Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
While looking at accommodation options for our 20th anniversary next year I came across an awesome-looking new Marriott property that promises to be a great new sweet spot in the Bonvoy program thanks to its low award pricing and sizeable base level accommodations.
The Danang Marriott Resort & Spa, Non Nuoc Beach Villas in Vietnam offers 2 bedroom garden villas at standard award pricing, with that pricing being 30k-35k points per night for much of the year.
Marriott does have a property in Danang with even cheaper award pricing. The Four Points is bookable for ~12,000 points per night, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as nice as this new Marriott Resort & Spa.
All accommodations at the Danang Marriott Resort & Spa, Non Nuoc Beach Villas are villas ranging in size from two bedrooms to four bedrooms. The base level two bedroom villas are garden villas rather than ocean villas. Despite not being on the ocean, they’re still a desirable room type seeing as they’re almost 4,000 sq ft, have a king bed in each bedroom, a separate living room, turndown service and your own private pool.
The villa description says that there are six phones in the unit which seems like overkill. What they don’t provide by default is free Wi-Fi. The resort does have Wi-Fi available but at some kind of fee. Having said that, if you’re booking with points that means you’re a Marriott Bonvoy member and so are eligible for free internet regardless (Bonvoy members on paid stays get free internet too).
In addition to the fact that base level “rooms” are two bedroom villas with their own pool, the other reason this property caught my eye is because of its award pricing.
This property was originally due to open in September 2023, but it looks like that’s been pushed back to December 1, 2023. From then, there’s award availability for 80%-90% of the calendar through July 2024. Pricing ranges from 30,000-44,000 points per night which makes it a great option for redeeming 35,000 point free night certificates earned on some Marriott credit cards at renewal. Even when pricing is at 36,000-44,000 points, you can redeem those certificates and top up with Marriott Bonvoy points.
Award pricing being at 30k-44k per night is all well and good, but if the cash price was $100-$150 per night that wouldn’t be a great redemption. As you might expect for a two bedroom villa with its own pool though, pricing is much higher than that.
The cheapest one night stay through the end of the calendar costs 12,350,000 VND which is about US$510. That means a 30,000 point redemption gets you 1.7cpp for your Marriott points which is excellent value (although it should be noted you could book cheaper accommodation elsewhere and so true savings aren’t necessarily that high). Rates seem to stick around 12,350,000-12,740,000 for much of the year, although they do go up as high as 18,620,000 VND (~US$775).
Anyone thinking of booking this hotel or already have a reservation?
Sweet spot no more. Villas are pricing at 66k for all the dates I looked — exactly 1k out of reach of 50k free nights + 15k supplement.
I have just booked 2 BR villas next month for 55k/night which seems the lowest at this moment. Luckily people got it for 30-35k.
Marriott briefly had the property appear on their site several months ago before they stopped it from being bookable for a bit. I was able to book it during that time for 30k points a night for the 2 bedroom villa near xmas. The 3 bedroom villa was available for the same points price for a single day but I missed that. I booked for 5 nights and based on the high cash price during the holidays it was worked out to be 2.7 cpp! Also, note that this was a Vinpearl property that Marriott bought so it is not brand new. You can see lots of reviews for it on Trip advisor.
I think this was the Vinpearl Resort & Spa Da Nang based on the pictures of the villas, address and Triton restaurant.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g20045940-d12311315-Reviews-Vinpearl_Resort_Spa_Da_Nang-Hoa_Hai_Da_Nang.html
Yeah it is the same as the Vinpearl. They were bought by Marriott. I am booked over Xmas 2023 for a family holiday and have been in contact with the hotel using their Vinpearl email.
I don’t know. The photos look really uninspiring to me, unless all you want to do is stay in your villa. Hotel price in Danang/Vietnam is really cheap right now, tourism hurting, you can spend $100 and find really nice hotels with better locations and more things to do… Marriott being a western chain jacks up the cash price unreasonably, while still keeping the point price lower.
I actually do go to Da Nang pretty often, and did just open the Chase Marriott card with the 5 free night certs. Definitely booking this once I finish the spend and the certs hit.
Interesting. Booked at the Hyatt in February with a SUA attached but since there’s only 2 of us, a 2BR villa seems like overkill. I think I’ll keep the Hyatt reservation with the Globalist benefits but this is definitely a nice looking property.
Omg — I’m reserved for 4 nights at the next door Hyatt in May. One bedroom suite for 20k, which is about 1000sf. I can’t even wrap my head around a 4000sf suite… brand new … private pool… . Canceling as soon as my Marriott free nights kick in. Thank you Stephen!!
Fyi, it is not brand new. It is an existing Vinpearl hotel that was bought by Marriott.
Wonderful article and intriguing option. Thanks, Stephen!