Many of the best hotel credit cards offer an annual free night. This annual free night certificate is valuable, as it often offers enough value to justify the card’s annual fee.
But while programs like IHG One Rewards let members top off free night certificates with as many points as needed, Marriott Bonvoy capped top-offs at just 15,000 points per certificate until recently. Luckily, Marriott Bonvoy changed its policies on March 12 to allow members to top off free night award certificates with up to 25,000 points.
Almost a year ago, TPG’s Rachel Craft wrote a data-driven story about why it was time for Marriott to update the point thresholds for free night certificates. Although the certificate thresholds are staying the same, data from Gondola AI‘s proprietary hotel rate monitoring platform shows that the 10,000-point increase in allowable top-offs drastically expands the properties at which you can use Marriott free night award certificates. Let’s dive in.
What Marriott’s new 25,000-point certificate top-off means in practice
Marriott Bonvoy increased the allowable top-off for its free night certificates from 15,000 points to 25,000 points on March 12. This means that you can now add up to 25,000 points to Marriott free night certificates when you redeem them.
| Certificate | Old points cap (with 15,000-point top-off) | New points cap (with 25,000-point top-off) | Top ways to earn this certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
|
50,000 |
60,000 |
||
|
55,000 |
65,000 |
||
|
65,000 |
75,000 |
||
|
100,000 |
110,000 |
This 10,000-point increase in allowable top-offs might sound insignificant. But, as you’ll see in the following sections, the data from Gondola AI’s proprietary hotel rate monitoring platform shows that the change puts a surprisingly large number of additional properties in reach.
Related: These 3 Marriott Bonvoy cards just rolled out their highest welcome offers ever
Data from more than 9,000 Marriott hotels shows how much this change matters
According to an analysis by Gondola AI of pricing data across 9,270 Marriott Bonvoy properties, the new 25,000-point top-off significantly expands the number of hotels eligible for booking with free night certificates.
| Certificate | Old points cap (with 15,000-point top-off) | New points cap (with 25,000-point top-off) | New properties unlocked with the new cap | Total properties reachable with the new cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
50,000 |
60,000 |
471 |
8,557 (713 out of reach) |
|
|
65,000 |
75,000 |
206 |
8,917 (353 out of reach) |
|
|
100,000 |
110,000 |
56 |
9,179 (91 out of reach) |
The data from Gondola AI was collected Feb. 26 and covers check-in dates from March 2026 through February 2027.
Each hotel and date combination appears only once in the dataset. Gondola AI calculated the average nightly points price for each hotel across all available dates to estimate the number of properties within reach of each certificate type. In this analysis, a property is considered reachable with a given certificate if the certificate value plus the new 25,000-point top-off equals or exceeds the hotel’s average nightly points price.
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Related: 5 ways to maximize Marriott Bonvoy award night redemptions
35,000-point certificates gain access to 471 additional Marriott properties
Although it may not feel like it when you’re trying to redeem a certificate worth up to 35,000 points, 6,523 Marriott properties (70.4% of Marriott’s portfolio) have an average nightly award rate of 35,000 points or less. Another 1,563 properties (16.9%) have average nightly rates of 50,000 points or less, meaning they were already accessible with the previous 15,000-point top-off.
With the new 25,000-point top-off, an additional 471 properties (5.1% of the portfolio) with average nightly rates of 50,001 to 60,000 points are now within reach. Based on average nightly award rates, this brings the share of Marriott’s portfolio accessible with a 35,000-point certificate and top-off to 92.3%.
In other words, a 35,000-point certificate with a top-off can now reach more than nine out of 10 Marriott properties worldwide.
Of the 471 newly unlocked properties, here’s how often you can book them using a 35,000-point certificate plus a 25,000-point top-off:
- 90% to 100% of nights: 33 properties
- 75% to 90% of nights: 167 properties
- 50% to 75% of nights: 260 properties
- 25% to 50% of nights: 12 properties
- 0% to 25% of nights: None
In other words, more than a third of these newly unlocked hotels are bookable with a 35,000-point certificate plus a 25,000-point top-off on at least 75% of nights.
Examples of newly accessible properties include:
- Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club, Autograph Collection in Miami Beach, Florida (59,846 points on average)
- W Philadelphia (59,922 points on average)
- SpringHill Suites by Marriott at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center in California (50,009 points on average)
Related: How to earn and use a Marriott Bonvoy 35,000-point certificate
50,000-point certificates now reach 206 more properties
If you have a free night certificate worth up to 50,000 points, the new top-off rule also expands your options. Specifically, the change puts many hotels that sit just above the old 65,000-point cap within reach, including several resorts in Hawaii, the Caribbean and other vacation destinations.
Based on Gondola AI’s research, 8,086 Marriott properties (87.2% of the portfolio) have an average nightly award rate of 50,000 points or less. Another 625 properties (6.7%) have average nightly rates of 65,000 points or less, meaning they were already reachable with the previous 15,000-point top-off.
With the new 25,000-point top-off, an additional 206 properties with average nightly award rates of 65,001 to 75,000 points are now within reach. That increases the share of Marriott’s portfolio reachable with a 50,000-point certificate and top-off to 96.2%.
Availability at these newly unlocked properties is also fairly strong. Of the 206 hotels:
- 90% to 100% of nights: 11 properties
- 75% to 90% of nights: 43 properties
- 50% to 75% of nights: 134 properties
- 25% to 50% of nights: 19 properties
- 0% to 25% of nights: None
In other words, about one-quarter of these newly unlocked hotels are bookable with a 50,000-point certificate and up to a 25,000-point top-off on at least 75% of nights, while most others fall within reach more than half the year.
Many of these newly accessible properties are destination resorts or premium city hotels. Examples include:
- Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance in California (73,375 points on average; ranging from 44,800 to 98,000 points)
- Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay (67,370 points on average; ranging from 46,000 to 75,000 points)
- Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach in Honolulu (69,934 points on average; ranging from 52,000 to 105,000 points)
- Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach Resort in Hawaii (68,846 points on average; ranging from 45,600 to 84,000 points)
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve in Lake Buena Vista, Florida (71,715 points on average; ranging from 40,800 to 96,000 points)
For travelers looking to redeem certificates for resort stays or family trips, the higher top-off limit could make these types of properties much easier to book.
Related: Marriott 50K-point free night certificate: 7 best hotels in the world to use your award redemption
85,000-point certificates now cover nearly the entire Marriott portfolio
Finally, if you earn an 85,000-point certificate each year from a premium Marriott credit card, it already covers 97.4% of Marriott’s portfolio without any top-off. A top-off of up to 15,000 points increased that to 98.4%, but with the new top-off of up to 25,000 points, 99% of Marriott’s portfolio is unlocked.
That’s right: 9,179 of the 9,270 Marriott properties have an average award rate of 110,000 points or fewer.
These premium properties have higher award pricing volatility, but of the additional 56 properties that fall in the 100,001 to 110,000 points per night average:
- 75% to 90% of nights: Six properties
- 50% to 75% of nights: 46 properties
- 25% to 50% of nights: Five properties
- 0% to 25% of nights: None
So, you can book 51 of the 56 properties with an 85,000-point certificate and a top-up of up to 25,000 points on more than half of the available nights.
Many of the newly accessible properties are in resort destinations like Hawaii and the Caribbean, as well as popular European destinations. Examples include:
- The St. Regis Bermuda Resort (106,411 points on average)
- The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua in Hawaii (107,733 points on average)
- JW Marriott Grosvenor House London (102,827 points on average)
- W Rome (107,354 points on average)
Related: 6 places to maximize an 85,000-point Marriott award night certificate
Bottom line
Even as an active Marriott Bonvoy user, I was surprised by how many additional properties the extra 10,000 points unlock when topping off free night certificates. But the higher cap doesn’t just unlock new hotels; it makes far more nights bookable throughout the year.
The data also highlights how much of the portfolio is already within reach of these certificates. For example, I didn’t expect that, on average, award nights at 70.4% of properties would be bookable with the 35,000-point certificates from my Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. And the variance in award night ranges for the 50,000-point certificates is also a good reminder to check alternate dates if you have flexibility when redeeming your free night certificates.
