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What would be more fun than staying at a luxurious hotel like the Marriott for a free night? Marriott Free Night Certificate can make your wish come true. Mostly, you can earn a Marriott Free Night Certificate by holding one of Marriott’s Co-branded credit cards. These free night certificates are generally awarded annually with the card.
You can get an award night certificate with an eligible Marriott Credit card. Another way to acquire a Marriott free night certificate is through a Marriott Titanium Elite membership. Members can select a free night certificate worth up to 40,000 points as their Annual Choice Benefit.
What is the Marriott Free Night Certificate?
The Marriott Free Night Certificate is a special perk for Marriott’s loyalty program members. With this certificate, if you’re eligible, you can get a free one-night stay at specific Marriott hotels and resorts that are part of the program. Some of the Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit cards offer an annual free night certificate as part of their benefits. Cardholders are typically awarded a certificate each year on their card anniversary.
It’s important to note that not all Marriott Credit Cards provide this perk. Also, this reward comes in different values, and your weight depends on how you earn the reward. Most of the Marriott Cards provide an award night certificate worth 35k, 65k, and 85k points per night.
Also, another great benefit is that you can add up to 15,000 Marriott points to the certificate. So, if you want to book a night that costs 50,000 points, you can use your 35,000-point certificate and add 15,000 points from your Marriott account to cover the rest.
Which Cards Offer a Marriott Free Night Award
As I have mentioned earlier, these certificates are available to Marriott hotel credit card holders. Three of the Marriott cards provide award night certificates without the spending; with other cards, you must meet the spending criteria to get this perk. With these certificates, you can redeem a value of up to 35,000, 50,000, or 85,000 points per night. Here are the Marriott Credit Cards you can use to get the benefit:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card
When you have the Bonvoy Brilliant card, you receive a Marriott Free Night Certificate on your card anniversary. This certificate allows you to enjoy a stay at any Marriott hotel valued at up to 85,000 points. On average, Marriott points are worth around 0.7 cents per point, so with this perk alone, you’re getting a value of approximately $595, which almost offsets the annual card fee of $650.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
The free night certificate awarded with this card is redeemable at any Marriott hotel or resort with a redemption value of up to 35,000 points, and you will also receive complimentary Silver Elite status. Also, the sign-up bonus for this card lets you earn three free night awards for up to 150,000 total points after spending $3,000 in the first three months from account opening (each night valued up to 50,000 points). This card has an annual fee of $95. and with this perk alone, the card is worth holding.
Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
Each year after your card’s account anniversary, you will receive an award night certificate with this card. On top of that, if you make purchases totaling $60,000 on the card in a single calendar year, you’ll earn another free night reward. These certificates let you book stays equivalent to 35,000 Marriott points at any of their hotels. Remember that this card comes with a yearly fee of $125.
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card
The spending requirement is relatively high to earn the free night certificate with this card. To earn a free award night worth up to 50,000 points, you must spend $15,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year; however, other benefits come with this card. You will receive Gold Elite status and 15 annual Elite Night Credits. The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy has an annual fee of $250.
Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card
Same as the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card, earn a certificate worth up to 50,000 points. You have to spend $15,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year. You also receive Gold Elite status and 15 annual Elite Night Credits. The Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful has a $250 annual fee.
Transfer Partners
You can transfer points from credit cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points. So, if you want to transfer points for the booking, you can transfer points at a ratio of 1:1.
American Express Membership Rewards:
- American Express® Gold Card
- American Express® Platinum Card
- American Express® Business Gold Card
- American Express Business Platinum Card
- American Express Blue Business® Plus Credit Card
- Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card
Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Chase Freedom Flex℠
- Chase Freedom Unlimited®
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Marriott’s Free Night Certificate + Points
If you have a Marriott Free Night Certificate and want to use it for a free stay, you need to find a hotel where the points required match the value of your certificate. However, let’s say you’re a bit short on facts, like by 5,000 or 10,000. The good news is that you can still use your certificate for a more expensive room to cover the base points needed, and then you can pay for the remaining issues, up to 15,000, to make up the difference.
For example, if you plan to stay at The St. Regis Bangkok for a night and want to use your 35,000 points certificate, but as you can see here for a night stay, you will be required 37,000 points at the time of writing so what you can do is add 2,000 points from your account and redeem your free night certificate.
How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate
Using Marriott’s Free Night Certificate is easy; about eight weeks after your credit card’s anniversary, you can expect to see a reward night certificate added to your Marriott Bonvoy account if you have an eligible Marriott credit card. They’ll usually send you an email notification once this has been done.
How to Check if You Have Received the Certificate
You will receive an email notification that you have received the award certificate in your account; however, if you didn’t receive any information, you can check whether you have received it or not in your Marriott account:
Login to your Marriott account and click “Activity.”
And under the “Earned Awards,” you can check whether you have received an award night certificate. Also, if you use the Marriott Bonvoy app, you can see these certificates by logging in, tapping the “Account” link at the bottom right, and then navigating to the “Free Night Awards” section.
Search Your Destination and Choose the Property
When you’re ready to make a booking, go to the main page and type in the city you’re headed to and the travel date. Make sure you tick the “Use Points/Awards” box box in the search box.
You’ll get a list of available hotels, along with their rates for the night. Take a look at your choices and pick the hotel you like. Just remember, for the free night certificate, you need to choose a hotel that matches its value, and you can use an additional 15,000 extra points along with your award certificate.
To find out which dates will cost you fewer points for a stay, you can use the flexible date search feature. When looking for hotels, click “My dates are flexible” in the date field to see the different rates for different days.
Book Your Stay
When you’ve picked a hotel that costs the points you can redeem with your certificates, or it’s within 15,000 points of that limit, and you’re okay with using some extra points, select the type of room you want. When you’re ready to check out, you’ll see the choice to use your 35,000-point Marriott certificate as a payment option.
How to Add Upto 15,000 Points to Your Free Night Certificate
Marriott introduced this great option to enhance your free night certificate by adding up to 15,000 points. This is helpful because if you didn’t have enough points for a specific hotel redemption using your certificate, you couldn’t use it for that property. Now, with this feature, you can top up your certification with points and use it to book your desired hotel, even if it needs more points than your original certificate had.
When you choose to use the Marriott Free Night Certificate at the checkout, you’ll be able to see how many more points are needed to reserve the property. You have the option to either use the points you already have in your account or purchase additional points to complete the booking for your stay.
Bottom Line
Redeeming these certificates can truly make your credit card worth holding, and the option to combine up to 15,000 Bonvoy points with a free night award to book a higher-category hotel adds another star to the benefit. This is a great additional perk if you have a Marriott credit card anyway, though it can also be a reason to get one of these cards, given just how much value you can get redeeming these.
Interest in travelling around the world using credit card points? Check out our site to learn the basics, and follow our blog for more tips on making your dream vacation a reality. You can also sign up for our travel concierge and get unlimited credit cards and travel assistance for one year.
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