Is the Marriott Five Free Nights Offer a Great Deal?

Pam

Currently, the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card has a welcome offer of five free nights (up to 50K points per night) after hitting the minimum spend of $8,000 in six months.  We must ask, “Is the Marriott five free nights offer a great deal?” It depends. Here are some things to consider.

 

Things to Keep in Mind

Initially, this offer sounds impressive. But there are some things to keep in mind:

  1. These certificates have a one-year expiration from the time they are deposited into your Marriott account. You want to be sure that you can use them before they expire.
  2.  50K Marriott certificates are NOT as valuable as even 25K points at a Hyatt hotel that offers outsized value. The key is to do a little research and know where you would redeem them before you apply. You can top them off with up to 15K of your own Marriott points.
  3. Several readers have said that they have had trouble getting the value they were hoping for out of these free night certificates, so we urge you to do some research. We think they might work for some people, but not everyone. I applied for this offer years ago, and it worked well, but that was before Marriott got rid of their award chart and switched to dynamic pricing.

 

Bottom Line

It’s always wise to consider whether a new welcome offer makes sense for you. Make sure to do some research on this offer (and all offers). Is the Marriott five free nights offer a great deal? That will vary from person to person, so do your due diligence before applying.

 

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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. American Express is a Travel Mom Squad advertiser, but we always show the best public offer even when we don’t earn a commission. Terms Apply. 

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  1. Sarah Beth Bell says:

    Have you stayed at The Grand in Fairhope, AL? It’s one of my all time favorite places to stay in the Southeast and have been able to redeem the free night certificates each time we’ve gone! We absolutely love it!

  2. Jeannie says:

    Do you all have any recommendations on where to redeem these even with top off?

    Thank you!

  3. Danelle Skelton says:

    Isn’t the 5th night on award stays free? So if you do them all in a row technically it’s 6 nights?

    • Pam says:

      You can only book one room at a time when using your Free Night Award. The Stay for 5, Pay for 4 deal is only good when using points, not certificates, sadly.

      Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Award does not apply to Cash + Points Awards, Upgrade Awards, Suite Night Awards, and Promotional Awards (e.g. issued through Co-brand Credit Card, Annual Choice Benefit, etc.).

      • Danelle skelton says:

        Ohh ok! Do you can’t stay more than one night in the same hotel? Or can you just make multiple different reservations for a few nights in a row using the certificates?

  4. Kristine says:

    Hi!
    I got the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business card at the end of March when they had the promotion for 5 free nights after spending $6,000 within 6 months. I reached the minimum spend earlier this month but I only earned 13,726 points. Did I do something wrong? I’ve never used this card before so I’m not as familiar with these cards and how they work. Thanks for your help!

  5. Nancy Yue says:

    How do you book sequential free nights- do they need to be booked one by one and does each night need to be under 65 k or can the average of sequential rooms be under 65k for topping off?

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