Marriott Free Night Certificates

Hotel Strategies, Credit Card Reference

Every year you keep the Marriott Rewards credit card, you will receive a free night certificate good at a Category 1-5 (out of 9) hotel. You can also sometimes receive Marriott certificates from different promotions. However, occasionally these are only good at Category 1-4 hotels.

Marriott Credit Card Guide

With the changes from the new unified Marriott / SPG rewards program, you can receive free night certificates from all of he program's credit cards, the certificates are capped based on the points requirement of the hotel room (not the hotel category), and most of the certificates are capped at higher-levels.

Just to be clear, other hotels also limit their certificates to only certain categories of hotels, however Hyatt Category 4 hotels still include very nice Hyatt hotels in most cities, and even IHG 40,000 point-per-night certificates will get you a solid hotel in many fairly expensive locations, while Marriott Category 5 hotels would not provide any options.

Nevertheless, most people can still get value out of the certificate. There are thousands of available hotels, and it just isn’t that difficult to get more value than the $85 annual fee. Many of these hotels have room rates in the $150 per night range. Sometimes, rates are even higher. There are just better hotel night certificate options out there for most people, and you don’t want to get stuck with too many certificates to use effectively.

Quick take on the new Marriott certificates

The new Marriott certificates more valuable, because they will be capped at 35,000 points (or more) per night, rather than at the equivalent of 25,000 points per night, and can be used across the entire program, including SPG and Ritz hotels. The certificates can be used at many of the hotels that had previously been in Category 6, or even Category 7, at least during the non-peak season.

You'll also be able to earn certificates from many more cards, and easily earn multiple certificates per year. The revised Marriott personal and business cards will now provide a 35,000 point certificate, the converted SPG cards will start providing certificates on anniversary dates after August 1st, and the new Marriott premium card and revised Ritz card will provide 50,000 point certificates.

Card	Max Points	Point "Value"	Effective Annual Fee
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

For most people, with these changes, the Marriott / SPG certificates will probably become more valuable than the Hyatt and IHG certificates.

Obtaining multiple certificates each year

If you have multiple Marriott / SPG credit cards, you can get multiple certificates each year. The Ritz Carlton card is not available for new signups, so if you don't have any of these cards, you could get up to 5 certificates each year.

Because the Marriott Personal card is subject to the Chase 5/24 rule, many people will want to use their available slots on other cards, reducing the available options to two personal card and two business cards. In addition, because of the rules described below, it is not possible to obtain the signup bonus on the SPG personal card, if you already have the Marriott card, and vise versa. So, that reinforces the idea of getting just one of these cards.

If yo want to receive the signup bonuses on these cards, you'll need to follow some other rules.

You can't receive the signup bonus on the SPG Business card, if you already have the Marriott Business card; and you can't receive the signup bonus on the Marriott Business card, if you already have the Amex Personal card. So, if you are eligible for business cards, get the SPG Business card first, followed by the Marriott business card, followed by the SPG Personal card. However, you'll have to invest some time, as you can't get the bonus on the Marriott Business card, if you've received the bonus from the SPG Business card (or Luxury card) in the last 24 months.
You can receive the bonus on the SPG Luxury card regardless of the other cards you have (other than the discontinued Ritz card). But, you'll need to wait 2 years after receiving a bonus on the Marriott personal and business cards (and you can't get the bonus on the Marriott cards until 2 years after getting the Luxury card).
So, if you are not eligible for business cards, just get the SPG personal and luxury cards at your earliest convenience.
If you are eligible for business cards, start with the SPG Luxury and Business cards, wait two years, and get the Marriott Business and SPG personal card.

Great places to use your old certificates

Here’s some links to get your imagination going.

Since Marriott hasn't released the hotel categories for the new unified program, no one is exactly sure which hotels will fall into each point-level. As a result, no one has written any articles about the best available options.

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.