How to book Cash+Points rates that Marriott has now rolled out

Back in October 2015, Marriott announced the "Fab Four", a collection of four benefits that were coming to the Marriott Rewards program. Looking back at our posts, I realise we hadn't written about it at the time. The four benefits are (1) points advance, enabling booking rewards without points (as long as you have them before your stay, (2) points sharing, which permits transfers of up to 50,000 MR points between linked members, (3) redemption stay credit, where award nights are eligible for elite night credits, and (4) cash + points, which allows a reward night to be booked with part-cash and part-points. Marriott Rewards has now rolled out cash + points across various hotels in its portfolio. Here are the rates and our views.


While the rates for cash+points bookings were announced last October, it is only now that they have become bookable. Rates for cash+points bookings differ for Marriott hotels and Ritz-Carlton hotels.


Starwood and Hyatt already offer a cash-and-points rate, while Hilton and IHG have a similar, but not exact, offering.

To put this in the context of actual cash and points spent, here's our analysis:

In effect, you can get a value ranging from Rs 0.40 (Category 5) to Rs 0.88 per MR point (Category 9) at Marriott hotels, and between Rs 0.48 (Category 3) and Rs 0.71 (Category 5) at Ritz-Carlton hotels. In our January 2016 valuations, we valued MR points at Rs 0.53 per point. 

JW Marriott Juhu

You can search for availability of cash+points rates by doing a search for reward nights, and then looking for whether the hotel has a cash+points rate for award nights. However, not all Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels have a cash+points rate being offered. For instance, even within India, the Courtyard Ahmedabad does not offer a cash+points rate whereas the Courtyard Bangalore (ORR) does.



And the difficult bit is, that in order to find out which ones do indeed offer it, a detailed search is required. There is really no short cut to this. However, we have been able to do the dirty work, for the Marriott India hotels, to save you readers some time! And here are our findings...only the following Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels offer a cash+points option in India:
  • Courtyard, Bangalore 
  • Fairfield - Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore 
  • Fairfield - ORR, Bangalore 
  • Marriott Whitefield, Bangalore 
  • Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore 
  • JW Marriott Aerocity, Delhi 
  • Courtyard, Gurgaon

Here's what the cash+points rates look like, when compared to both cash-only and points-only rates:


Effectively, the cash+points rate is better than a points-only rate at 5 hotels, and better than cash-only rates at 2 hotels. At the Courtyard Marriott Gurgaon, cash+points actually offers the worst rate, when compared to points-only or cash-only rates. 

However, the above (ie, cash+points being the mid-rate in 7 out of 8 hotels) is pretty much exactly when such a rate should be used...when you're short of points, using points entirely doesn't make sense, or cash rates are too high.

Other questions


Is Cash + Points available for members of both Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards®?Yes, Marriott Rewards and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards both offer Cash + Points. Participation varies by hotel.

Does Cash + Points follow No Blackout Dates?No, members can redeem their points for Cash + Points at participating Marriott® brand hotels and The Ritz-Carlton® hotels based on availability. Participation varies by hotel.

Will I earn Elite night credits with Cash + Points?Yes, you will earn one Elite night credit for every night redeemed and stayed using Cash + Points.

Will I earn points on the cash portion of Cash + Points?No, members will not earn points on the cash portion of Cash + Points.

Will Cash + Points count toward “Redeem 4 Nights, Get the 5th Night Free”?No, Cash + Points does not count toward “Redeem 4 Nights, Get the 5th Night Free.”

Do Cash + Points amounts fluctuate?No, Cash + Points amounts remain the same within each hotel category. Please refer to the chart for further details.

Conclusion

It is great that Marriott now provides a cash+points option for award nights. The facts that points are not earned on cash+points rates, and such nights don't count for the 5th night free, are drawbacks. However, cash+points stays being eligible for elite night credits is a positive. Overall, this is an excellent additional option for MR members to use their points.

Readers: Where do you stand on cash+points type of rates? Do you think it is useful from a practical perspective?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris

Image
I checked out of the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile yesterday morning, and checked into the Le Meridien Etoile, just around the corner from the Hyatt, in the evening after a day's sightseeing. Hyatt was kind enough to hold my bags for the duration of the day (which is a surprise in today's world of terror threats), and I'm grateful to them for that. The Le Meridien has standard and chic rooms as two of their base category rooms. As I mentioned in the introduction post, I booked a chic room on an award. Here's a review of the hotel and room, but not breakfast (that didn't come with the room, and we planned to head to the airport a little early in any case). Index of posts Bonjour Paris: Introduction and summary of posts Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, CMB airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Re...
Read more

Hotel review: Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium

Image
As part of my recent business visit to Singapore, I spent an extra night there just so I could catch up with friends, some of whom I haven't met in over a decade. And because I needed one more stay to qualify for the bonus under IHG's Accelerate 2016 promotion , and also simultaneously earn a few more IHG Rewards Club bonus points under the Book Direct promotion, I decided I was going to spend the extra night at an IHG hotel. Luckily for me, just hours before my flight to Singapore, I was able to get a rate of SG$150++ a night, which is a fantastic rate for Singapore, especially for a booking as late as mine was. However, I had received mixed reviews when I sought inputs from my Singapore-based friends, and so I decided that I would have a dekko at this myself. I had already been in touch with the hotel (even before my booking was done), to check if they were able to offer me early check in (official check in time is 3 pm, and my flight was to land at 9 am). They said they...
Read more

The week that was - 23 October 2016

Image
Hello from Paris, where my business-and-vacation trip is coming to a close. Vinay is in KUL on work, an Sam has been largely incommunicado. And I've had a fabulous week in Paris, the weather being fantastic (coming here from a rather long Indian summer)!!! Meanwhile, here's a round up of the week that was - a summary of posts on this blog as also other things travel, aviation, points and miles that we found interesting.Hope you had a great week, and here's wishing you the very best in the next one! Paris trip reports Here are the reports I've published so far, from my Paris visit. Bonjour Paris: Introduction and summary of posts Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, Colombo airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Airline news and offers Here's how your travel to, from or via Mumbai could be affect...
Read more