Marriott Bonvoy Now Awards Half Elite Nights: Good Change To A Bad Policy

With Marriott Bonvoy, you can earn elite status based on how many elite qualifying nights you rack up in a year. Going back many years, you’d earn one elite night per night stayed at all brands, though over time, we’ve seen earnings rates change.

Specifically, Marriott is increasingly awarding only one elite night for every two nights stayed at limited service brands. The hotel group has actually just made a (sort of) positive update to that policy, so let’s cover the details.

Marriott brands that don’t offer “full” elite night earning

Ultimately Marriott’s customers are hotel owners, and not the actual guests staying at hotels. We know that Marriott has been focused on room count growth over all else, and as a result, we’ve seen Marriott try to lower loyalty program related costs for some of the more limited service brands.

Marriott has well over 30 hotel brands, and it can be hard to keep track of them. At this point, several limited service brands don’t award one elite night per night stayed. Specifically, the brands that don’t earn elite nights at that rate are as follows:

• City Express by Marriott
• Four Points Flex by Sheraton
• Marriott Executive Apartments
• Protea Hotels by Marriott
• Series by Marriott

Up until now, most of these brands have offered one elite night for every two nights stayed (with the exception of Marriott Executive Apartments, which offers one elite night for every three nights stayed).

So that has meant that for most of these brands, a stay of one night didn’t earn any elite nights, a stay of two or three nights earned one elite night, a stay of four or five nights earned two elite nights, etc.

While some elite qualification is better than nothing, this policy was certainly frustrating, especially for one-night stays. So along those lines, there’s a positive update.

Marriott starts awarding half elite nights for stays

Marriott Bonvoy has just updated its terms & conditions, to make an update that people will appreciate:

At City Express, Four Points Flex, Protea Hotels, and Series by Marriott, Members will be awarded half of one (0.5) Elite Night Credit for each Qualifying Night stayed.

So as you can see, you can now earn half elite nights in the Marriott Bonvoy program. If you stay an even number of nights, then this policy change doesn’t have any implications. However, if you stay just one night, it means you’ll finally be rewarded for those stays in terms of elite nights. In other words, two one-night stays would earn one elite night under the new policy, while they would’ve earned zero elite nights under the old policy.

There’s no update to the Marriott Executive Apartments policy, as Marriott isn’t awarding 0.33 elite nights per night there. You’ll continue to only earn elite nights on stays that are at least three nights.

While I hate the concept of not earning one elite night per night spent away from home, this is at least positive, as I see it.

Bottom line

I’m not at all a fan of Marriott’s policy of not awarding one elite night per night stayed at select brands. This is something that has spread over time, clearly as Marriott tries to limit the costs hotel owners incur as they join the Marriott system.

On the plus side, I at least appreciate the latest update, which is that you can earn half elite nights. Under the old policy, a one-night stay at one of these properties would earn you zero elite nights, while now you can earn 0.5 elite nights. So if you frequent properties that don’t award full elite nights, at least you’ll incrementally receive additional rewards.

What do you make of Marriott Bonvoy’s half elite night policy?