January29 , 2025

    Marriott Bonvoy significantly increases award costs without warning – The Points Guy

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    In a world without posted award charts, it’s hard to say when a program devalues its rewards currency. But, based on online reports and our own searches, Marriott Bonvoy appears to have increased its award costs across a slew of properties. This marks a serious devaluation for its members who save up points to take hard-earned vacations.

    When Starwood and Marriott merged in 2018, there was a period of time when the award cost for properties tapped out at 60,000 points per night. That then went up to 85,000 to 100,000 points per night. In more recent years, the program has tended to lock in an unofficial cap of around 150,000 points on nightly redemption costs for peak nights and stays at high-end properties.

    As View From The Wing first shared, that has changed: Multiple properties now cost between 200,000 and 300,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.

    Related: Why points and miles are a bad long-term investment

    TPG has contacted Marriott Bonvoy for confirmation, but the company has not responded as of the time of writing.

    For example, we are now seeing nightly award rates at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad for 142,000 points per night; The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort for as high as 198,000 points per night; and the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya for an eye-watering 236,000 points per night.

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    Here’s a run-through of some examples of the current points prices we’re seeing across the Marriott portfolio:

    Property Highest points rate per night
    Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance in California 98,000
    JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge 236,000
    Mystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Santorini in Greece 126,000
    North Island, a Luxury Collection Resort, Seychelles 605,000
    SpringHill Suites Springdale Zion National Park in Utah 74,000
    The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Colorado 132,000
    The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto in Japan 152,000
    The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua in Hawaii 132,000
    The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad 142,000
    The Rome Edition 130,000
    The St. Regis Aruba Resort 128,000
    The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort in French Polynesia 136,000
    The St. Regis Deer Valley in Utah 138,000
    The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort 198,000
    The St. Regis New York 140,000
    The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico 138,000
    The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon 133,000
    Vana Belle, a Luxury Collection Resort, Koh Samui in Thailand 122,500
    Walt Disney World Swan Reserve in Florida 84,000

    To our eyes, this would suggest that even a relatively mid-tier property could set you back up to 85,000 points per night. Of course, that is a real challenge for travelers saving up their Marriott points to take a trip. It also presents a unique challenge for those with Marriott free night certificates at the 35,000-, 50,000- and 85,000-point levels, as they will now find that the certificates don’t stretch nearly as far as they previously did.

    For example, at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, we’re seeing just three nights across the entire 2025 calendar that cost less than 85,000 points per night. This means most nights at that property (and many others) are entirely out of reach of that certificate — even though travelers could have used it at any Marriott property in the system just a few years ago.

    Another example: When we looked back at the W Amsterdam in 2022, we rarely saw the cost above 70,000 points per night. Now, that is the lowest price you will see, and that’s a rare one or two days here or there.

    Points search on the Marriott website. MARRIOTT BONVOY

    Bottom line

    Three years after dropping its award charts for a dynamic pricing structure, Marriott Bonvoy has significantly increased the number of points it costs to stay at some of its properties. This is not to mention the rapid ascent in award pricing that has come since the merger between Marriott Bonvoy and Starwood Preferred Guest in 2018 when, for a few months, award pricing topped out at 60,000 points per night.

    Now, you could easily wind up paying more than 200,000 points per night at certain Marriott properties. This per night points increase has considerably dampened the power of points certificates at the 35,000-, 50,000- and 85,000-point levels.

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