I was looking into booking a room on points and I was curious if there is any guidelines on the value of a Marriott point.

Based on the cost of booking the same rooms, I calculated that my points were worth about $0.0065 if I were to make this reward reservation. Is this pretty standard or should I be looking at making my points go further.

That's a terrible return on your points, Codeboy. Most of the posts on Marriott Rewards point value cite a rate of $0.0100 per point. My own personal valuation after an analysis of my leisure stay patterns over a number of years and the room rates at various categories of Marriott hotels is $0.0087. I don't think I've seen too many posters with a lower valuation. If you are only receiving $0.0065, then save your points and purchase the room for that stay.

http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/001159.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/000459.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/000314.html

All "How much are my points worth?" threads are subjective, and depend on your earn/burn pattern.

When I was earning a lot of MR points, I valued 'em at a penny apiece. I took that value from the 087 award: 120,000 AA miles are worth 1.5c each to me, and I used the award at Kauai where a decent Priceline hotel would cost about $100/nt. So roughly $2500 in "value" for 250,000 points.

Now I earn fewer MR points, and I burn them for Residence Inn weekends. Because we have a baby and therefore need the kitchen, I value the awards against the lowest all-suites hotel room rate in my desired area (not Priceline, as that results in no kitchen). A lot of times we are talking 19,000 points vs. $85-90/nt incl taxes at an Amerisuites or something. So for me, MR points are now worth about 9/10ths of a cent each.

IMHO, you can do a lot better than .65c/pt, but it's really very subjective and depends entirely on what kind of awards you like. Someone who consistently travels to non-Priceline locations might show up here and say they'd never redeem their points for less than 1.2 or 1.3 cents each...

[This message has been edited by pinniped (edited Feb 03, 2004).]

That's a very low return on your points. For me, I only use points for either full week stays at premium hotels and/or travel packages. As a result, my yield is usually $0.09/point or more. I generally will not use an award if the hotel costs less than $200/night.

I too use the $150 - 200 a night rule.
Rememeber that when you use points for a cheap room, you not only loose the points you spend but points you could earn.
So If I can get a $100 room for two nights.
I can either spend 35K points (cat 4) which is about $ .006 a point. Or spend $200 and save 39600 points (35K + 4600).

My first instinct is "impossible". However, I will simply ask: what specific itinerary yields nine cents a point in award value?

This holds true anytime you redeem an award. I factor in the opportunity cost regardless of whether I'm looking at a Residence Inn or a 4- or 5-star hotel.

I would seriously question whether anyone would utilize awards that "usually" have a value of 9 cents per point or more. But it's possible to get to a figure much higher than a penny per point.

One example:

Round trip first class from Boston July 26 -Aug 9 for two people = 2 X $9,806 (Orbitz) = $19,612.

Two weeks at the Marriott Paris Champs-Elysees = $540 X 14 = $7,560.

Total cost = $19,612 + $7,560 = $27,172.

Required awards = 2 X 090 awards = 200,000 UA FF miles & two weeks at a category 7 hotel = 2 X 250,000 points = 500,000 Marriott Rewards points.

"Value" per point = $27,172 / 500,000 = 5.43 cents

Although that's what the value calculates to, I would never spend that much for such a trip and, accordingly, such a use of Marriott rewards points would not have that value for me. But it might for someone.

But regularly getting to a value of more than 9 cents per point...?

Come on, Bill! Even your posts at TUG haven't claimed a value that high!

You're right. I inverted something. The actual minimum for me, based on $250/night x 7 nights for 150,000 points yields 1.17 cents/point.

The best deal is still for miles earned through the travel packages. Ignoring the 'cost' of the hotel certificate from the package, you end up using 120K points for 120K miles on your favorite airline.

The recent double points Visa promotion was excellent for accumulating a lot of points. With it, you could earn up to 26 points per dollar spent (10 + 10 + 3 Marriott Visa + 3 Platinum bonus). To earn 120K points under the promo you needed only spend ~$4600. This $4600 spend ends up yielding (thru a vacation package award) 120K miles.

Those 120K miles represent ~89% of the miles needed for a FC ticket to New Zealand on AA/Cathay which costs ~17K US dollars from the east coast. Those same miles sent to United are enough for the same award on UA/NZ which retails for about $12K dollars. Thus a $4600 spend with Marriott = 120K airline miles = up to $12-15K worth of airline tickets.