How to Use a Marriott Free Night Certificate

Marriott Bonvoy offers its loyalty program members two ways of booking free night awards: with Bonvoy points or with free night awards. Points can be accumulated by staying at Marriott properties and by making purchases on co-branded credit cards.

Most free night awards come from holding and renewing Marriott credit cards issued by American Express and Chase. Here are some tips on how to get and how to use a Marriott certificate.

Marriott free night awards range in value, and that value depends on the method with which you earned it. Marriott certificates are worth the following number of Bonvoy points:

• Up to 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

• Up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

• Up to 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

• Up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

• Up to 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

If you still hold the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier card (no longer available to new applicants), then you receive a free night award with Marriott worth up to 25,000 Bonvoy points every year you renew the card.

Holding and renewing the following credit cards earns you a certificate worth up to 35,000 Marriott points:

• The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card.

• The Marriott Bonvoy™ Premier Plus Business card (not available to new applicants).

• The Marriott Bonvoy American Express® Card (not available to new applicants). All information about the Marriott Bonvoy American Express® Card has been collected independently by Nerdwallet. The Marriott Bonvoy American Express® Card is no longer available through Nerdwallet.

• The Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card.

The following two cards offer a certificate worth 50,000 Marriott points after you spend $15,000 per year:

• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card.

• Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card.

It’s also possible to receive a free night award worth up to 35,000 Marriott points by spending at least $60,000 on the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card or the Marriott Bonvoy™ Premier Plus Business Card during the calendar year. Terms apply.

If you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card or the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card (not available for applications), you earn a free night award worth up to 85,000 Bonvoy points every year after your card renewal month. Terms apply.

Every calendar year you reach 50 elite nights and then again when you reach 75 nights with Marriott Bonvoy, you’re eligible to pick an Annual Choice Benefit. A free night award worth up to 40,000 points is available as one of the selections when you reach 75 qualifying nights.

If you have any Marriott free night awards available for use, you’ll find them in your account under “Activity.” Each certificate displays its value and expiration date, which is one year after it’s issued.

Certificates can’t be extended beyond their expiration date and must be redeemed and have a stay completed before that date.

Free night awards don’t post immediately upon credit card renewal. Allow up to 12 weeks for the certificate to be available for redemption through your Bonvoy account.

To use a Marriott certificate for a free night, begin searching among the hotel's more than 9,000 properties. Zero-in on those hotels' whose cost in points is close to the value of your free night certificate (35,000 or 50,000). It is possible to apply certificates toward a higher-priced room and cover the difference with up to 15,000 points.

When searching, know that seasonality is taken into account when pricing out hotel rooms.

Marriott used to have a search tool that allowed you to narrow down properties based on how many points were required for a free night, but unfortunately that tool is no longer available.

If you’re open to various destinations, you can use Marriott’s search tool to help you narrow down your options by selecting the continent. Once you do that, you can then view a list of countries along with how many Marriott properties there are in those countries.

For example, if you select France, you’ll see a list of all Marriott properties located in France. Once you input your travel dates and select the “use points/certificates” option, you’ll see a list of hotels and how many points the stay would cost. You can then sort that list by points to get an indication of what the nightly rate would be.

Sorting the list of hotels can help you figure out if you can use your certificate at your selected property.

Select which certificates you want to use and how many, and you’ll see them apply to your reservation in the summary of charges.

It’s possible to mix and match paid stays and free nights on one reservation. If your stay is longer than the number of certificates you have, simply pay the rest of the bill with your credit card or Marriott points and complete your booking.

» Learn more: Trouble using your Marriott free night certificates?

Because each certificate’s value is limited to a specific point valuation, you want to make sure you book a hotel that uses close to the full amount of points. For example, the best bang for your buck for 35,000-point certificates will be at hotels that cost 35,000 points per night.

It also helps to consider how much the certificate costs you to acquire. Because credit cards that come with free night awards charge annual fees, you’re paying anywhere between $85 to $450 to earn these certificates. Try to redeem them at hotels whose nightly rates exceed the membership fees you pay.

For example, you get a free night award worth up to 35,000 points with the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, which has an annual fee of $125 (see rates and fees). If you redeem the free night at a hotel that costs $350 per night including taxes, you offset the annual fee and get two to three times the value back. Terms apply.

» Learn more: Great hotels to redeem your 35,000-point Marriott Certificate with a top-up

Another great way to use Marriott certificates is to extend a vacation you book with either cash or points. Whenever you redeem enough Bonvoy points to stay five consecutive nights at one hotel, you get the fifth night free. So, one of the ways to get maximum value from your Marriott certificates is to use them to add one or two nights to your five-night reservation. With this method, you can get a weeklong stay paid by rewards.

Free night awards that are included on certain Marriott credit cards make paying annual fees easier to swallow. Marriott certificates do have some restrictions, but they can come in handy for a ski weekend, a road trip to a national park or an overnight layover in an upscale hotel in Europe.

As long as you can offset your card’s annual fees by redeeming your Marriott certificates for rooms with high nightly rates, you come out on top.

The information related to the Marriott Bonvoy™ Premier Plus Business card and the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.