Marriott Bonvoy points are worth about 0.7 to 0.82 cents each on average in 2026. That is the number that should decide whether you collect them, and it is a lot lower than most people assume.

For comparison, World of Hyatt points run somewhere around 1.7 to 2.2 cents. So on the same dollar of hotel spending, Hyatt points are worth roughly two and a half times what Bonvoy points are.

And yet I still collect Bonvoy points, deliberately, and I think a lot of people should. The reason is that the 0.7-cent average is an average across nine thousand hotels, most of which are Courtyards. What happens at the top of the portfolio is a completely different program.

Why the Average Is So Low

Marriott killed its published award chart in March 2022 and went fully dynamic. Categories still exist internally, running roughly 5,000 to 152,000 points a night, but the program does not publish them and pricing tracks demand.

Dynamic pricing does a specific thing to point value: it links award cost to cash cost. When the cash rate goes up, the points cost goes up with it. That structurally caps your redemption value near the cash price, which is exactly the outcome that makes points boring.

At a standard Marriott, a Courtyard, a Fairfield, a Sheraton, redemptions rarely clear 0.7 cents per point. You are usually better off paying cash and keeping the points. That is most of the portfolio, and it is most of what drags the average down.

Compare that to a program like Hyatt, which still publishes a category chart. Prices are knowable in advance and do not track the cash rate, which is why value survives. Our hotel program rankings work through that difference across all the major chains.

Where the Points Are Actually Worth Collecting

The top of the Marriott portfolio breaks the pattern, and it breaks it hard.

At the aspirational properties, cash rates go somewhere award pricing does not fully follow. The gap that opens is where the value lives.

St. Regis Maldives Vommuli. Cash rates in peak season run $2,000 to $3,500 a night for an entry-level villa. Award nights have been pricing between 110,000 and 150,000 points. Redemption data puts the average around 2.77 cents per point. That is not a typo, and it is roughly four times the program average.

St. Regis Bora Bora. 100,000 to 120,000 points a night against cash rates that reach $2,200 in peak season. Overwater bungalow, and the points cost does not move nearly as much as the cash rate does.

Ritz-Carlton Maldives Fari Islands. 100,000 to 130,000 points against cash north of $1,800, landing somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 cents per point.

The Ritz-Carlton Reserves. Dorado Beach, Phulay Bay, Mandapa in Ubud, Zadun in Los Cabos. Higher point costs, 100,000 to 145,000 a night, but cash rates that regularly clear $2,000.

European Luxury Collection and St. Regis properties. St. Regis Venice, the Gritti Palace, Castiglion del Bosco. These run 80,000 to 110,000 against cash rates of $1,200 to $1,800, so 1.0 to 1.3 cents per point.

One pattern connects all of them: very high cash rates, award pricing that does not fully track those rates, and a fifth-night benefit that multiplies the whole thing.

The Fifth Night Free Changes the Math

Award stays of five nights or more pay points for four nights and get the fifth free. That is a flat 20% discount stacked on top of whatever value you were already getting.

It also means Marriott rewards a specific trip shape. A five-night stay at a $2,000-a-night property is where this program is at its best. Two nights at a Sheraton is where it is at its worst.

Run it on the Maldives example. Five nights at 120,000 a night is 600,000 points, reduced to 480,000 with the fifth night free. The same trip in cash is roughly $12,500. That works out to about 2.6 cents per point on a stay that would otherwise be unaffordable for most people at any price.

That is the case for Bonvoy in one paragraph. Not the everyday value. The access.

The Honest Comparison

If you are choosing one hotel program to pour loyalty into, and your travel is normal, Hyatt is the better program and it is not close on point value. Our Globalist guide covers what that side looks like.

Marriott wins on two things Hyatt cannot answer.

The first is footprint. Roughly 9,000 properties against Hyatt's 1,400. In secondary cities, along highways, and across much of Europe outside the capitals, Marriott has a hotel and Hyatt does not. A program you cannot use is worth zero regardless of its cents-per-point.

The second is the aspirational ceiling. Hyatt's high end is excellent, but Marriott's luxury portfolio, St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Edition, Luxury Collection, is deeper and better distributed globally. The Maldives and Bora Bora redemptions genuinely do not have Hyatt equivalents.

So the answer to whether Bonvoy points are worth collecting is not yes or no. It is: worth collecting if you will spend them at the top, not worth collecting if you will spend them at a Courtyard.

Earn Them, Do Not Buy Them

The gap between earning and buying Bonvoy points is enormous, and it is the most actionable thing in this article.

Marriott sells points at 1.25 cents each at sticker. Against an average redemption value of 0.7 to 0.82 cents, buying at sticker means paying roughly 60% more than the points are worth. Even during a 40% bonus promo, which drops the effective cost to about 0.89 cents, buying only makes sense for a specific aspirational redemption you have already priced and confirmed.

Card welcome bonuses are roughly ten times cheaper per point. A Marriott Bonvoy Boundless at a $95 annual fee has carried welcome bonuses around 100,000 points plus a free night. That is an acquisition cost near a tenth of a cent per point. Buying the same 100,000 points during a good promo would run close to $890.

Further up the range, the Bonvoy Brilliant at a $650 annual fee has run bonuses as high as 185,000 points and includes a $300 dining credit, elite night credits that shortcut you toward Platinum, and an anniversary free night usable at properties up to 85,000 points. The Bonvoy Bevy sits between them.

The rule is simple. Exhaust the card welcome bonuses before the buy-points page ever enters the conversation. Our full breakdown on whether to buy Bonvoy points covers the narrow cases where buying is defensible.

What About Transfers

Transfer ratios into Marriott move, and issuers add and drop hotel partners with little notice. Before you plan around moving a flexible balance into Bonvoy, check your card issuer's live transfer partner page rather than trusting any published ratio, including this one.

What I can say with confidence is the direction that works. Marriott points transfer out to a long list of airlines at 3:1, with a 5,000-mile bonus on every 60,000 points transferred. That makes Bonvoy a reasonable place to dump a balance you are not going to use on hotels, and a poor place to route points into.

If you are sitting on Bonvoy points with no hotel redemption in sight, moving 60,000 out to an airline program with a published award chart is often better than letting them sit against dynamic pricing.

The Status Question

Points and status are separate decisions, and Marriott status is easier to justify than Marriott points.

Platinum at 50 nights carries breakfast at most brands, upgrades including select suites at check-in, and 4 p.m. late checkout outside resorts. Those benefits travel across nine thousand properties, which is the thing Hyatt cannot match.

The weak spot is confirmation. Marriott's Suite Night Awards need space to be available five days before arrival, and at the properties you actually want them, they often do not clear. Hyatt confirms suites at booking. Our comparison of how the programs handle suite upgrades lays out the difference, and there is a separate walkthrough on earning Platinum status.

So, Worth Collecting?

Yes, if you can answer this question: what is the specific property you are saving for?

If the answer is an overwater villa in the Maldives or Bora Bora, a Ritz Reserve, or a St. Regis in Europe, then collect Bonvoy points and collect them through card welcome bonuses. You can browse the Marriott Bonvoy program to see what the portfolio actually covers before committing to it. Structure the trip as five nights to capture the fifth night free. You will get two to four times the program's average value and access to rooms that are otherwise out of reach.

If the answer is "I do not know, general hotel stays," then Bonvoy points are a weak store of value and you would do better putting that loyalty into a program with published award pricing.

The mistake is collecting Bonvoy points the way you would collect a flexible currency, expecting them to be broadly useful. They are not broadly useful. They are narrowly excellent, and the difference between those two things is worth about two cents a point.

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