How much Marriott Bonvoy hotel points are worth in January 2023? (2023)

Marriott is one of the largest hotel brands in the world with an outstanding loyalty program,Bonvoy, which is not to be missed for frequent travellers.

SinceMarriott BonvoySince dropping its award charts and transitioning to a dynamic award pricing model, it's more important than ever to understand how much Marriott Bonvoy points are worth. Without award tables, the number of Bonvoy points required to redeem for a free hotel night is subject to change based on demand. This means that rates can change even within a single hotel stay.

Knowing how much Marriott Bonvoy points are worth can help you maximize the value of your redemption. While not every redemption offers the “best value” in terms of cents per point, with your knowledge you can figure out when it makes sense for you to use your points and when it's a better option to save them for another day.

How much are Marriott Bonvoy points worth?

After careful and detailed analysis, Forbes Advisor determined that the value of one Marriott Bonvoy point is $0.0074. That said, a Bonvoy point should set you back a reasonable 0.74 cents per point compared to paying in cash - we'll talk more about how we arrived at this rating below.

Terrible, bad, fair, good and excellent values

Forbes Advisor

A baseline of Marriott Bonvoy points can help you determine if you're making a good or bad deal when redeeming your points, but in the real world it's not quite as simple. Just like the Kelley Blue Book prices for cars, we've scored points on a sliding scale so you can strive to meet (or exceed) a fair rating. Unlike a car dealership, you can't negotiate a price in points, but you know when to pat yourself on the back or when to walk away.

Looking at points more holistically, we've found that redeeming your points for anything under 0.49 cents per point (CPP) is a generally poor option and should be avoided at all costs - you don't want your Bonvoy points for a lemon use . We think redemptions of 0.49 to 0.73 cents per point are bad and should be reconsidered if there is another option.

Redeeming from 0.74 cents per point to 0.99 cents per point is a fair value for your Bonvoy points and gives you the peace of mind that you are getting "fair market value" for your points.

Redemptions for 1.00 cents to 1.24 cents per point give you excellent value for your Bonvoy points and should be considered a "cheap deal" for your award booking. An exceptional value of Bonvoy points would be anything over 1.25 cents per point, and these award bookings really maximize the value of your hotel points.

The Value of Marriott Bonvoy Points: Category and Location

The value of each Marriott Bonvoy point may vary depending on the hotel brand, location and date you choose to redeem your points. We wanted to know if certain brands of Marriott hotels offer higher value for your Bonvoy points compared to others, or if Bonvoy points are more valuable domestically or internationally.

We separated each Marriott hotel brand from our data and categorized them into three distinct categories that fit every traveler: Luxury, Upscale, and Value.

We consider luxury properties to be the most prestigious hotels in Marriott's portfolio and include hotel brands such as the J.W. Marriott and St Regis hotels and resorts. We found that the average value of Marriott's luxury properties is 0.77 cents per Bonvoy point. Based on data collected in July 2022, this is the most valuable category for redeeming your Marriott points.

Marriott's upscale hotels include brands like Sheraton and Westin Hotels and Resorts. We've found that the average value of this type of property is 0.73 cents per Bonvoy point, which we think is poor payback value. The difference between the categories might seem small per point, but it adds up to a significant redemption.

The largest category we analyzed was what we believed to be high-end Marriott hotels, which include brands like Courtyard and AC Hotels. Bonvoy points redeemed at these hotels are worth 0.73 cents per point.

By comparing Marriott's domestic and international hotels using the data we've collected, we've found that redeeming your Bonvoy points for hotels in the United States offers more value than Marriott hotels in international destinations.

The average Bonvoy point value for domestic hotel properties is 0.76 cents per point, while international hotel properties averaged 0.74 cents per point. While both of these options offer good redemption value, you can strive to get a slightly better deal with your points for domestic travel.

How Marriott evaluates Bonvoy points

You can buy Bonvoy points at Marriott, but is that a good idea? If you're missing some Bonvoy points you need for an exceptional redemption and don't have the funds to earn additional points before you need to travel, consider purchasing points. In almost all other cases, however, it's best to avoid buying points.

Marriott sells Bonvoy points processed through points.com in increments of 1,000 points for $12.50. That means Marriott rates Bonvoy points at 1.25 cents per point. While you will find properties offering free award nights that are worth more than what you can buy them for, our data has shown that this is the extreme exception and not the rule.

Understand the value of Marriott Bonvoy Points

Now that we know the value and the best redemption strategies of theMarriott Bonvoy Treueprogramm, let's take a closer look at the methods we used to calculate these scores.

How to calculate the rating of hotel points

You can calculate the value of each hotel rewards booking by multiplying the total cash price for your booking by 100, then dividing by the number of points required for your redemption.

For example, if you want to book a three night stay at The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, in Waikiki that costs $1,557 for your stay, you would multiply $1,557 by 100 to get the price in cents: 155,700.

Then do an awards search to see how many Marriott Bonvoy points it would cost to redeem the same three-night stay. For this example, let's assume it would cost 188,000 Bonvoy Points.

Next, take the 155,700 cents it would cost to pay in cash and divide that by the 188,000 Bonvoy points it would cost to redeem. You end up getting about 0.83 cents per review point.

(Reward Cost in Dollars x 100) / Number of Points to Redeem = Valuation in cents per point

How we determined the value of Marriott Bonvoy Points

Points and miles ratings vary depending on your source and the methodology used to calculate your ratings.

Ultimately, our goal and priority was to develop a methodology that is relevant to our readers. We know not everyone earns Bonvoy points for sophisticated redemptions like the Maldives - many of us want to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach or Disneyland instead.

Our data is based on actual award redemption searches for hundreds of Marriott hotels in some of the top vacation destinations both domestically and internationally. We looked for a variety of data in both the short-term and long-term future.

Because our methodology is data-driven and based on real search queries, we can easily and regularly re-evaluate our Bonvoy score by collecting new data.

As we continue to monitor and update our dataset, we are able to evaluate different ways of interpreting reviews in many different scenarios within the Marriott Bonvoy program. As we add additional hotel loyalty programs to our review portfolio, we can also compare which programs may offer more value in different scenarios.

bottom line

Our current overall Marriott Bonvoy point rating is 0.74 cents per point. Redeeming your points for a reward redemption for anything below that is poor value.

Our data has shown that Bonvoy points have a slightly higher value when redeemed for Marriott's budget and luxury hotels compared to their upscale hotels. We've also found that your Bonvoy points are worth more when you use them domestically or internationally.

Our methodology is based on data from real reward searches, which allows us to stay ahead of loyalty program changes and keep our review up to date with reward price trends. We've selected some of the world's most popular vacation destinations and rated each Marriott property in each location.

We look forward to further analyzing the data to determine how you can get the most from your Marriott Bonvoy points.