What's a Marriott Bonvoy Point Really Worth? June 2024

Hi Bonvoyagers!

We’re halfway into 2024 and it’s a great time to check on the average value of a Marriott Bonvoy point.

To determine the value of a Marriott Bonvoy point, I looked at over 6 million published cash and points rates across all 9,000 Marriott properties and 30 brands this week. This data is fresh!

If you’re in a rush, here’s the skinny:

What is the average value of a Marriott Bonvoy point?
As of June 2024, Marriott Bonvoy points are now worth 0.71¢ per point.

What are the best brands to maximize your points?
The Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis offer the best point redemptions of any Marriott brand.

What are the best hotel deals to maximize your points? 
As frequent readers know, I write about this every week 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll post the top 20 hotels with the best average point value.

If you want to (Bonvoy)geek out on what I found, read on!

Which brands offer the best Marriott points redemptions? 
The best brands for point redemptions are the Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis. The Ritz averages 0.81¢ while the St. Regis averages 0.80¢.

That may not sound like much - but it means on average, you can get a room at the Ritz Carlton for 17,000 fewer points than the average Marriott room.

Importantly, the average Bonvoy point value varies tremendously across hotels and brands. The visual below shows which brands give you the most value for your hard-earned Marriott points.

Unfortunately, notable brands like the W Hotels, Design Hotels, Autograph Collection, and the Tribute Portfolio consistently offer below-average rates. That doesn’t mean you can’t find great deals. I’ve shared fantastic deals at these hotels in the past. But it does mean they are more scarce.

What’s the deal with City Express and Protea?
When I ran this analysis, I was surprised to see City Express and Protea Hotels jump to the top.

City Express is a lower-quality Select brand with 150 properties and has one of the lowest average guest ratings of 3.46 stars.

Protea is also a Select brand with 63 properties and a higher average guest rating of 4.16 stars. This brand is exclusively concentrated in African countries like South Africa, Zambia, and Nigeria.

In short, unless a special occasion calls for it, I wouldn’t recommend using your points at either of these properties given the lower-quality experience.

What’s a Marriott Bonvoy point worth at each hotel quality tier? 
Marriott groups their hotels into 4 quality tiers - Luxury is the best, then Premium, Select, and Longer Stay. As you can see below, there’s no question Luxury brands are the best average deals.

The blue circle 🔵 is the Luxury brand average at 0.73¢ and well above the other 3 tiers. As expected, the Luxury brand also has the fewest hotels (smallest circle size) at 505 total properties.

Surprisingly, the second best quality tier - Premium - is the worst for Bonvoy Points redemptions. That’s the red circle 🔴 in the chart. The average Marriott Bonvoy point value is 0.68¢ per point. This category is dragged down by low redemptions at Tribute Hotels, Design Hotels, and Autograph Collection. It’s too bad because these are some incredible properties and it’d be great to get more power from your Bonvoy points.

How many Marriott Bonvoy Points do you need for a free night? 
I also looked at the average points required for a free night at each Marriott brand. As you can see below, there are some surprising findings!

For example, the EDITION Hotels require 86,000+ points on average, 20% more than the Ritz Carlton properties and 37% more than Luxury Collection properties. This is crazy because the Luxury Collection has the best overall rating of any Marriott brand at 4.48 stars and the EDITION properties are one of the lowest Luxury properties at 4.37 stars.

How can this data get you more free nights?
Point values can be confusing so here’s a simple example to maximize your points.

Let’s say you want to book the stunning 4.8-star St. Regis Maldives and the cash rate is $1000/night. Normally, with Marriott’s average of 0.71¢ per point, you need 140,845 points to reserve this room. But as a reader of my newsletter, you know that the St. Regis Maldives offers one of the best redemptions of any Marriott property at a whopping 1.88¢ per point - more than double the Marriott average!

So rather than 140,845 points, you can book for as low as 53,000 points/night - a 62% savings! Now that’s a deal!!

Why is this so complicated?!
When Marriott introduced dynamic pricing in 2022, point redemptions became specific to each hotel AND their rates change daily. Marriott did this to optimize supply and demand. Sadly, it’s made it much harder for loyal Bonvoyagers like us to find the best deals every week. That’s the whole reason I started this newsletter.

With dynamic pricing here to stay, your best bet to find these awesome deals is to watch the rates closely and calculate them yourself, or read my weekly posts 😉 

Remember, tomorrow I’ll post the top 20 hotels with the best Bonvoy point values right now.

Until then, I hope this helps guide your next stay with Marriott and perhaps discover some new destinations to visit!

Bon Voyage!

Matt aka BonvoyGeek