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?
I was going to wait until after my March stay to write about this resort, but then I realized that it would be criminal to wait. This brand new Marriott Autograph Collection property in Florida gets great reviews and it consists entirely of two bedroom suites, each with two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Best of all, it costs only 35K points per night if you book before March 5 2019. Starting March 5th, the price increases by 43% to 50K points per night.
In my opinion this hotel is a steal at 35K per night. And, keep in mind Marriott’s 5th night free awards. If you book a 5 night stay, the per-night average cost drops to only 28K points per night. Alternatively, if you have any free night certificates good for up to 35K points per night, they can be applied here. Unfortunately you can’t get a 5th night free discount on a 5 night stay if you use certificates for any of those nights. You can, though, book a 6 night stay and apply the certificate to one night and get the remaining 5 nights for the cost of 4.
For details about Marriott’s annual hotel category changes coming March 5th, please see these posts:
- Marriott’s Annual Devaluation: 120 Fewer Properties For Credit Card Nights
- 25K, 35K, and 50K Marriott hotel opportunities before and after March 5 2019
Point Options
When booking with points or free night certificates, you can choose a suite either with a king bed in one room and two queen beds in the other, or both with king beds. The only difference I see in the point options verse the paid options is that the paid options offer the ability to book into water view suites.
Location
The Waterline Marina Resort & Beach Club is in Holmes Beach, Florida which is south of Tampa and slightly north of Sarasota. According to Google Maps, the resort is approximately an hour twenty drive from the Tampa airport.
Hotel Photos
All of the following photos were borrowed from the hotel’s website…
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Waterline Marina, which went up from Category 5 (30-40K points per night) to Category 6 (40-60K points per night) in March 2019, increases in category once again to Cat 7 (60-70K points per night). And Greg didn’t even […]
Update regarding this hotel (I’m staying here now):
1. They claim that they do not do elite upgrades. Instead they offered to let me pay half the usual upgrade rate to upgrade to water view ($50 instead of $100 per day upgrade) or to a View room (also water view but with much bigger balcony) for $75 instead of $150 per day. I took the latter, and it’s pretty awesome, but I’m not at all happy about their no free upgrades policy. I believe that’s against the program’s terms.
2. Platinum and higher get free breakfast vouchers: 2 people get free continental breakfast (very basic pastry, fruit, coffee) or $8 per person towards breakfast. Many options cost only around $8 so we’ve been making coffee in our room and getting two breakfast entrees each day to bring back to our room. This has been a nice perk. Breakfast is very tasty. You also get your choice of a welcome gift of 1000 points or $10 food/beverage credit. I took that latter and used it at happy hour.
3. The room/hotel is great. The rooms are much bigger than I had imagined. Kitchen’s are well stocked. They provide coffee and restock it each day. The fridge has a water filter. A Publix supermarket is nearby. Washer and Dryer in unit. It really seems more like a very nice furnished condo rather than a hotel room. Staff have been very nice. The pool is heated. There’s ping pong, giant checkers, and other games. 3 to 6pm happy hour includes $5 drinks and $5 small (very small) plates including chicken wings and pork sliders. Both were delicious.
4. The location isn’t great at all. The pictures online show the marina which is quite tiny. Everything else around the hotel is a bank, gas station, strip mall, dominoes. Luckily, it’s a pleasant residential walk to the beach, but too far to go back and forth. I’d be willing to pay quite a bit more to actually be on the beach. The island itself is great (from what we’ve seen so far).
Thanks. I booked over Thanksgiving when this article was first published.:) I see the reservation in the app but haven’t gotten the confirmation email from Marriott. Did you get the confirmation email from Marriott? Just want to make sure before booking flights.
As long as you see it in your account you should be fine.
Does this resort offer elite benefits like free breakfast?
Hi Greg, do you know if I can book now with 35k points then substiture FN certs (don’t post to my acct until after March). I know Hilton does not allow this practice with their FNs but wondered about Marriott?
Beautiful property, thanks so much for sharing such a great find.
Pan: I’m pretty sure you can do that, but I don’t have proof. It’s worth a try anyway.
The site now says “We’re sorry. This property is not taking redemption bookings at this time. You can either book a cash reservation or search for another property.” Do we need to login to see the points or can we no longer book with points?
No you don’t have to be logged in. I just tried a random date (June 11 for one night) and I still see the points option. Maybe they are sold out of standard rooms on the dates you are looking at.
I got that message for a lot of dates, but then I did find some available with points (not dates I wanted of course)
Thanks for the tip. Couldn’t get the spring break weekend we wanted but booked it for Labor Day weekend.
No availabilty after December 7, 2019. Any idea why?
Huh. I see that too. No paid rate availability either. I guess they may not have loaded the rooms into the schedule yet. I’d recommend that you keep checking until March 4
They will probably load them on March 5.
I booked this for 5 nights during Thanksgiving!! So excited to hear about your stay in March!
I just did the exact same thing. see you there.