How To Calculate Marriott Bonvoy Points

Getting Started & Things To Note

Marriott Bonvoy Points are primarily earned booking paid hotels stays at Marriott brand hotels. Points earned with Marriott can be redeemed for free nights, transferred to airline programs for free/discounted flights, and more. Before I cover how to calculate Marriott Bonvoy Points, there's a few things you'll need to know. Most of these are straightforward, but if you're new to rewards points then it may not be.

Sign Up For A Marriott Bonvoy Account

If you don't have a Marriott Bonvoy account, you will not be able to earn miles on your stays. Signing up for a Marriott Bonvoy account is free and easy to do. It only requires a few steps a few bits of information.

1. Head to Marriott.com.
2. Click on Join Now in the upper right hand corner of Marriott's home page.
3. Enter your name, country/region, zip code, and email.
4. Create a password for your account.
5. Click Join.

Once you do that, you'll be given a Marriott Bonvoy account number which you'll want to write down somewhere as you'll need it to log into your account when booking stays.

Book Direct With Marriott

If you tend to book through third party travel sites such as Expedia or Hotels.com, you will not be able to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points. Hotels will usually not grant points when you do not book directly through them. You will need to log into your Marriott Bonvoy account and book your hotel directly through Marriott either using the website, their mobile app, or by calling Marriott and booking over the phone. While you'll generally save money booking through third party sites, you'll be missing out on earning points as well as the benefits of earning elite status with Marriott.

Marriott Brand Hotels

In order to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points, you'll have to stay at Marriott brand hotels. Marriott does have a brand named 'Marriott', but they also have 29 other brands in which you can earn and redeem Marriott Bonvoy Points. Those brands are:

• The Ritz-Carlton
• JW Marriott
• St Regis
• The Luxury Collection
• BVLGARI
• W Hotels
• EDITION
• Marriott Hotels
• Sheraton
• Marriott Vacation Club
• Delta Hotels
• Le MERIDIEN
• Westin
• Renaissance Hotels
• Gaylord Hotels
• Courtyard Hotels
• Four Points
• Springhill Suites
• Protea Hotels
• Fairfield Inn & Suites
• AC Hotels
• Aloft Hotels
• Moxy Hotels
• Marriott Exclusive Apartments
• Residence Inn
• Towneplace Suites
• Element
• Autograph Collection Hotels
• Design Hotels
• Tribute Portfolio

Do note that some of these brands do have their own website. Booking through a brands website will still allow you to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points on your stays.

How To Calculate Marriott Bonvoy Points

Marriott Bonvoy members earn Bonvoy Points when staying at Marriott brand hotels. Points earned consists of the base points, elite points, and points earned using Marriott credit cards.

Marriott Bonvoy Base Points

Marriott Bonvoy members earn points at a base rate of 10 points per $1 spent with Marriott at most Marriott brand hotels. The points you earn is on the base rate of the hotel. This is the rate that you will see when you're searching for hotels before taxes and fees are added.

Base rates are shown when searching for hotels.

So if your hotel costs $175 per night before taxes and fees, you will earn 1,750 base points per night. This is calculated by simply multiplying the base hotel cost by the base of 10 points you will earn per $1 spent. Here are a few examples of earning points on the base rate:

Do note that you will only earn Marriott Bonvoy Points on paid nights. Nights booked with Marriott Bonvoy Points will not earn you Marriott Bonvoy Points on your stay.

Lower Base Rate

Not all Marriott brand hotels and partners offer a base rate of 10 points. You'll earn 5 Base Points per $1 at the following brands:

• Residence Inn
• Towneplace Suites
• Element

You'll earn 2.5 Base Points per $1 at the following brands:

• Marriott Executive Apartments
• Execustay

Marriott Bonvoy Elite Points

Earning elite status with Marriott will grant you the opportunity to earn more points on paid stays at Marriott brand hotels. Based on your tier in the Bonvoy Program, you will earn a certain percentage of bonus points on top of the base points you earned on your stay. Marriott Bonvoy elite status is determined by how many nights you spend at a Marriott brand hotel during the calendar year. As you spend more nights at Marriott brand hotels, you will start to progress through the different tiers of elite status.

Earn benefits when you book direct with Marriott.

Points earned through elite status are referred to by Marriott as Elite Points. Elite Points stack on top of the base points you would earn on your stay. Members with a higher tier of Bonvoy elite status will earn more points than someone with lower or no Bonvoy elite status.

Let's look at an example. In this example, we will use a hotel cost of $150. All members, regardless of elite status, will earn at least 1,500 points since everyone earns the base rate of 10 points per $1 spent. Elite members will then earn bonus points based on base points earned.

As you move up in tiers, you start to notice that those that are loyal to Marriott starts to earn a lot more points than someone who is just a member. The table above only takes into account a single night. Those with Titanium or Ambassador status will find themselves with a free night only after a few stays since Marriott's lowest category 1 hotels only cost 7,500 at the standard rate.

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card Points

On top of earning base points and Elite Points, you earn even more points by using a Marriott credit card. Marriott Bonvoy Points earned using a credit card are added to your account every month once the statement for your card has ended. You'll see this on the activity page of your Marriott Bonvoy account when signed in.

Activity shows you when points have been added to your account from credit cards, stays, and promotional bonuses.

Marriott has credit cards with both Chase Bank and American Express. The majority of their cards offer 6 Marriott Bonvoy Points per $1 spent. The only card that earns less than this is the no-fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card which offers 3 Marriott Bonvoy Points per $1 spent. In addition to earning additional Marriott Bonvoy Points, each Marriott credit card also offers:

• A free night annually (except the Marriott Bold)
• 15 nights towards elite status
• At least complimentary Silver elite status

If you don't already have elite status, picking up any Marriott credit card would grant you at least complimentary silver status thanks to the 15 elite nights you'll earn annually just for having the card. The free night that you'll receive on most of their cards is also a nice touch.

Let's look at same elite status example in which we used a $150 Marriott stay. At a credit card earning rate of 6 points per $1 spent, you're looking at a total of 900 Marriott Bonvoy Points. If you look at the no-fee Marriott credit card, you'll be earning at a rate of 3 points per $1 spent which is 450 points. These points are in addition to the base points and elite points earned on the stay.

To see how useful Marriott credit cards can be, lets take a look at the same example we used for elite status with a $150 Marriott stay. We will not include the 'Member' tier since it's impossible to not have at least Silver elite status when having a Marriott credit card. When you add those points to the same example you get:

When you use your Marriott credit card to pay for your Marriott stay, you'll also be earning on taxes and fees since Marriott is listed as a single charge on your statement. This technically means you would earn a few more points than what's listed above.

Most rewards cards offer great sign up bonuses for using the card within the first 3 months of obtaining it.

On top of that, Marriott credit cards offer sign up bonuses which ranges around 50,000 to 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points. This is easily worth a great deal of free nights and it only requires you to run a certain amount of spend through your card within the first three months. Just be sure to pay off all the charges you've made to the card so that you will not pay interest. If you're not one to pay off your card in full every month, I don't recommend picking up a Marriott credit card.