfast, suite upgrades, 4pm late checkout, etc. You achieve Platinum Elite status at 50 elite qualifying nights, although there are a few creative ways to help you reach that threshold.
By far the easiest way is to be a cardholder of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card. By simply keeping the card active and paying the annual fee of $650 (USD), you'll enjoy Platinum status year after year without having to hustle for it.If that annual fee sounds a bit hefty, consider how much you'd need to spend at hotels to earn 50 elite qualifying nights.In the event that you don't have access to US credit cards, then you can also finesse your way to Platinum with co-branded credit cards in Canada.For example, you’ll already earn 15 qualifying nights from holding one of the Bonvoy credit cards here in Canada or if you're in the US game, you can hold both of their Business and Personal Bonvoy credit cards to earn a total of 30 elite nights. Then, you just need to stay 20 more nights with Marriott in order to secure Platinum status.
It's worth noting that the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card gives you 25 qualifying nights, which can be stacked with the 15 from the American Express US Marriott Bonvoy Business Card. However, since you'll already have Platinum status, this is only helpful for moving up to Titanium status, which requires 75 nights per year.Unfortunately, having one Canadian and one US card doesn't mean that you'll wind up with 30 nights.One of the additional perks of Platinum Elite status is an Annual Choice Benefit of one of the following:
Five extra elite qualifying nights
Give the gift of Silver Elite status to another member
40% off your favourite hotel mattress
$100 (USD) charity donation
Of these, the clear winner is the Nightly Upgrade Awards, which allow you to guarantee a suite upgrade (availability permitting) up to three days prior to your arrival at a property, rather than seeing if a suite is available upon check-in.
Titanium Elite is achieved at 75 qualifying nights, although at the moment doesn’t deliver too many benefits over and above Platinum Elite, with the exception of another Annual Choice Benefit.
The choices are largely the same as those for Platinum elite, with the exception of a Free Night Award worth 40,000 points.Lastly, Ambassador Elite is achieved at 100 qualifying nights and $20,000 (USD) of annual spend. At this level, you get assigned a personal Ambassador who can help you with all your Marriott booking needs. Unless you’re a heavy spender with Marriott, this elite level will be pretty out of reach for most, and doesn't provide many incrementally greater benefits above and beyond Platinum or Titanium.