Does Marriott ever do promotions?
 

Besides the Megabonus, I RARELY see any promotions from Marriott...with SPG, and Hyatt, they are constantly running great promos...am I missing something?

I think there's something just about every quarter. With the exception of the credit-card-specific Megabonus, which leaves me out, I always seem to be trying to determine which bonus to chase - MR or SPG.

Marriott does a lot of BB/PP (Bonus Bucks/Premium Pounds) promotions. While those don't necessarily increase your point accrual, they will decrease your money spent, so they tend to be favorably viewed. Plus Marriott tends to do a lot of "per hotel" bonuses as well. So when a hotel just opens or has a big change, Marriott may offer some extra points for a stay there. Or if Marriott is trying to get more persons to stay in a particular hotel or even region, they may throw in some points there as well.

Marriott has also recently been doing a lot of promos around the purchasing of their gift cards (i.e. 10% off, bonus points, free luggage, etc.) So you could save some money purchasing and using those.

Marriott has a megabonus type of promotion in the spring and in the winter. The winter promotion involves visa and the spring promotion involves the amount of stays.

There are other promotions, but these are the main two that I remember each year.

In my case, I get 35,000 points for both promotions. If I sign up for the Marriott Visa card, I will receive 20,000 additional points for this year. Total points received for this year will be 90,000 promotional points. To me, that's quite a deal.

Actually, you could sign up for 3 Marriott Visa cards (Premier, Business, base personal) and receive 60K points. The Business and base personal cards have the 1st year free, so no real cost.

As you state outside of MegaBonus, Marriott is not known for system wide promos like the other Hotel programs but they do offer quite a few individual bonuses and I try to compile the majority of them at:
www.frequentflyerbonuses.com/marriott.html

Superdawg, thanks for the link and info!

Besides Mega Bonus, the only promotion they are running is if you stay 75 nights a year they will give you a 30% bonus on the base MR points for each stay.

Of cause thats for your stays after getting to 75 the 1st time. Along the way after your 15th stay you get 20% and after your 50th you get 25%.

In other words these are the bonus pts based on ones Elite Level, and not a Promo in any sense of the word.

Most people think of a Promo as something extra beyond what normally is gotten. Since the 20-30% pts are based on Status its not a so called promo

Marriott's best promotions are ongoing and/or very long-running, so aren't seeing them advertised often. FTers talk about them a lot though. :)

Anytime you see someone on this board talk about HPR, EEO, BB, PP, or Megabonus, they're talking about a Marriott promotion. Not to mention fairly regular and ongoing Marriott Gift Card promotions that can either discount every stay you do by 10% or add additional bonus points to your account. (Or allow you to eBay a bunch of red suitcases. :D)

Personally, I like the mix of points- and non-points-related promos. I have hit HPR about six times this year alone, and have 2 rooms booked under this promo for family visiting for holidays. I've completely lost track of how many PP/BB certs I've used this year. I was on a roll for a while where I was using one and earning one on every Marriott stay, although that's slowed down somewhat now.

The only catch is that we now expect all of these promos. In that sense, we no longer view them as typical "promotions" in the strictest definition of the word. When we perceive something as permanent, we treat it like a normal program feature and grumble mightily when/if it is altered in any way.

You are not missing anything. There are very few point promos on Marriott and even the Megabonus sucks compared to what competition is offering.

hmm

well i'm getting the 2,500 megabonus tonight
a 20% off rate M11 rate
and the $50/$25 discount voucher for a springhill suites in herndon which is $59 (and which is available without the voucher for $55).
and the springhill suites breafast.


after taxes (and because i have a marriott credit card), that works out to 3550 points for $70 AND coupon to get my remaining stay from the megabonus promo for $25 off.

i would say that is pretty promotional

Never stayed at the Springhill Suites and never will.

Right now I am the a panoramic view suite @ Renaissance Hollywood & Highland.

the springhills aren't my favorite. (hyatt place is much, much nicer). But for $54 to $59 (plus tax), 2,500 bonus points and a free breakfast, (plus another 1,000 from the actual stay), I can live with it.

I took my last marriott free stay in the j.r. marriott in Shanghai.

in the d.c. area, you can stay cheap in the suburbs, though this week is unusually cheap.

by the way, I've learned I may have wrongly described the $50/$25 coupon above. I now believe my one night stay gets me a $25 coupon good on a two night stay which probably means I wont use it and should have booked at the cheaper $54 rate. I booked at the $59 rate which includes the coupon.

superdawg- Thanks for the nice link.

My biggest problem with SHS is that many (all?) of them do not have any true 1-bedroom suites. Learned that the hard way...

If you want a suite at Marriott, either book one at an FS property - or book RI or TPS.

Sorry for the minor threadjack... :)

Hello Bsdstone,

Some of the following promotions occur daily and some occur quarterly:

Daily Promos:

Bonus Bucks (BBs):When staying one night at Full Service (FS) Marriotts, Hotels and Suites, you can receive $50 BBs or you can receive $100 BBs when you stay at least two nights toward a future 2-night stay. I have seen some hotels rates that include receiving a $25 BB for a 1-night stay and a $50 BB for a 2-night stay; these are particularly at non FS Marriotts. You would need to book the reservation for a weekend stay using the M11 code.

Gold and Platinum members can receive Buy 1 Get 1 Free Exclusive Elite Offers (EEOs) in which you can receive the EEOs certificate. You would have to sign in to your Marriott account online and view your Gold or Platinum Offers and look for the Stay and pay for 1 night and get the 2nd night free.

Visa Premier Card: Apply online at marriott.com and you can receive 20,000 points with any first purchase and receive a free night award to stay at any Category 1-5 Marriott hotel. You would earn 15 free nights toward your account which could help you reach Gold Level or Platninum Level; you would receive 5 points/$ spent on any Marriott hotel stay, earn 2 pts./$ when paying for rental vehicles, and 1 pt./$ spent on all other purchases. The free night award and the 15 free nights are earned annually provided that your account is in good standing.

Sign up for weekly hotel specials through the "Marriott E-breaks" specials.


Quarterly Promos:

Megabonus Promotion: Based on your account history, these are promotions in which you can earn a set amount of points for a period of time for a staying a certain amount of nights in a certain period of time (for example, earn 35,000 points when you stay 15 nights in a 3 month period)

Double Nights/Points Promo: This promo can earn you 2 nights for every night stayed during the promo period as well as earn double points for the period of the promo.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Marcell...that post was very well thought out and helpful!
Unfortunately it confirms what I suspected and that is that while Marriott may run quite a bit of promotions, the ones I am after are the points earning type, and they don't seem to run too many of those other than mega bonus. I have the Marriott Credit Card and about 125K in points. I am saving my points for a 5 night stay at the Ritz in either Grand Cayman or Turks and Caicos (assuming it participates in MR Redemption program). It may take a few years as Marriott is a tertiary program for me, but I need my kids to get out of diapers before we make that trip! :-)

Thanks again!