Marriott Bonvoy Points vs. Cash Calculator

Cash Currency

Select the currency used by the hotel — for example, if you are staying at a hotel in London, select British Pounds (GBP). The currency will be converted to USD for the points calculation. The actual exchange rate used by Marriott to calculate points may vary slightly, resulting in a small difference in estimated points.

Total Cash (excl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost excluding taxes and fees, as shown on the hotel booking site or final invoice. Marriott Bonvoy base points are earned on the pre-tax room rate only — taxes and fees are excluded.

Total Cash (incl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost including taxes and fees, as shown at the final stage of the booking process or on your invoice. This field is used for credit card points earning and for the return-on-spend calculation.

Award Points Required

Enter the number of Marriott Bonvoy points needed to book your stay as an award night. You can find this on Marriott.com by searching for your hotel and dates with the “Use Points/Certificates” option selected. Award pricing is dynamic and varies by hotel, room type, and demand — there is no fixed award chart. Leave this blank if you only want to calculate points earned on a cash stay.

Resort/Destination Fee

Unlike Hilton and Hyatt, Marriott does not waive resort or destination fees on award stays — if your hotel charges one, you pay it in cash even when redeeming points. Enter the fee for the entire stay including its tax (nightly fee × nights). It is added to the award and Points + Cash costs in the comparison. Your cash total in the “incl. Tax” field above should already include this fee, since it is part of the total cost of a paid stay. Leave the field blank if your hotel charges no resort fee.

Points + Cash

If you want to compare a hybrid redemption, enter the points and cash portions here. Marriott’s Cash + Points option lets you book an award night using fewer points plus a cash co-pay. You can find these amounts on Marriott.com when selecting the Cash + Points rate for your hotel and dates. Cash + Points bookings count as award stays, so any resort/destination fee applies here as well. Both fields are optional — if left blank, the comparison will only show cash vs. full award.

Brand

Select the brand group of your hotel stay:
Main brands — Most Marriott brands earn 10 base points per $1, including Marriott Hotels, JW Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, St. Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Le Méridien, Gaylord Hotels, EDITION, Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill Suites, AC Hotels, Moxy, Aloft, and others.
Long stay brands, Protea, City Express, Four Points Flex, Series — Earn a reduced rate of 5 points per $1. This group includes Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Element, Apartments by Marriott, Marriott Executive Apartments, Homes & Villas by Marriott, Protea Hotels, City Express, Four Points Flex, and Series.
StudioRes — Earns a flat 4 points per $1 with no elite status bonus. If you select this brand, your status bonus is not applied.

Status

Select your Marriott Bonvoy elite tier. Your status adds a percentage bonus on top of the base points you earn: Member receives no bonus; Silver Elite adds 10%; Gold Elite adds 25%; Platinum Elite adds 50%; Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite each add 75%. The bonus applies to base hotel points only — credit card and promo points are not multiplied. Note that StudioRes stays earn a flat rate with no elite bonus, so no status bonus is applied when that brand is selected.

Elite Welcome Gift

Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite, and Ambassador Elite members can choose a welcome gift at check-in, including a points option. The number of points depends on the brand: 1,000 points at premium brands (Marriott, JW Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, W, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, and others) or 500 points at select brands (Courtyard, Fairfield, SpringHill, AC, Moxy, Four Points, Aloft, and others). Other welcome gift choices such as breakfast or an amenity are not modelled in the calculator. This field is hidden for Member, Silver, and Gold tiers.

Offers

Active Marriott Bonvoy promotions are listed here. Check any offer you have registered for and that applies to your stay. Most offers require registration before your stay — deadlines and stay windows are shown where applicable. Select the Custom Offer option to enter a new or targeted offer. You can choose from a fixed amount of bonus points per stay, per night, or a multiplier of the total base points.

Note that Marriott offers are always valid for paid stays only — award stays booked with points, certificates, or a combination of points & cash do not qualify, so these bonuses apply to the cash-stay side of the comparison only.

Nights

This field only appears when needed to calculate points from an offer that is based on nights stayed.

Credit Card

Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit cards earn additional points on hotel spend. Cards are grouped by issuer:
Chase — The Bountiful, Boundless, and Ritz-Carlton cards earn 6 points/$1; the Premier card earns 5 points/$1; the Bold and Business cards earn 3 points/$1. The Bountiful card also earns a flat 1,000 bonus points per stay.
Amex — The Brilliant, Bevy, and Business cards earn 6 points/$1.
Credit card points are earned on the total spend including taxes and fees. Select No Credit Card if you are paying with a non-Marriott card.

Partner Miles

Through Marriott’s partnership with Emirates Skywards, you can earn airline miles on top of your Marriott Bonvoy points for the same stay. Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold, and Platinum members earn 1 Skywards Mile per US$1 spent on eligible Marriott stays. To earn these miles you must link your Emirates Skywards and Marriott Bonvoy accounts and register for the partnership. Select the program here to estimate the miles earned; choose None if you are not an Emirates Skywards member or have not linked your accounts.

Extra Points

Use this field for any additional points not covered by the other fields — for example, bonus-point packages or a targeted email offer.

Point Value

The assumed value of one Marriott Bonvoy point in US cents, used to convert your earned points into an estimated cash equivalent. The default of 0.77¢ per point reflects a reasonable average redemption value, though actual value varies depending on the property and room type.

Buy Points

Use this when you would buy points to cover the award — either because your balance is short, or because a points sale is cheaper than paying the cash rate. Enter the price you would pay per point, in cents. If a sale is running, use the sale price. Purchase prices are always in US cents, like the point value below, because points are sold in dollars regardless of the currency your hotel quotes.

The second field is how many points you already hold. It starts filled with the full award, meaning you have enough and are buying nothing — so the comparison you get by default is the ordinary one, points against cash, with no purchase in it. Edit it down to the balance you actually have and the calculator buys only the shortfall. Enter 0 to cost buying the whole award, which is what you want when weighing up a sale purely to book one stay. Clear the field and it goes back to tracking the award total.

Points that come out of your existing balance are costed at their redemption value (the Point Value field below), because spending them means giving up that value. Points you have to buy are costed at what you actually pay in cash.

Buy points →

Purchase rules: Points are sold in blocks of 1,000 — the calculator rounds your purchase up to the next whole block and credits any leftover points back at their redemption value. No tax or processing charge is added on top of the purchase price. Purchases are capped at 150,000 points per calendar year. If a stay needs more than that, the calculator flags it and costs the excess against your existing balance.

The award card then shows a break-even price: the price per point at which buying the points and booking the award costs exactly the same as paying cash. Below that price, buying wins; above it, pay cash. When the award can never beat cash whatever the points cost, the card says so instead.

Two things the calculator cannot check for you: purchased points generally do not count toward elite status or tier qualification, and in some programs they cannot be transferred to partners. Read the terms of the sale before buying.

Comparison Results

After clicking Compare, three cards show the effective cost of each option. Cash Stay shows your out-of-pocket cost minus the value of points you would earn. Award Stay converts the points spent to a dollar value using your chosen point valuation, plus any fees. Points + Cash combines the cash paid with the dollar value of points used. The option with the lowest net cost is marked “Best value.” A higher point value favors cash stays (your points are worth more kept), while a lower point value favors award stays.

Not Included in the Calculator

Annual Choice Benefits: Marriott Bonvoy members who reach 50 or 75 elite qualifying nights in a calendar year can select an Annual Choice Benefit such as 5 Suite Night Awards or a Free Night Award (up to 40,000 points). Because these milestones are cumulative across an entire year of stays, they are not factored into this per-stay calculator.

Airline transfer partners: Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred to over 40 airline frequent-flyer programs at a ratio of 3:1 (with a 5,000-mile bonus per 60,000 points transferred). Airline transfers are a post-earning redemption option and are not included in the earn calculation.

Non-hotel earning: Marriott Bonvoy points can also be earned through car rentals, dining, and other partner activities. These earning methods are not covered here — the calculator only estimates points earned from hotel stays.

Booking channel: This calculator assumes you booked directly with Marriott. Points and elite night credit are not earned on stays booked through online travel agencies such as Expedia or Booking.com, even though some hotels may still extend elite benefits if you add your Bonvoy number.

Multiple rooms: If you book more than one room on the same reservation, Marriott awards points on up to three rooms (but elite night credit for only one). This calculator estimates the points for a single room — multiply the base and status points accordingly for additional rooms.