The INSIDER Summary:
- A promotion from Marriott gives loyalty program members a free stay in a hotel once they've booked two stays in other Marriott hotels.
- It's free to sign up but you have to book the two hotel stays within 120 days of joining.
- Once you've done that, you can cash in a free night's stay at a hotel — even a luxury five-star one.
It's not every day that you get the chance to stay in a fancy five-star hotel for free. But there's one simple hack that's guaranteed to get you a complimentary night's stay in one.
A promotion from Marriott is giving new loyalty program members a free one-night stay in a number of their hotels — including luxury hotels in the Autograph and JW Marriott collections — around the world. That is, once members have booked two one-night stays at a participating hotel.
Theoretically, you can book two one-night stays at cheap Marriott hotels and then cash in your free night at a five-star place.
To take advantage of the promo, which we read about on the air miles blog God Save the Points, follow these steps (and note the terms and conditions):
1. Sign up for Marriott's loyalty rewards program. It's free to join, but bear in mind that when you do, you only have until the end of that month plus 120 days to book your two nights in participating hotels, so it's worth signing up when you have upcoming travel plans.
2. Book two one-night stays at a participating Marriott hotel; there are over 3,700 hotels in 700 countries to choose from. You must book two separate one-night stays at different hotels, or you can stay at the same hotel provided there's a gap between your two bookings.
3. Cash in your free one-night stay. You have up to a year to redeem your free stay in a standard room. And though you can't pick any hotel, you can choose any category 1 to 5 hotel, which includes a number of luxury five-star places. These are all the category 5 hotels in which you can stay.
In his post on God Save the Points, frequent flier and air miles expert Gilbert Ott recommends these hotels for your free night:
- The Renaissance Curacao
- The Algonquin Autograph Collection St Andrews Canada
- The JW Marriott Mumbai or New Delhi
- The JW Marriott Quito
- Marriott Mexico City Reforma
- JW Marriott Bogota
- JW Marriott Houston
- Marriott Villas Miami
