How to Redeem Marriott Bonvoy Points

Bonvoy points are fairly easy to earn via both credit cards and hotel stays, but using them to book travel can get complicated and overwhelming in a hurry. Should you use your points to book hotel stays? Or use one of Marriott’s other options? And what counts as a “good redemption” for Marriott points?

We’ll explain everything below, but here are the main takeaways:

• When in doubt, use Marriott points to book hotel nights, preferably for five consecutive nights because the fifth night is free when booking a four night award stay.

• Try to get at least 0.9 cent per point in value from your redemption — that’s our current value for Bonvoy points.

• Don’t transfer your points or use them to shop for stuff, unless you have a particularly great redemption lined up. The value you’ll get from your points in these instances will likely be below the true potential value of the points.

» Learn more: Marriott Bonvoy program: The complete guide

Stay at Marriott hotels

Obviously, you can redeem your points for hotel stays. This is the simplest option and, for most travelers, the one that offers the best value. However, in order to get more out of your points, there are a few tips that you need to keep in mind:

Understand Marriott peak and off-peak pricing

All of the hotels in the Marriott portfolio are assigned a category. The higher the category, the more points your stay will require. On top of that, each property has peak and off-peak pricing. If it’s a busy time for the hotel, expect to redeem more points. If it’s the off-season for that property, you can expect to pay less.

Rooms start at 5,000 points per night for an off-peak Category 1 hotel and go as high as 100,000 points for a peak award at a Category 8 hotel.

Keep in mind that “peak” and “off-peak” does not necessarily map onto specific seasons throughout the year, but can apply to high-demand dates including weekends and specific holidays.

Marriott does not make it easy to tell when you’re looking at an off-peak or peak price. You’ll have to do a little homework, comparing the award chart to the number of points needed:

For example, the Courtyard Pittsburgh Downtown is a Category 5 property and the weekend rate displayed is 35,000, so we can deduce that it is a “standard” rate.

Just because a hotel is in a lower category doesn’t mean it’s bad. For example, you can stay at a number of great Category 1 and 2 Protea hotels in Africa. A favorite hotel among travelers includes the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate, located at the entrance to Kruger National Park. This Category 2 property starts at 10,000 points per night.

On the flip side, some budget brands like Courtyard Marriott in Seattle and Portland clock in at 30,000 points per night or more.

In general, award categories reflect the normal cash prices for these rooms, but you can maximize your points by targeting locations and dates when these diverge, as we explain below.

» Learn more: Do Marriott points expire?

How to get the most value from Marriott hotel bookings

Since award prices are relatively stable and cash prices can fluctuate greatly depending on demand, the trick is to find redemption dates when cash prices are high. For example, if you’re visiting a city during a busy time like a convention, cash prices will likely be high. That’s a perfect time to check for award availability.

If you’re not sure whether the redemption you’re considering offers good value, use this calculator:

If the value of the points needed to book the room is lower than the cash booking cost, you’re getting good value.

» Learn more: How to book award nights using Marriott Bonvoy points

Redeem points for five consecutive nights because the fifth night is free

When you book a five-night award stay with your Marriott points, you’ll get the fifth night free. This applies across all Marriott hotels, for both peak and off-peak dates. This means that the cheapest night (in points) at the hotel out of the five nights will be free. This benefit offers a strong incentive to target these longer redemptions.

The reduced redemption rates show up automatically when you book online, so you don’t have to worry about any rebates or coupon codes. The Marriott site will display a small reminder on the booking screen so you know you’re getting the free night:

Of course, accumulating enough points to book a five-night stay at a luxury property can be challenging, so the flip side of this strategy is to target longer bookings at lower award category hotels. That is, booking a five-night stay at a Category 1 property might offer better value than a one-night stay at a Category 7.

» Learn more: 10 great ways to use 50,000 Bonvoy points

Transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to dozens of airlines (maybe)

Unlike most hotel reward programs, Marriott Bonvoy lets you transfer points to more40 airline programs. While this might be an okay option if you desperately need airline miles (and have no plans to stay in a Marriott anytime soon), most people should skip this redemption.

Most points transfer at a three-to-one ratio, meaning three Bonvoy points are converted to one airline mile. That's some serious devaluation of your points, should you go this route.

Given that Marriott points are worth about 0.9 cent each, it’s hard to find examples where transferring them in this way makes any sense, financially.

Unless you are an adept travel maximizer with a specific air award redemption in your sights, avoid this option.

Book Hotel + Air packages

Planning on staying seven days or more in the same location? An often underutilized feature of the Marriott Bonvoy program is the Hotel + Air packages. These packages start at 255,000 points and include a seven-night hotel stay and either 50,000 or 100,000 airline miles in the program of your choosing.

With dozens of partners to choose from, redeeming points for one of these packages should be a breeze. Some partners you may know of include American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest and Delta Air Lines. Lesser-known partners include JAL Mileage Bank, Asiana Club, Avianca LifeMiles and Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.

If you fly on United Airlines, you can take advantage of the United and Marriott partnership called RewardsPlus. When you redeem your points for the United package, you’ll get 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points transferred from Marriott to United.

Use Points Advance

See a good deal and want to snag the price but don’t have enough points in your account? Marriott will let you make a reservation in advance without having the required points in your account.

Under the Points Advance program, you can snag that sought-after room — as long as you’ve got the points in your account 14 days before arrival, you’re good to go. Marriott will, for all intents and purposes, trust that you’re going to earn the points before you get there. If you don’t have the points needed and complete the reservation before that time frame, the room will be canceled.

There is one caveat that is important to mention in regards to Points Advance bookings: Many luxury hotels have restrictive cancellation policies that are earlier than the 14 days imposed by Points Advance. For example, the Al Maha Desert Resort in Dubai has a penalty-free cancellation policy of 30 days before arrival. Make sure you know the rules for each property you’re booking.

Purchase Marriott Bonvoy Moments

Want to head to the Super Bowl? How about a concert from the luxury box in Madison Square Garden? Or what about a money-can't-buy experience, like the chance to choreograph a custom Bellagio fountain show?

With Marriott Bonvoy Moments, you can use your points to bid on experiences that may otherwise be unattainable.

Many of these Moments are sold auction style, so it's impossible to predict what they'll sell for (and thus whether they're a good deal).

But in the case of the Bellagio fountain show, that Moment went for 2.4 million Bonvoys. That particular, one-of-a-kind experience entailed meals and hotel room nights both in Los Angeles (where the winner headed to actually choreograph the show) and in Las Vegas (to get a tour of the technical show room and see the fountain show's debut). It sold for 2.4 million Marriott Bonvoy points, which NerdWallet values at about $21,600.

We'll let you decide whether that was a great Bonvoy redemption or not.

» Learn more: What is the Marriott Bonvoy Moments program?

Shopping

You can use your Bonvoy points to buy stuff through a shopping portal, but it’s usually not a good idea.

There is no set cent-per-point value for Bonvoy points used in this way, so you’ll have to compare the cash price for each item manually, and the value will almost certainly be lower than our 0.9 cent value. That is: Using Bonvoy points to shop is a rip-off, but is an option if you desperately need to burn through them.

The Marriott Bonvoy program is one of the largest hotel rewards programs in the world, and deciding how to redeem points can feel like a huge challenge. Our recommendation is to keep it simple: Use Bonvoy points to book Marriott hotels, and try to get above-average value by using points instead of cash during particularly high-demand dates.

Hotel points don’t have to just be for hotels anymore. While you can still redeem them for a stay and get great value, you can also use them for flights and other experiences. This variety makes Marriott Bonvoy points one of the more flexible currencies out there in the miles and points world.