Is Marriott Bonvoy Still Worth It in 2026?

Recently, it seems like Marriott has quietly raised award prices (again!) across its portfolio by another 5–10%. There was no announcement and no email, and the increase was only caught because third-party award trackers watched the numbers tick up overnight.

That is Marriott Bonvoy in a single sentence. There’s no chart to point to, no notice when the goalposts move, and a points currency that’s worth a little less every few months whether you’re paying attention or not.

Once upon a time, Marriott Bonvoy was one of the most valuable hotel loyalty programs.

Redemptions were reasonably priced, elite status perks were promised without having to awkwardly push front desk staff, and transferring points from American Express Membership Rewards (MR) was a smart way to stretch your stays.

But over the years, Marriott has increased award prices both loudly and quietly, removed its official award chart, and diluted the value of its points.

So, in 2026, is Marriott Bonvoy still worth it? Or are you better off booking cash stays—or even switching hotel loyalty altogether?

The State of Marriott Bonvoy in 2026

Marriott Bonvoy still offers a massive footprint of properties worldwide, from budget-friendly Courtyards to ultra-luxurious Ritz-Carltons.

There’s no denying that having Marriott Bonvoy points or holding a Marriott Bonvoy credit card allows you to book a hotel nearly anywhere on the planet and enjoy the perks that come with it.

But the value of Bonvoy points has taken a hit over time:

• Award pricing is now fully dynamic, meaning redemption pricing can fluctuate wildly.
• High-end properties cost significantly more points than before.
• There is no official award chart, making it hard for travellers to determine if the redemption rates they see at the time of booking are a good deal.

For loyalists and business travellers who frequently stay at Marriott hotels, the program can still be useful. But if you’re collecting points purely to maximize value, it’s getting harder to justify.

The July 2026 cut is a good example of how this plays out. A 5–10% bump doesn’t sound like much, but it stacks on top of every quiet increase that came before it, and it lands with zero warning. At the everyday properties most people actually book, redemptions now routinely come in around half a cent per point, well short of the 0.8 cents we aim for as a baseline at Prince of Travel, and a fraction of what these points fetched a few years ago.

Marriott No Longer Uses an Award Chart

Marriott no longer publishes an official award chart, and it instead uses a dynamic pricing model that varies by demand.

However, we can still use Marriott’s old category chart as a reference point for roughly how expensive a property is likely to be.

What Do These Hidden Categories Mean?

These categories aren’t published anywhere, and Marriott has since removed the last workaround that let enthusiasts look them up in a hotel’s page source. The ranges below are what points enthusiasts last mapped out in 2024 and early 2025, before that field disappeared, so treat them as an archival snapshot of what these categories used to cost rather than anything you can rely on today. Marriott no longer assigns or displays these numbers, so where we still use them below, treat them as former categories — a rough shorthand for how pricey a hotel tends to be rather than an official tier.

Even though Marriott has switched to fully dynamic pricing, each category still sat within a rough minimum and maximum band, and the ranges below are where those bands landed the last time this was visible.

Here’ s the general range enthusiasts had mapped out, as of 2024 and early 2025.

While not an official source, this gives a ballpark idea of what different hotels used to cost in Bonvoy points.

As you can see, award night pricing has crept upward without any official announcement from Marriott.

How Marriott Bonvoy’s Devaluations Affect Different Hotel Categories

Marriott Bonvoy’s shift to dynamic pricing means that award prices have increased unpredictably across all categories.

Lower-tier hotels (formerly Categories 1-3) have seen minimal changes, but their dynamic range can be bizarre. For example, a former Category 1 hotel can cost over three times its minimum award price.

Former Category 4-6 hotels have seen the biggest devaluation, making Free Night Awards (FNAs) harder to redeem effectively. Many hotels that were previously bookable with a Free Night Award now require topping up with more points or are outright impossible to book, reducing their value and utility.

Luxury hotels in the former Category 8 and above have seen the steepest price jumps, with some properties now exceeding 200,000 points per night, and the dynamic ceiling has since crept up to roughly 236,000 points. While some ultra-expensive cash rates may still justify a points redemption, it’s now worth looking at alternative loyalty programs like Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt for better value.

Lower Categories (Formerly 1-3): Budget Friendly No More

Historically, former Category 1-3 hotels were great for budget travellers or those looking to earn cheap Elite Night credits through extended stays.

While these properties have seen relatively smaller increases in terms of absolute cost in points, the way dynamic pricing has been implemented makes redemptions unpredictable and less valuable.

One of the biggest issues is the huge gap between minimum and maximum pricing—for example, a former Category 1 hotel can now cost more than three times its minimum price on peak dates.

Personally, I had my eye on AC Hotel Penang to earn Elite Night credits and push towards Titanium Elite status.

Until 2025, this hotel used to consistently cost 5,000 points per night year-round.

Therefore, by utilizing Fifth Night Free benefit, one could plan to stay 10 nights for the price of 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. (20,000 points for a five-night stay x 2)

However, prices have kept climbing. By 2025, the same room was up to 12,000 points a night, or 48,000 points for a five-night stay.

By 2026, it’s up to 18,000 points per night, which averages around 67,000 points for those same five nights, a further 40% jump in a single year with no added value.

Given its inconvenient location, I’m now better off paying a bit more for a far better stay at the Courtyard Penang, which is closer to the city centre (or even consider not travelling to Penang at all).

Mid-Tier Categories (Formerly 4-6): Free Night Awards Are Harder to Use

The biggest devaluations have occurred in the former Categories 4-6, and the impact is most noticeable for those who redeem Free Night Awards. In the past, a 35K or 40K Free Night Award could reliably be used at a solid mid-tier hotel, but that’s no longer always the case.

Both the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card in Canada come with an annual Free Night Award worth 35,000 points. These certificates can be topped up with up to 25,000 Marriott points, allowing for a redemption of hotels priced up to 60,000 points per night.

The 40K Free Night Award is available through the 75-night Annual Choice Benefit for Titanium Elite members. Just like the 35K FNA, it can be topped up with up to 25,000 points, allowing for redemptions up to 65,000 points per night.

While slightly better than the 35K FNA, peak pricing still makes redemptions difficult, especially at high-demand resorts and city hotels.

Many previously accessible former Category 5-6 hotels now price above 65K points per night, making FNAs harder to use effectively.

This forces travellers to either use FNAs at lower-tier hotels (which might not be ideal) or top up with more points, reducing the value of the “free” night.

A year on, those same Fallsview hotels have only climbed higher. The Sheraton Fallsview and Niagara Falls Marriott now price at 70,000 and 75,000 points a night respectively, well clear of what any Free Night Award can cover.

It isn’t just leisure markets, either. A straightforward downtown Vancouver stay now runs 82,000 to 85,000 points a night at the Autograph Collection and JW Marriott properties.

High-End Categories (Formerly 8+): Where Devaluation Bites Hardest, but Value Still Hides

The high end cuts both ways. It has taken the steepest devaluations, but it is also where the last genuine sweet spots tend to hide.

While higher-end hotels have always been expensive, the most dramatic increases have happened in the former Category 8 hotels and above.

You’ll have to be extremely lucky to be able to use either of the Free Night Awards to redeem for a former Category 7 hotel, and at these levels it’s now near impossible. And for the former Category 8 and 9 hotels, the maximum price has increased dramatically, by 10,000 points and 20,000 points respectively.

Some properties even cost over 200,000 points, making it almost hopeless for an average traveller to redeem. 

However, Marriott Bonvoy points can still make sense in cases where cash rates are extremely high compared to award pricing. A property like the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, where cash rates regularly exceed $2,000 per night, might still be a reasonable redemption at 128,000 points, yielding just over 1.5 cents per point in value.

Even that example has drifted since. The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto now prices at around 146,000 points a night, up from 128,000, against a cash rate of roughly 2,276 CAD.

That said, value hasn’t disappeared entirely. The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty is a genuine sweet spot, a full Ritz-Carlton for around 57,000 points a night against a cash rate of roughly 1,256 CAD. The catch is that these deals increasingly show up in niche, off-the-beaten-path destinations like Almaty rather than the marquee cities where award pricing has run away.

However, for most other properties, Marriott Bonvoy redemptions may no longer be worth it. With Marriott’s unpredictable pricing and rising redemption costs, it’s now worth looking at alternative programs.

Looking at Alternative Loyalty Programs for Luxury Stays

With Marriott Bonvoy’s high-end award pricing increasing sharply in the recent past, it’s now worth considering other hotel loyalty programs to see if they offer better value in the same destination.

Hilton Honors:

• No award chart with fixed pricing, but Free Night Rewards are way more flexible, since you can redeem them at any property as long as there’s a standard redemption rate available.
• The addition of Small Luxury Hotels of the World to the program presents some very intriguing opportunities for high-value points redemptions at luxury hotels.
• The American Express Platinum Card gives instant Gold status, which includes complimentary breakfast at most properties (daily F&B credit in the US), a perk that adds significant value.

World of Hyatt:

• Still maintains an award chart, making it far more predictable than Marriott Bonvoy’s pricing.
• That said, Hyatt expanded its award chart in May 2026 from three pricing tiers to five (Lowest, Low, Moderate, Upper, and Top), which pushed higher-end redemptions up, with the new Top tier running as much as 67% above the old Peak price.
• Category 7-8 Hyatt hotels are often significantly cheaper in points than Marriott Bonvoy’s former Category 8-9 properties.
• Globalist status (top-tier) is arguably the best hotel elite status in the game, with near guaranteed suite upgrades and free breakfast (but it’s also more difficult to earn).

Accor Live Limitless:

• Home to a deep luxury and lifestyle portfolio that Marriott can’t match, including Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel, Mondrian, SLS, and MGallery.
• Points are fixed-value at roughly 3.2 Canadian cents each, worth the same regardless of the property or date. There’s no dynamic pricing, and that rate sits comfortably ahead of Bonvoy’s 0.8 cents.
• The catch is that fixed-value points work like cash rather than an award chart, so you won’t unlock the outsized aspirational redemptions. The real draw is predictability, strong elite status perks, and the ALL Accor+ membership.

Conclusion

For business travellers or Lifetime Elite Status holders, Marriott Bonvoy can still be a useful program, but it requires far more effort than before to get good value.

The stealth devaluations, unpredictable pricing, and increased redemption costs make it harder to maximize points, especially for those relying on Free Night Awards or lower-category properties for elite status runs.

That said, I still see pockets of value in the program. Low-category hotels can still be useful for earning cheap elite nights or extended stays, and mid-tier properties are best utilized when you have just enough points to top up a Free Night Award.

As for luxury properties, Bonvoy redemptions can still make sense—but only when the cash rate is astronomically expensive.

For me, there’s a simple gut check. The moment a select-service hotel like a Courtyard or Four Points is asking 50,000 points or more, or $300 to $400 a night in cash, that’s the signal that it’s time to stop being loyal for loyalty’s sake and stay open to other options.

The July 2026 flash cut is the clearest argument for not sitting on a large balance. Every point you hold is worth a little less each time Marriott nudges pricing upward, and you never get a warning to burn them before it happens.

However, if there’s one rule that applies to any loyalty program, it’s earn and burn. Points will almost certainly devalue over time, so don’t hoard more than you need.