Hotel Loyalty 2012-Q2 promotions Marriott Hotels Marriott Rewards (replaced by Marriott Bonvoy)

Marriott 3 free nights June 1-Aug 31, 2012

Marriott Rewards Summer Bonus promotion is MegaBonus with a seasonal name change. From June 1 to August 31, 2012 Marriott Rewards members can earn one Category 1-4 hotel free night certificate for every two Marriott hotel brand stays. The big change with this promotion is the earning limit is 3 free night certificates after six stays. Certificates are valid for one year from date of issuance which is an expanded benefit to recent offers that required redemption within six months.

This is my kind of promotion.

The option to pay for some one-night-stays in a variety of places and earn a free night certificate is the chance to pay now and travel cheaply later. Hopefully I will find some cheap opportunities for Marriott stays this summer. I’ll be looking for those under $80 rates available in places.

And I might even splurge to stay in a upper upscale hotel knowing there is a decent $75 or so rebate when I use that free night certificate for a category 4 hotel and save over $150. I am confident that I can get that kind of redemption value from a category 4 hotel over a one year time span of travel.

image

 

Marriott Rewards Summer Bonus Free Nights T&C

  • Promotion registration required by June 30, 2012.
  • Log into Marriott Rewards account, be sure earning is set to points and not miles, and check Promotion Central to find your summer bonus offer.
  • Stay two times from June 1-August 31 and earn one free night certificate.
  • Free night certificate valid at category 1-4 hotels.
  • Free night certificate expires one year after date of issuance.
  • Maximum three (3) free night awards earned with this promotion per member.
  • Only one room per hotel is counted toward a member’s nights or stay.
  • Awards are not transferable and may not be given as a gift.
  • Offer valid at participating hotels within the following participating brands, including JW Marriott®, EDITION®, Autograph Collection®, Renaissance® Hotels, AC Hotels by Marriott, Marriott® Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott®, Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott®, SpringHill Suites by Marriott®, Residence Inn by Marriott®, TownePlace Suites by Marriott® and Marriott Vacation Club®.
  • Stays at our exclusive luxury partner, The Ritz-Carlton®, will count toward achieving your bonus.

 

3 other variations of Summer Bonus Promotion

Marriott Rewards targets members with different promotions. As an infrequent Marriott hotel guest I always get the free nights offer. Here are the other offers I have seen mentioned on FlyerTalk.

5,000 points for one weekend stay, up to 15,000 points.

  • weekend stay includes a Friday or Saturday night, regardless of check-in or checkout day.
  • terms indicate you can earn two stays credit in one weekend by changing hotels on Friday and Saturday.

15,000 points for stays in 4 Marriott brands.

  • 2,500 bonus points for stays in 2 brands; another 2,500 bonus points for stays in 3 brands; and 10,000 bonus points for stays in 4 brands.
  • my observation is there are many places around the USA where three different Marriott brand hotels are next to each other. It is quite common to have a Marriott Residence Inn and a Courtyard by Marriott next door to each other with shared facilities.

40,000 Points for 25 Nights.

  • 15 Paid nights = 20,000 points; 20 paid nights = 30,000 points; 25 paid nights = 40,000 points.

 

Marriott Rewards voted Hotel Program of the Americas for five consecutive years.

In an article I wrote for InsideFlyer I noted that summer 2009, when most hotel loyalty programs had their best promotion offers of the decade, Marriott Rewards was giving a maximum one free night certificate after three stays. Most hotel loyalty programs are in retrenchment in 2012 promotion offers and Marriott Rewards is peaking for the leisure traveler this summer. Perhaps the hotel program deserves its recent accolades at the 2012 Freddies.

Marriott Rewards has 5 consecutive years as winner of best hotel loyalty program in the Americas with the Freddies (2008, 2009, 2012) and Frequent Traveler Awards (2010-2011).

I see value in Marriott Rewards.

This offer is likely the best deal to come out for summer 2012 travel. I’ll be aiming for six stays this summer with Marriott.

My only reluctance to throwing my cash all-in for the Marriott Rewards program is that Marriott Gold elite level requires a lot of nights to reach. There are challenges and other fast-track elite offers to get Marriott Rewards Gold elite for less than 50 nights. 15 nights elite credit by having the Marriott Rewards credit card is a jump-start, but even still, the 35 nights left to reach Gold is sufficient for SPG Platinum, HHonors Diamond or Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond if you tend to be a one night stay traveler like me. I almost always use points for longer stays.

This offer is a great deal for leisure travelers on the road this summer. One night is equivalent to one stay if you are moving around. These offers are less compelling for extended stay travelers. The validity of the certificates for one year from date of issuance gives sufficient time for redemption.

27 Comments

  • mark May 7, 2012

    Some people, like me, got nothing. No offer at all!

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @mark – have you asked Marriott Rewards customer service for the opportunity to register?

    My wife rarely stays in Marriott and I am generally able to sign her up for free nights.

  • Kara May 7, 2012

    I have the 40K offer open to me.. but I’d much rather earn towards the 3 free nights.. any ideas what I could do?

  • Brian May 7, 2012

    @Mark, is your earning preference set to miles? I had to change my preference to points to see the offer.

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @Kara – In the past people report being able to call Marriott Rewards customer service and get their promotion offer changed.

    Good luck!

  • emily May 7, 2012

    how much would you value one of these category 1-4 certificates at?

  • Andras May 7, 2012

    I was wondering if this is a valid scheme for staying 6 nights in the same hotel?

    day1: me
    day2: wifey
    day3: me
    day4: wifey
    day5: me
    day6: wifey

    At the end She and I will both have 1 free nights!

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @Andras – Yes that will work.

    The thing is you need to let the hotel know what you are doing if you don’t want to change hotel rooms every day. I have done this before and it worked. Hotel front desk people generally do not care that you are maximizing a promotion offer for stays.

    In the past I always go with my wife each day and physically check out at the front desk and collect my hotel folio receipt and she checks in for the next night.

    That is the assured way that you are getting a stay credit for each night.

    If some wants-to-be-clever desk clerk merges your reservations after seeing you are staying several consecutive nights, then that can be troublesome to undo.

  • D May 7, 2012

    “Offer valid at participating hotels”. The devil is in the details, I cannot find anything in the T&C’s for this that spell out which hotels do and don’t participate.

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @Emily – Here is the authentic answer. The value of the certificate depends on where and when you redeem.

    There are hotels and dates where the free night certificate can be worth around $300. The variable is whether you will be at a location where you need a hotel room when rates are high and there is free night availability.

    In all honesty, sometimes the free night certificates turn out not to be a good value. I had a Best Western free night credit in 2011 that I ended up booking on the last night of validity for the Best Western Beach Resort in Monterey. We didn’t even sleep in the room. I used the opportunity to photograph the hotel.

    I kicked myself for not putting the free night to a better use when I road traveled for over two weeks that same month.

    For Marriott I just checked the category 4 hotels here:
    http://www.marriott.com/rewards/pointsGridPopUpPropertyList.mi and then I looked at California hotels.

    Marriott San Jose is a category 4 hotel. I checked three Tuesdays in October 2012. There was no award availability at San Jose Marriott (there was availability at several Marriott brand hotels in the area at category 3 and 4 level).

    On Tue Nov 6, 2012 the standard rate for Marriott San Jose is $259 + tax. Basically even a AAA rate will be $260 after tax for this date.

    Or a free night certifcate from this promotion can be earned for far less than $260 with two hotel stays this summer.

    Bottom line is there are hundreds of hotels in many places to earn a free night certificate this summer with two paid hotel stays. You can stay two nights at different hotels or two non-consecutive nights at the same hotel and earn a free night certificate for under $160 tax included.

    I look at this offer as having the potential to pay about $200 or even less for two paid nights and redeem the free night certificate for a $200 or more hotel night.

    That makes this Marriott Rewards promotion a 5-star offer in my analysis.

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @D – there are very few hotels that do not participate. Marriott has some obscure partnerships like Bulgari Hotels and some castles in Europe. Marriott Rewards is a good program for all regular Marriott brand hotels participating in promotions. Ritz-Carlton hotels earn stay and night credit, but you can’t use free night certificates for Ritz-Carlton hotels.

    Starwood and Hilton are the programs that had many non-particiapting hotels for promotions over the past year.

    Starwood seemed to respond to the member complaints by getting all hotels to participate in the current offer for summer 2012.

  • Dana May 7, 2012

    my earning preference is set to miles and I have the 15k offer. Can you change offers?

  • ybangale May 7, 2012

    Does the hotel reservation have to be made on Marriott’s website? I have a 10% coupon on Orbitz – can I book through there and qualify as a valid rate?

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @Dana – you won’t earn Marriott Rewards points if your earning preference is set to miles. You can call Marriott Rewards customer service and ask to change promotions. Whether or not that works for your account is up to Marriott.

    @ybangale – You need to book through Marriott website. Hotels lose a large portion of revenue when you book through a third-party online agency like Orbitz. Marriott Rewards will not give you hotel stay credit for this promotion when you book the hotel through Orbitz since they only get about 75% of the money you are paying to Orbitz compared to booking direct with a Marriott website.

  • Ryan May 7, 2012

    Ric, I have some stays coming up over memorial day weekend, am I SOL when it comes to either the q1 or q2 promos?

  • Colin May 7, 2012

    I would just like to remind people that these certs are good for 1 year from the date of issuance, so there really should be no last minute rush to book rooms before they expire — 1 year’s validity is an enormous amount of time and essentially covers every season one could use the cert, unlike the past certs that were only good for 6 months validity.

    Although I was quite unhappy with Marriott re-categorizing many previously good value Cat 4 hotels as new Cat 5 hotels this past Spring, there remains the possibility that many of these hotels will drop back to Cat 4 when re-evaluated in Spring 2013. Therefore, at some point in the future, one may be able to redeem these certs at hotels that are presently listed as a Cat 5 property! In any event, there are still many hotels that are presently listed as a Cat 4 that will represent good redemption value with these certs.

  • Charles Clarke May 8, 2012

    I don’t like the fact that Marriott’s registration period doesn’t run the full length of the promotion. I realize you can register anyway, but I don’t like wasting time if I have no plans to stay. If plans change, you can’t register later in the promotion.

    It would be nice if they made this like most other chains and allowed you to register through the length of the promotion.

  • […] ***** Marriott Rewards – Summer Bonus 2012: June 1 – August 31, 2012. Earn one free night certificate at a category 1-4 hotel every two stays; maximum 3 free nights.  Free night certificate is valid for 12 months from issuance. Some members may have been targeted with a different bonus points offer. Loyalty Traveler post May 7, 2012. […]

  • […] on my summer travel list is Marriott’s Summer Bonus June 1-August 31, 2012 for one free night certificate at a category 1-4 hotel for every two stays. This bonus may be […]

  • […] on my summer travel list is Marriott’s Summer Bonus June 1-August 31, 2012 for one free night certificate at a category 1-4 hotel for every two stays. This bonus may be […]

  • […] The good news is signing up for the MegaMiles promotion does not exclude you from earning the Summer Bonus free night after two stays. […]

  • […] The good news is signing up for the MegaMiles promotion does not exclude you from earning the Summer Bonus free night after two stays. […]

  • […] than Points?Marriott 3x MegaMiles July 1-Oct 31, 2012 –Better than Points … | Hotels on Marriott 3 free nights June 1-Aug 31, 2012marble on Is this the most consumer-unfriendly Hilton HHonors program […]

  • […] if you are currently a Marriott Rewards member, then you have the option of Marriott’s Summer Bonus for a free category 1-4 hotel reward certificate after two stays from June 1-August 31 or Marriott […]

  • […] ***** Marriott Rewards – Summer Bonus 2012: June 1 – August 31, 2012. Earn one free night certificate at a category 1-4 hotel every two stays; maximum 3 free nights. Free night certificate is valid for 12 months from issuance. Some members may have been targeted with a different bonus points offer. Loyalty Traveler post May 7, 2012. […]

  • […] ***** Marriott Rewards – Summer Bonus 2012: June 1 – August 31, 2012. Earn one free night certificate at a category 1-4 hotel every two stays; maximum 3 free nights. Free night certificate is valid for 12 months from issuance. Some members may have been targeted with a different bonus points offer. Loyalty Traveler post May 7, 2012. […]

  • Partha Mandal September 9, 2012

    Nice for those who are getting no offer for me

Comments are closed.

BoardingArea