Marriott One Free Category 1-4 Night After Three Stays, June 1-August 31

Marriott’s summer promotion has several targetted variations as usual. The offer I received is one free night after three stays from June 1 through August 31. There is a limit of two free nights that may be earned. A $50 Hertz voucher is a side benefit.

The main limitation of the free night offer is the free night credit is only valid for up to a category 4 hotel in the eight category Marriott Rewards system. Free nights may be redeemed from  through December 31, 2010. Free nights may not be transferred or gifted to others.

Members must register by June 30 for this promotion.

Two free nights at a category 4 hotel is equivalent to a 40,000 point value. In California there is the Long Beach Marriott, Irvine Marriott, and San Jose Marriott to name a few hotels that could potentially be $200 per night, yet available as a category 4 award.

There are some high quality properties in the top-tier luxury brand J.W. Marriott hotels in the category 4 level, but you will need to leave the USA for places like the J.W. Marriott Cairo, Egypt; J.W. Marriott Quito, Ecuador; J.W. Marriott Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and J.W. Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel, Romania.

In Europe there are also several high-end Renaissance properties like the Renaissance Moscow, Renaissance Vienna and Renaissance Cologne.

Marriott targets promotions and some members received points offers.

Alternate Points offer #1: Earn 20,000 points after 15 nights or 30,000 points after 20 nights.

Alternate Points offer #2: Earn 25,000 points after 20 nights or 40,000 points after 25 nights.

I am amazed at how Marriott maintains such loyal followers in the face of lukewarm loyalty promotions, but each traveler has his or her own preferences. The main value I see with Marriott is a highly competitive award chart. Hyatt has a good distribution of hotels across the categories like Marriott, but Marriott has 8x more hotels than Hyatt. Hilton and Starwood are pretty vacant at the low category award levels.

I am happy to have a free night offer from Marriott and perhaps in August I will find my way to Marriott brands after the Hyatt (June 30), Hilton (June 30), and Starwood (July 31) free night promotions expire.

You may also want to check out Marriott’s 5,000 Delta Skymiles offer per stay that maxes out at 60,000 miles after 13 stays from May through September 6, 2010.