The Maldives just got even dreamier for folks with Marriott Bonvoy points to burn: The second JW Marriott in the country is now open.
27.01.2025 - 18:21 / thepointsguy.com
In a world without posted award charts, it's hard to say when a program devalues its rewards currency. But, based on online reports and our own searches, Marriott Bonvoy appears to have increased its award costs across a slew of properties. This marks a serious devaluation for its members who save up points to take hard-earned vacations.
When Starwood and Marriott merged in 2018, there was a period of time when the award cost for properties tapped out at 60,000 points per night. That then went up to 85,000 to 100,000 points per night. In more recent years, the program has tended to lock in an unofficial cap of around 150,000 points on nightly redemption costs for peak nights and stays at high-end properties.
As View From The Wing first shared, that has changed: Multiple properties now cost between 200,000 and 300,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Related: Why points and miles are a bad long-term investment
TPG has contacted Marriott Bonvoy for confirmation, but the company has not responded as of the time of writing.
For example, we are now seeing nightly award rates at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad for 142,000 points per night; The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort for as high as 198,000 points per night; and the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya for an eye-watering 236,000 points per night.
Here's a run-through of some examples of the current points prices we're seeing across the Marriott portfolio:
To our eyes, this would suggest that even a relatively mid-tier property could set you back up to 85,000 points per night. Of course, that is a real challenge for travelers saving up their Marriott points to take a trip. It also presents a unique challenge for those with Marriott free night certificates at the 35,000-, 50,000- and 85,000-point levels, as they will now find that the certificates don't stretch nearly as far as they previously did.
For example, at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, we're seeing just three nights across the entire 2025 calendar that cost less than 85,000 points per night. This means most nights at that property (and many others) are entirely out of reach of that certificate — even though travelers could have used it at any Marriott property in the system just a few years ago.
Another example: When we looked back at the W Amsterdam in 2022, we rarely saw the cost above 70,000 points per night. Now, that is the lowest price you will see, and that's a rare one or two days here or there.
Three years after dropping its award charts for a dynamic pricing structure, Marriott Bonvoy has significantly increased the number of points it costs to stay at some of its properties. This is not to mention the rapid ascent in award pricing that has come since the merger between
The Maldives just got even dreamier for folks with Marriott Bonvoy points to burn: The second JW Marriott in the country is now open.
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