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A perfect storm is brewing. This summer, there will be huge competition for hotels & resorts in the United States. And, on the Marriott front, many Bonvoy members have free night certificates expiring August 1, 2021. We will be competing against each other to use them! Right now is the best time to book for summer 2021 travel.
I separately posted a look at the best options for your 35K free night certs:
- Best value Marriott hotels for your 35K free night certs expiring Aug 1
- Best Marriott Resorts in the USA for your 35K Free Night Certs
In this post, I turned my eyes specifically to 50K free night certs. These are the free nights that are an annual perk from the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express® Card and the Chase Ritz Carlton Card. Some who have earned 75 nights towards elite status in the past may also have 40K free night certificates which were picked as a Choice Benefit. Some of the results below are good choices for those 40K certificates as well.
Which Marriott resorts are bookable and best?
Via Marriott’s website, I looked for category 6 and 7 resorts in the US that were available on July 4th for 1 night and for 50K points or less (so that they are bookable with 50K free night certificates). I trimmed out those with guest ratings below 4.0. Below you’ll find all of the matching resorts sorted descending by Guest Rating.
Findings
- Some excellent options don’t show up below because they weren’t available for 50K points or less on July 4th. It’s worth checking Marriott’s website for other dates.
- Many of the properties on the list cost over $300 for July 4th. In those cases you would be getting better than average value for your 50K cert. See: What are Marriott 50K certificates worth?
- There are several resorts in Hawaii on the list!
- Most of the resorts on the list are in warm-weather destinations. That’s mostly because that’s where most Marriott resorts happen to be, but it’s also likely that some northern resorts are peak-priced on July 4th and so they didn’t make the 50K cut. One interesting resort in the north that is available for 50K or less is The Equinox Luxury Collection resort in Manchester Village, Vermont.
- Marriott Vacation Club and Sheraton timeshare resorts are at the bottom of the list only because Marriott doesn’t show guest reviews for these. They might be great. They might stink. Who knows? Some of these timeshare properties didn’t make the list because they require 3-night or longer stays. If you’re interested in longer stays, make sure to search Marriott’s website for these properties.
Results Sorted descending by Guest Rating
Award Chart
As you can see in the above chart, 50K free night certificates can be used at all category 1-5 properties, at many category 6 properties, and at off-peak category 7 properties. That said, for this post, I only looked at category 6 and 7 in order to try to find the resorts most likely to offer high value.
Conclusion
There are tons of available 50K resorts in Florida and other warm weather destinations, but very few are in the north. Keep in mind, though, that I filtered only to resorts. I expect that there are plenty of very nice Marriott hotels in northern climates that are available to book with 50K certs. Also keep in mind that I looked only at what was available on July 4th for one night. Many other properties are available if your dates are flexible.
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Don’t think you need to update your post but for others here – The Equinox in Vermont has left Marriott.
https://pointsmilesandmartinis.boardingarea.com/2021/01/the-equinox-resort-vermont-leaving-marriott/
I find it hard to believe that those resorts in AZ can command a cash price of $300+ in the middle of summer where it can definitely get extremely HOT. I suspect it’s just the rack rates that hotel’s revenue management neglected to properly tend.
[…] Best Marriott Resorts in the USA for your 50K Free Night Certs […]
Arizona and Florida in July? Do you secretly hate us?
Having read this I’m glad I snagged the Ft. Lauderdale property on a points saver with my 35k cert in Feb.
Greg, curious if you’ve checked the actual availability vs the search results that show rooms “from 50,000”. I’ve been checking for rooms in Hawaii over the past few weeks and see a lot of hotels seemingly available, but when I click through there are either no rooms actually available at that rate or they are “PointSavers with Points Upgrade” rooms where even if the rate is below 50k, it will not let you book it with an eCert.
I spot checked a few but definitely did not click through to most. Marriott’s website is very buggy so it’s possible that the results shown here aren’t always accurate regarding availability.
Thanks for your work on this.
I can personally attest to what a beautiful property Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain is and would definitely recommend it. I was lucky enough to snag it last year with a couple of 35k certificates before the category changes.
You can step right out the door for some amazing trails in the arroyo. Tons of wildlife! The whole place is just really comfortable. Yes. There’s a resort fee, but it covers actual amenities like free use of bikes, tennis equipment, etc.
Still a great value at 50k.
Good to hear! Thanks.