✈️ Bonvoy Bonanza Part 3: Rise of the welcome offers

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 55 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to a special edition of Daily Drop. Today, we’re going to cover all things Marriott, with a special added treat…

There is a lot going on in the hotel world right now, so I figured I might as well lean into it and cram it all into one newsletter.

Here’s what we got:

• 💳 Marriott credit cards have insane (and all-time high) welcome offers

• 🏨 The Daily Drop Ultimate Hotel Guide

• 🥂 Marriott unveils a series of new luxury properties

💳 Marriott credit cards have insane (and all-time high) welcome offers

Credit card welcome offers are a fantastic way to rack up phat stacks of points. Generally speaking, hotel cards rarely have “too good to be true” offers.

But earlier this year, IHG blew us all away with one of the best card offers of all time.

Now, Marriott is following suit with a whole cornucopia of all-time high, too-good-to-be-true, running-around-the-room-with-excitement-because-you-get-so-much-free-travel offers.

There are a few cards with a few different banks that have these offers, and most of them are structured in the following two components:

• Part one: Lump batch of points after spending a certain amount of money

• Part two: 50,000 bonus points after staying six paid nights at Marriott hotels before January 31, 2024

The total sum of each offer ranges from 125,000 all the way up to 200,000 points.

Surprisingly, some of the cards with 100k+ welcome offers cost under $100 in annual fees, and one of them even has a $0 annual fee… 😮 

So yeah. This is exciting. Be excited. Okay, not that excited - now you just look silly.

So now for the million-point question:

Personally, I think it is VERY worth it. If you were to sign up now, you’d have seven months to stay just six nights, which is very reasonable.

There are plenty of affordable Marriott properties around the world that could make six nights well worth 50,000 points, especially if you already need to book hotel stays.

For example, this weekend, I’ll be staying at this hotel in Dubai, which only costs $41 per night.

At this rate, six nights would cost you $240. Even if you didn’t need to stay at a hotel, buying 50,000 points for $240 is a fantastic deal.

To make things sweeter, this six-night stay requirement can stack with the recent Marriott promotion I told you about to earn a free night certificate after two stays.

Overall, these are some VERY good offers. If you love Marriott, or even just use Marriott semi-often and want to load up on points, these offers are CERTAINLY worth paying attention to.

To make things super easy for you, we made a page dedicated to Marriott credit cards, where you can find details for all of them in one place.

Here’s a big shiny button for you to click (feel free to click it multiple times too, if it makes you feel good). 👇

Now if you don’t know a lot about Marriott and want to learn more about how the program works, I also have some good news…

🏨 The Daily Drop Ultimate Hotel Guide

That’s right, folks. Daily Drop now has a super-comprehensive, in-depth guide to all things hotels.

This guide is a BEEFY lad. It’s not something you’ll want to sit down and read in one sitting unless you’re a big ol’ nerd like me.

Rather, you can use this guide to reference information about each of the major hotel programs out there, including things like:

• Elite status

• Earning points

• Redeeming points

• Free night awards

• Which program is right for your needs

So, without further ado, here is the Daily Drop Ultimate Guide to Hotel Loyalty Programs 👇

Warning: This is a piece of art, and it is beautiful. You may cry when you first see it.

🥂 Marriott unveils a series of new luxury properties

It’s no secret that we’ve been crushing hard on Marriott throughout this newsletter… So to finish things off, we wanted to highlight some of the brand’s newest (and most luxurious) properties around the world.

I’m feeling a tinge of motivational speaker vibes coming on... so here goes:

These places may have once seemed like an impossibly distant dream… but now that you’ve been learning the tricks of the trade to being a pro travel hacker, those dreams could actually be your reality with the help of Marriott points.

Now, a couple of these aren’t your average, everyday type of properties. These ones are fancy, and they come with fancy prices.

But if you play your cards right (see what I did there), you could score a handful of award nights for the ultimate travel experience—especially with how many of Marriott’s co-branded cards are offering a boost of bonus points with their current welcome offer.

So let’s indulge a bit, shall we?

🇰🇪 JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya

The recently opened Masai Mara Lodge is the first-ever luxury safari lodge in Marriott’s portfolio. Seriously, how cool is that?!

You’re in the heart of it all here nestled amongst the Talek River and the Masai Mara National Reserve. I can only imagine the amount of incredible wildlife and other safari experiences you’d have here!

Average points/night: 85,000

Average cash price/night: $1700

*Remember, prices and award rates are dynamic, meaning that they can and will fluctuate.

🇳🇴 Moxy Tromsø in Norway

Tromsø is one of my favorite smaller European cities, and it is definitely the epitome of an Arctic playground. This property literally opened last week… so it’s super crisp and clean just like its pristine northern location 🙃

Marriott was particularly excited to launch Moxy because it marks the northernmost hotel in its portfolio. Heck, I’d stay here just so I could spew off that cool fun fact.

Average points/night: 11,000 (‼️)

Average cash price/night: $180

🇮🇳 JW Marriott Goa in India

Y’all, this is just a blissful getaway in Goa—another first for Marriott in this part of the world. Plus, the opening of this property signals the 150th opening overall for Marriott International in South Asia. Pretty cool 😎

Average points/night: 55,000

Average cash price/night: $700

🇲🇹 AC Hotel St. Julian’s in Malta

Malta is the unique stepping stone between Africa and Italy, and St. Julian’s is the first property by Marriott’s AC Hotels brand on the island. It just opened last month, and just in time for peak summer travel. Will you try and claim a spot??

Average points/night: 25,000

Average cash price/night: $170

The beauty of this whole thing is that all of these properties are obtainable with the use of good ol’ Marriott points. Personally, I’d love to stay a couple of nights at the Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya!

Hmm… tempting…

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving the Daily Drop Travel Hacking Toolkit.

…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today, amigos. Before I let you roam free into the weekend, I have a quick question for you:

Take care, have a lovely weekend, and I’ll see you first thing on Monday.

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