Marriott Free Night Certificates (2021)
Get Free Hotel Nights with Credit Card Certificates, Guide to the Marriott Bonvoy Reward Program
Each of the Marriott credit cards provide a free night certificate every year. There is no spending requirement, but each certificate can only be used for rooms up to maximum points cap.
Because of the impacts of the Covid pandemic, Marriott has extended the expiration dates of their hotel certificates. Any certificates that would have expired in 2020 or 2021 will be good until June 30th, 2022.
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Marriott Free Night Certificates
You'll receive your certificate a few weeks after you renew your card. Certificates from different cards have different point caps.
| Card | Max Points | Point "Value" | Effective "Cost" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Currently available cards | |||
| Marriott Boundless | 35,000 | $250 | $95 |
| Marriott Business | 35,000 | $250 | $125 |
| Marriott Brilliant | 50,000 | $350 | $150 |
| No longer available for new signups | |||
| Old SPG Card | 35,000 | $250 | $95 |
| Ritz Carlton | 50,000 | $350 | $300 |
| (Older) Marriott Premier | 25,000 | $180 | $85 |
| Marriott Premier Business | 35,000 | $250 | $99 |
You can earn a 2nd certificate by spending $60,000 with the Marriott business card. This "benefit" is available for both the current and the older cards. However, the amount of reward points you would miss out on, by using the Marriott Business card instead of a better rewards card, makes spending this a bad deal.
35,000 point Marriott certificates substantially limit your ability to use your certificates at nicer hotels. During peak dates, these certificates will only work at Marriott’s category 1-4 hotels, which tends to restrict you to Marriott’s lower tier brands, on the outskirts of cities. During regular and off-peak dates, you could use them for Category 5 hotels, which is enough for Marriott and Sheraton branded hotels in moderately expensive cities, but the cash rates during these dates will be relatively low.
Nevertheless, you should still be able to get more value than the effective cost of the certificates. Just don’t expect to find many opportunities to use your certificates for hotel rooms that cost much more than $200 or so.
50,000 point certificates can be used at nicer hotels—Category 6 hotels during “standard” season, Category 5 hotels during “peak” season, and Category 7 hotels (out of 8) in “off-peak” season. Just don’t expect to use them at luxury hotels and fancy resorts.
Obtaining multiple certificates each year
If you have multiple Marriott credit cards, you can get multiple certificates each year. There are three currently available cards. However, many people won’t want to use up one of their “Chase 5/24” slots on the regular (Boundless) version of the card. But, if you do, you’ll need to wait 24 months before being able to collect signup bonuses for the two other (Amex-issued) cards.
If you want to receive the signup bonuses on any new Marriott cards, you'll need to follow some other rules.
- You can't only collect the Amex card (premium and business) signup bonuses once per lifetime.
- You can't collect the signup bonus for the Chase personal card if you already have the Bonvoy Amex Card (the old SPG personal card). You can't collect the signup bonus on the Amex Business card if you already have the Marriott Business card. And you can't collect the signup bonus on the Bonvoy Brilliant (premium) card if you already have the Ritz Carlton card. It may be worth cancelling an older Marriott business or Ritz Carlton card to make yourself eligible to earn the signup bonus on one of the currently available cards.
- You can't earn the signup bonus from both Amex and Chase in the same 24 month period. If you want the Marriott personal card, you'll need to wait to be eligible for the bonuses on the business and premium cards and vise versa.
Great places to use your certificates
Here’s some links to get your imagination going.
- 10 Best Uses of Marriott 35,000-Point Certificates for Family Vacations
- 10 Best Uses of Marriott 50,000-Point Certificates for Family Vacations
- Best Uses of Your Chase Marriott Free Night Certificates
- Best Use of Marriott 35,000 Point (cat 5) Free Night Certificate
- The Best Marriott Bonvoy Hotels For Your Free Night Certificate
No one has written articles yet that cover the available hotel options once peak pricing goes into affect.
Expiration rules
The stay must be completed within 12 months from the date of issue. Don’t let it expire.
If it looks like it is going to expire, you can try calling customer service to extend the certificate, explaining that you’ve been having trouble finding a stay in the right “category” of hotels. There are many reports of people able to get their certificates re-issued, but we wouldn’t count on it.
Other details
- If there is a standard room available, it should be bookable with your certificate.
