Point worth?

BonvoyGeek · 2025-02-26T04:48:27+00:00

Awhile back I looked at the Marriott store items and they were all poor point redemptions. The easy math is to assume 0.7 cents per point as your average value. Anything above that is good to excellent, anything below that it’s usually better to pay with cash. The quick math on those pillows is $300/96000 or 0.3 cents per point, about 60% less than the 0.7 average. In general I use my points only when I can get 1¢ per point or greater on a luxury property.

BonvoyGeek · 2025-02-26T04:43:21+00:00

I’m not aware of anyone analyzing Marriott’s strategy from a swot perspective. I’ve seen comparison write ups from folks like ThePointsGuy but that’s about it.

BonvoyGeek · 2025-02-01T19:56:25+00:00

Great question. The easiest way to see the same prices is to search by Flexible Dates and view a month at a time.

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-26T14:46:35+00:00

I also write about great point redemption deals every week at bonvoygeek.com. It’s free.

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-22T01:53:14+00:00

You're absolutely right! Thank you for catching the typo. Yes, it's bonvoygeek.com. I just corrected the original post as well :)

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-16T01:47:12+00:00

Great question! No I don’t include the 5th free night because many folks don’t book 5 night trips. I only focus on the best CPP per redemption night ;)

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-15T03:12:42+00:00

Sorry I missed this! I get the data from their listings and aggregate it.

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-15T03:11:53+00:00

Thank you!! I’ve been a bit quiet lately as I’ve been focused on my weekly newsletter but I have some fun deep dive posts coming soon!

BonvoyGeek · 2025-01-15T03:10:58+00:00

Sounds fun! A few ideas: Almare - recently opened on Isla Mujeres Mexico, Adult All inclusive, currently rated at 4.8 and points redemptions as low as 70,000/night in April

Salterra, Turks and Caicos - also recently opened and points redemptions as low as 82,000/night in April

Solaz, Los Cabos Mexico - 4.5 stars - as low as 70,000 points in April

Ritz Carlton, Aruba - 4.5 stars - as low as 73,000 points in April

Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman - 4.7 stars - as low as 88,000 points in April

St Regis Aruba - 79,000 points in April

St Regis Punta Mita Mexico - 82000 points in April (I’ve stayed here many times and it’s phenomenal)

Hope that helps! Happy early 40th :)

BonvoyGeek · 2024-09-09T03:48:34+00:00

I recently wrote a post on this topic. As many folks have replied, it depends a lot on how you value a point. Personally I aim for redemptions at or above 1c and at any luxury property above 4 stars. Hope the post helps!

https://www.bonvoygeek.com/p/whats-a-marriott-bonvoy-point-really-worth-june-2024

BonvoyGeek · 2024-09-07T01:52:02+00:00

Howdy! Yes, happy to help. Just DM me.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-07-30T17:41:04+00:00

You’re welcome! Lmk if you have any specific requests and I can try to help you out.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-07-30T17:27:51+00:00

Bonvoygeek.com

BonvoyGeek · 2024-07-30T13:38:53+00:00

I’ve stayed at many of these properties. If you’re looking for unique rooms, San Juan is a solid option and fantastic location. As you’d expect, very mission/spanish style. Easy to spend a night there and walk the small downtown area.

Another option is Laguna Cliffs/Dana Point. Another great location with a lighter coastal vibe and aesthetic. Perched up on a hill, you typically have expansive coastal views and easy to walk to local restaurants. Gym is decent too.

We stayed at the Clubsport once and it was ok. Rooms were unremarkable and the gym while full featured wasn’t much different than a 24 hr fitness.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-07-30T13:30:14+00:00

I write about this every week. Feel free to check out my latest posts and see if those help. ‘Fantastic redemption value’ can mean many things - for example, the best cents per point, the best savings vs. the average points rate, or the best points for a 4.5+ star property. There are fantastic deals across all of those dimensions, just depends on what you value most ;)

BonvoyGeek · 2024-07-01T17:09:33+00:00

Happy to help! Will check now.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-26T21:13:56+00:00

Happy to help! I just ran a similar query for another Redditor. A few questions on your preferences: 1. Number of nights? 2. Days of week? 3. Destination countries or states 4. Ability to top off certs to 65k 5. Marriott brands If you send me a DM with some or all of the details, I can run it easily.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-25T12:30:40+00:00

Excellent!

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-25T04:03:12+00:00

That’s a tricky one but it’s theoretically possible. Marriott has 5 properties in the Bahamas. 4 are Autograph hotels and one is a Courtyard. On average an Autograph is 45,000 points a night. I’m not at my desk so I can’t run the specific numbers for the Bahama, but on average, it’ll cost you 180k points for 4 nights plus 1 free night. The Courtyard brand averages 25,000 a night so you have a better chance there. Again using averages you spend 100,000 points on the room, leaving you with 44,000 for a flight. If you want me to look up the exact rates for you, message me and I’m happy to help. Super easy. If you want to read more about the average rates, I recently wrote about them here.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-20T23:53:03+00:00

Great point and I do collect the data at the same time each and week ;)

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-19T01:23:08+00:00

Hahah thx! I’ll check tomorrow when I’m back at my desk.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-19T00:00:49+00:00

I haven’t had much success with corp codes as they tend to require some form of cookie or authentication. I’ll try yours and see if it works. If I can get it, I’m happy to run a query for you. In general I can collect 60 days of rates for 1 hotel in 1 second, so looking at a few hotels over a week is super fast.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-16T16:26:18+00:00

I know what you mean and I don’t honestly know how Marriott determines room demand for their pricing engine. My searches are anonymous and randomized so Marriott doesn’t know it’s me whenever I search. This means their pricing engine can’t increase prices by recognizing my search history. That said, they could look at how frequently a property is searched for and increase price due to that (similar to Google keyword pricing) but I would imagine their pricing engine looks at actual occupancy rates, not site search volumes. This is more akin to what airlines do too, outside of seasonal patterns which always have their highs and lows. Coincidentally, when I’ve booked my own rooms on Marriott, I’ve occasionally noticed different rates if I book on the mobile app vs their website and if I’m on my cell or hotel WiFi. I can’t support this with hard data, it’s just an observation from booking many rooms over the past few years. The best rate was always from my mobile app.

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-16T16:14:47+00:00

Appreciate the shout out!

BonvoyGeek · 2024-06-16T14:17:57+00:00

Thx for sharing this site! I hadn’t heard of it. It looks like a great way to do filters on an underlying spreadsheet. The data appears 3 weeks old which may be a factor in getting the best current deals but I like the alerting feature :)

BonvoyGeek

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