Marriott generally requires fewer points for a free night, but you also earn fewer points from stays and from the Marriott credit card which only earns one Marriott point per dollar. The Amex SPG card is a much much better option for earning Marriott points because SPG points convert 1:3 to Marriott (due to the companies merging) and the SPG card earns one SPG point per dollar. The Marriott card comes with silver status, which is mostly useless, and the SPG card comes with no free status. Your profile seems to indicate you're a United 1K though, which means you get free Marriott gold status through a partnership between United and Marriott. Marriott Gold pretty good for a mid-tier status, but if you really want Marriott Platinum without earning it the hard way, you can spend 75k per year on the Ritz card by Chase. This is not that great of a deal, however, since that 75k in spend will only earn 1 Marriott point per dollar (compared to 3/$ with the SPG card) and the Ritz card has a high annual fee.