I don’t like paying for hotel rooms, but every so often I will break open the wallet during a promotion when I’ll receive more value by paying with cash vs. points. With the current Marriott MegaBonus promotion, you can earn one free night with two paid stays. What most people don’t realize is that you can stack the Megabonus promotion with the new account bonus to get a second free night!
In This Post
Marriott MegaBonus Promotion
With the Marriott MegaBonus Promotion, you will earn one free night at a Category 1-5 hotel after two stays. Simply register for the Marriott MegaBonus promotion between September 6 and November 30, 2017, and stay at a participating resort (hint, almost all participate) between September 12, 2017, and January 15, 2018.
Your free night will post within a few days of completing your second stay. For Anna’s account, the free night was issued the same day she checked out. She will have 6 months from the date of issuance to redeem for a Category 1-5 stay.
Click here to sign up for the Marriott MegaBonus promotion.
Additional Marriott MegaBonus Promotion Offer
Once you complete your second stay, within a few days some accounts will receive an additional offer. From what I’ve seen, these offers vary. Some are valuable and worthy of additional stays, while others are simply ho-hum.
Anna’s additional Marriott MegaBonus promotion offer was pretty meh. 2000 points is not worth booking another night. I’m still going to register her for the promotion though because you never know when she’ll need to stay at a hotel during work travel or if another promotion will pop up between now and the end of the promotion.
You will not receive notification of this additional offer, so you need to log into your account to look for it. I use LastPass Password Manager to store passwords so I can easily toggle back and forth between my account and hers.
The additional offer is for a limited time, so you must register for it within 2-3 days of it posting to your account. I registered Anna on the last day it was available.
New Account Bonus
What makes this deal worth paying cash for two nights of hotel stay vs. using points is the second night you can earn through the Marriott new account bonus promotion!
It was easy to hit both promotions when they are allowed to stack like this.
Click here to register for the Marriott new account bonus promotion. The promotion doesn’t list an end date. However, once you register, you have 120 days from the end of that month to complete both stays if you want the Category 1-5 free night bonus. That’s the equivalent of 4-5 months to make two stays, which is totally doable for most people.
How I Earned Two Free Nights
Most of our travel is earned and booked through my miles and points accounts. However, Anna allows me to strategically book travel under her name when it matters. Because of our setup, Anna did not have a Marriott Rewards account in her name.
Our house was being tented to termites, so we had to be out of the house from Friday through Monday. Anna had to work all weekend, and I drove the kids and dog up to see her Mom. It was the perfect time to book a few stays to earn maximum rewards.
I booked Anna a night at one hotel for Friday night, then a night at a second hotel on Saturday night. Luckily, Anna is a trooper and is OK with switching hotels like this.
Voila! Two hotel stays during a weekend that resulted in two free nights for a future family vacation or girls’ trip.
For you to receive credit for this promotion, you need to book direct with Marriott. This means reservations booked through sites like Expedia, HotelsTonight, etc. won’t qualify. We do have a direct referral link to Marriott and always appreciate when readers use our links to support the blog.
The Bald Thoughts
Promotions like this are best when you can align them with an upcoming vacation. We plan our trips pretty far in advance, so we didn’t have a “need” to participate in this promotion until we booked our termite service. It was a good opportunity to drive some value from the weekend… and I booked Anna at hotel rooms that had a little more space for her to relax and offered free breakfast so she didn’t have to cook or grab fast food on the way to work.
Hat tip to fellow Boarding Area blogger The Resort Traveler for originally sharing this deal.
can you book a stay with these certificates for someone else under their names?
I haven’t tried with these certificates. The best way is to book under your name and add the person to your reservation as a guest. This way your guest also receives the benefits of your status, if you have any. Then your guest arrives “earlier than you” and everything is cool.
Holy smokes! I didn’t know you could stack the 2 promotions together. This makes it totally worth it!