What is the conversion rate from pounds to dollars for working out dollars spent for a stay please ?

Each hotel makes up its own FX rate. You also need to strip out VAT, etc. from the all-in room rate quoted in the UK.

surely it should be a standard rate for every hotel ?

Oops..

UPDATED TO CORRECT VAT RATE

Dekmac,

If I understand your question correctly, you want to calculate how many Marriott Bonvoy points (which are based on USD) you should get for a hotel stay in the UK paid with GBP.

So far this year, the �1.00 GBP has hovered around $1.30 USD. Sometimes higher. Sometimes lower. But a multiplier of 1.3 is a good rule of thumb these days.

There are no Marriott Bonvoy points on the VAT (Value Added Tax), which is 20%.

Let's suppose you booked a hotel room that's 240 GBP per night. The actual room is �200 GBP, which is an eligible charge. The VAT is �40 GPB which is not an eligible charge.

�200 GPB x 1.3 = $260 USD, so your points are based on $260 USD.

You get 10 points per $1 USD spent at most Marriott Bonvoy brands. You get 5 points per $1 USD spent at Element, Residence Inn, and TownePlace Suites. For this exercise, we're assuming it's the former.

$260 USD x 10 = 2600 points. The actual number of points may be somewhat higher or lower, depending on the exchange rate. If you get significntly fewer points, then it's worth pursuing.

You also get points on other eligible charges, such as meals at the hotel restaurant (in most cases). The same formula applies.

If you're eligible for a Gold or Platinum welcome gift, and you choose points, there's no multiplication factor on those points — because they're already points.

VAT has been 20% in the UK since 4th Jan 2011. It was 17.5% before that.

Makes it easier to calculate 😄

Well, not really! I use this calculator: https://www.tonicfusion.com/vat-calculator

It�s actually good for working out BRG NET rates in any country as you can change the VAT rate (or points as in this case).

Thank you for catering my obsolete VAT rate. I'll update my post.

Exchange rates change every minute of the day. It's varied been between 1.291 and 1.293 in the last four hours. There should be no expectation that every hotel in the country on every day has the same exchange rate.

However as the conversion is made by marriott for the purpose of awarding points, and not for processing payments, it is a single exchange rate per currency pair worldwide. It�s the same rate they use for their site�s currency converter which is provided by bloomberg.

This thread has a few attempts at explaining how it should work. Marriott's IT doesn't agree with any of them...

Hotel A in London last week gave me a vastly different number of base points per � than Hotel B from the next night. Weekend... so no changes in FX.

By all means do the maths to see whether you are getting completely screwed. But otherwise just accept that the points you earn will not reflect current FX rates and you will come out ahead a fair amount of the time...

Thanks Guys , i wasnt aware that VAT had to be taken off , kinda makes sense now according to my calculations , but they do still miss of bonuses now and again