When traveling with your family, points and miles can help bring down the cost. There are many ways to get free hotel nights using hotel rewards points. Today we will focus on how to get the most amount of nights using Marriott Points.
We Used Marriott Points For A Great Stay In Capetown, South Africa.
The current offer for the Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card is 80,000 after completing the minimum spending of $3,000 in 3 months. Plus, earn 7,500 bonus points when you add the first authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. Enjoy 1 Free Night Stay at a Category 1-5 hotel every year after your account anniversary date!
With these 90,500 Marriott points (After authorized user and minimum spending), you can get 15 free nights at a category 1 hotel. Let’s see how we can get the most value out of Marriott and get free nights.
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We are going to use two strategies here when searching on the Marriott website:
– Use the 5th night free deal.
– Search for category 1 hotels with kitchens
5th night free on Award Stays
Marriott offers a 5th night free on award stays. You don’t have to have elite status with Marriott to take advantage of this benefit, plus you can use the benefit on longer stays too. 5 award nights = 1 free night, 10 award nights = 2 free nights, etc.
Category 1 hotels with Kitchens
One of the best ways to save big during family vacation is to cook your own meals. Having a refrigerator and stove allows you to save on eating at restaurants. All that money saved on eating out can be used for fun family activities on vacation.
Another great part of category 1 hotels is they are only 7,500 Marriott points per night. You don’t have to worry about quality when going for a lower category hotel. The low category hotels may be inexpensive but are still of high standard.
Let’s use an example to see how it works. I recently helped a family take a vacation in the great city of Houston, Texas. Fortunately, there are four category 1 hotels in the Houston area for only 7,500 Marriott points per night.
That means for a 5 night vacation in a room with a kitchen, you only have to pay for 30,000 Marriott Points.
Step 1. Go to marriot.com and search Houston or the city of your choice. Click the “Use Points” box when searching for availability.
2. Use filters to narrow the search. Click “Category 1” and the option “Kitchen/kitchenette”
3. Pick your hotel and follow through with the booking process. The Residence Inn Houston Pasadena is a great option. Make sure your dates are correct and enter your necessary information to make the booking final.
When booking 5 nights, you only pay for 4 nights at a price of 30,000 Marriott Points instead of 37,500. As you can see with the cash price above, by using Marriott points you are saving $945 at a rate of $189 per night. That’s Big Travel with Small Money.
Want to get a suite? Ask for the upgrade
It never hurts to ask. When checking in, kindly remind the staff of your status and the it would be great if you can have an upgrade. Be sure to be as nice as possible and don’t come across as entitled or rude.
If you are staying in the hotel for 5 nights and there is an upgrade available to the last three nights, an upgrade may become available. You can say something like, “I wouldn’t mind switching rooms mid-stay if a suite became available. Would it be possible for you to contact me if a better room opens up?” While it may be annoying to pack and then unpack again to move rooms, going from a standard room to a suite could make it worthwhile for your family.
What is your experience with using points for Marriott stays?
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Wow that’s real sweet. Way to squeeze every night out if the Marriott card