What are Marriott points worth?

At Frequent Miler, we keep a database of point valuations called “Reasonable Redemption Values.” These are estimates of the “worth” of airline miles, hotel points, transferable points, and more. The idea is that we try to identify the point at which it is “reasonable” to get that much value or more from your points.

This information is critical for making informed decisions. In fact, it’s a key component of the First Year Value information shown on our Best Credit Card Offers page, and it’s similarly used to show which cards offer the best value for everyday spend and which offer the best category bonuses.

When we first started looking at the value of hotel points, we used a laborious process that involved manually comparing the cash and award prices of hundreds of stays each year, then using those results to create RRV estimates. However, we now have a much better way of pinning down the value of Marriott points.

Gondola is a terrific free hotel search tool that shows prices of properties both in cash and in points, and it keeps data of both for searches done via its platform.

The kind folks over at Gondola have made this data available to us for the purpose of identifying hotel program point values. Thanks to them, we now have access to the results of around 3 million domestic and international Marriott searches at over 8,300 different properties, and each one notes both the cash and award prices for the same room. Using this data, we can provide a far better estimate of the “Reasonable Redemption Value” of Marriott points than we were ever able to obtain by using manual calculations.

Marriott caused quite a stir in the points and miles world earlier this year when it raised the award prices of many of its most aspirational properties into the stratosphere, with the cost of some properties almost doubling overnight.

At same time, it appeared that Marriott had also raised the cap on each tier of its “secret award chart,” meaning that the maximum points that it charges for each award level had gone up by ~5-10%. Because of that, we did an analysis in February and found that the overall value of Marriott points had actually gone up slightly. However, now that we have a much more robust data set, we wanted to take another look, both to check our earlier numbers and to see if there was any further “devaluation creep” that had happened over the last few months.

Based on Gondola’s data, there hasn’t been, and the Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) has been remarkably steady. It remains 0.76 cents per point, the exact same value that we arrived  at with our more limited searches several months ago.

Background

When collecting points and miles, it’s always good to have a general idea of what points are worth. Let’s say, for example, that you have the opportunity to either earn 1,000 Hyatt points or 2,000 Marriott points. Which should you go for?

If you don’t know what the points are worth, you’d likely go for the Marriott points. But, in our analyses we’ve found Hyatt points to be worth more than twice as much as Marriott points. Therefore, on average, 1,000 Hyatt points are worth more than 2,000 Marriott points. In this post, you’ll find my best current estimate of the redemption value of Marriott points.

Methodology

In order to determine the value of Marriott points, we looked at Gondola’s collected, real-world cash and point prices for over 8,300 Marriott properties. Since Marriott award bookings are fully-refundable, we excluded data from all cash rates that were non-refundable in order to make it a complete apples-to-apples comparison. We also used the Total Cash Rate, which includes taxes and any local fees.

Hotel Programs that Waive Resort Fees on Award Stays

Hilton, Hyatt, and Wyndham waive resort fees when you book stays using points or free night certificates. For these chains, the resort fee does not have to be considered separately from the Total Cash Rate (which includes the resort fee). So, the RRV calculation is as follows:

RRV = Total Cash Rate ÷ Point Price

Hotel Programs that Charge Resort Fees on Award Stays

IHG, Marriott, and many other hotel programs impose resort fees on award stays. For these chains, the resort fee must be specifically taken into account in the calculation. We do that by having Gondola subtract it out of the Total Cash Rate. The RRV calculation is as follows:

RRV = [Total Cash Rate – Resort Fee] ÷ Point Price

Gondola Data

For our hotel RRV values, we use the median value we see based on the data from Gondola. If the median is 1 cent per point, that means that half of all searches produced a value of less than 1 cent per point, and the other half above 1 cent per point.

• Gondola Median Observed Value for Marriott redemptions: 0.76 cents per point
  (based on data as of June 5th, 2025)
• Range: .17 to 3.46 cents per point

Brand Comparison

Another cool feature of the the data set that Gondola provides for us is that we can actually see how points values vary across a program’s different brands. Most brands stayed fairly close the Marriott’s overall value of 0.76 cents per points. However, there were a handful of outliers, and we’ve listed the four biggest positive and negative examples below:

The standout brands are interesting. I’m not surprised to see that Ritz-Carlton and St Regis, two of Marriott’s most significant luxury brands, end up tracking higher than the rest. They’re more expensive, especially on the very top-end, so even if the points price is astronomical, it often can represent 1 cent per point or better value.

It’s also not a shock to see MGM and Design Hotels bringing up the rear. Neither is owned by Marriott, but are independent properties that participate in the Bonvoy Program. My experience in looking at both of them is that they tend to offer sub-optimal value and I’ve never found any reason to choose either of them in a given city or area.

Interestingly, by far the best “brand performer” is Marriott’s new budget entry, City Express. There’s only around 150 of them right now, but they seem to providing excellent value when compared to the rest of Marriott’s brands…perhaps simply because it’s a new brand, so pricing hasn’t stabilized yet.

Results

Point Value

The median observed point value for the latest analysis was 0.76 cents per point. This means that half of the observed results offered equal or better point value and half offered equal or worse value. Another way to think about it is that without trying to cherry pick good awards, you have a 50/50 chance of getting 0.76 cents or better value from your Marriott points when booking free night awards.

In our last data collection in February 2025, the median cents per point value was 0.76. We reached the exact same result using Gondola’s data, so the Reasonable Redemption Value for Bonvoy points is unchanged.

Pick your own point value

When we publish Reasonable Redemption Values of points (RRVs), we conservatively pick the middle value, or the 50th percentile. The idea is that just by randomly picking hotels to use your points, you have a 50/50 chance of getting this value or better. But what if you cherry-pick awards? Many people prefer to hold onto their points until they find good value uses for them. If that’s you, then you may want to use the table above to pick your own point value. For example, if you think that you’ll hold out for the best 10% value awards, then pick the 90th percentile. If you cherry-pick a bit, but not that much, you might want to use the 70th percentile (for example).

We’re guessing that most cherry-pickers will land around the 75th percentile: 0.92 cents per point. Another way of saying it is that those folks who cherry-pick good value awards can count on getting around 0.92 cents per point value or better.

For those who do the most extreme cherry-picking, the data here is good news as well. The 90th percentile had previously stood at 1.01 cents per point, but it has now risen by a little more than 10%. My guess is that this reflect the inclusion of international Marriott properties, which sometimes offer a much better value proposition than the domestic properties we used to confine our searches to.

Reasonable Redemption Value: 0.76 Cents Per Point

Our Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) for Marriott points was previously set to 0.76 cents per point, and that’s where it remains after this analysis. RRV’s are intended to be the point at which it is reasonable to get that much value or better for your points. Therefore, we believe that the median observed value for is a good choice for our RRV.

• Reasonable Redemption Value for Marriott: 0.76 cents per point
• Reasonable Redemption Value for those who cherry pick awards: 0.92 cents per point

Overvaluing vs. Undervaluing Points

There is no perfect way to estimate the value of points. Decisions we made here in some ways overvalue points and in some ways undervalue points. The hope is that these things roughly offset each other.

Factors that cause us to undervalue points

• With hotel programs that offer 4th Night Free Awards (IHG, with some credit cards), or 5th Night Free Awards (Hilton & Marriott), or award discounts (Wyndham), we do not consider the point savings in our analyses.
• With hotel programs that offer free parking on award stays to top-tier elites (Hyatt), we do not factor this in.

Factors that cause us to overvalue points

• We do not use discount rates (other than member rates) in our analyses. In real-life, many people book hotels cheaper (and sometimes far cheaper) by using AAA rates, government & military rates, senior rates, etc.
• We do not use hotel promotional rates. Often, individual hotels have deals such as “Stay 2 Nights, Get 1 Night Free” which can greatly reduce the cost of a stay.
• We do not use prepaid rates in our analyses. Sometimes these rates are significantly lower than refundable rates.
• We do not factor in rebates which can be earned from booking hotels through shopping portals.
• We do not factor in extra points earned on paid stays for those with elite status.
• We do not factor in rewards earned from credit card spend at hotels.
• We do not factor in hotel loyalty program promotions: Most promotions, but not all, only offer incentives for paid stays. We often see promos offering bonus points, double or triple points, free night awards, etc.
• With hotel programs that waive resort fees for top tier elites on paid stays (e.g. Hyatt), we do not factor this in.

Conclusion

Based on the latest analysis, we’ve left our Marriott RRV at 0.76 cents per point. The idea is that you have an equal chance of getting that much value or more from your award stays.

This might seem bizarre to some folks who have seen the prices of their favorite hotels go up this year, or who have read numerous articles about the “devaluation” earlier this year Our second RRV analysis of the year, this time with much more data, doesn’t necessarily disagree with any of that…there are certainly many properties that are much more expensive than they were last year.

However, when looking at a large swathe of properties throughout the US, we’re still seeing the median value hanging out in the same 0.7-0.8 range that it’s been at for the last three years. Bonvoy points may be worth much less at certain properties, but we’re not seeing the same thing program-wide – although that’s cold comfort to people who were stashing their points for an outsized redemption in the Maldives or at the JW Marriott Masai Mara.

For a complete list of Reasonable Redemption Values (and links to posts like this one), see: Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs).

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