Generally booking a hotel award night, which is doing so using points, gets you the base room. Some hotel loyalty programs, such as World of Hyatt, let you book suites or rooms with access to the club lounge and have a separate award chart. Not, however, Marriott Bonvoy.
For as long as I could remember, we could only book the base category of room with Marriott Bonvoy points in India but recently I noticed that we could book a higher category than the base room with the same number of points.
We shall see how we can get ourselves a higher category of room either by directly booking without any additional cost, using PointsSaver, Cash Upgrade or by using Points Upgrade option. The choices and lists of hotels here are all listed specifically for India, but the same option applies to any Marriott hotel worldwide.
Better Rooms without Additional Points
We could book better than base rooms for the same number of points as a base room. It might be a bigger room, one with a view, or access to the club lounge. What could possibly be better than guaranteeing an upgrade “free” of charge?
Here is the list of hotels which allows this:
- Fairfield by Marriott Belagavi
- ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru
- Indore Marriott Hotel
- Fairfield by Marriott Goa Calangute
- The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake
- The Westin Mumbai Garden City
- Fairfield by Marriott Lucknow
- Marriott Suites Pune
- The Ritz-Carlton, Pune
- Surat Marriott Hotel
- Le Méridien Gurgaon, Delhi NCR
Some notable mentions from the above are listed below:
Indore Marriott Hotel
We can get a two-category upgrade to the Superior room from the base and Deluxe room. This room is up to 25% bigger than a room in the base category.
The Ritz-Carlton, Pune
It’s fantastic that Ritz-Carlton, a luxury brand, can assure us of an upgrade to a Golf course view room with the same number of points.
Surat Marriott Hotel
I could see a two-category upgrade available in terms of the room. From base (Deluxe, City View) to Deluxe, River View to Premium, City View.
The Westin Mumbai Garden City
We can upgrade our rooms by two levels and get the club lounge access room. Additionally, we receive complimentary pressing for two items per night.
PointSavers
We can book Marriott award stays at some hotels for fewer points than usual. The point requirements for some properties are still indicated with this PointSavers rate in green bold font, despite Marriott no longer having a fixed award chart. We can keep an eye out for them since it may be a good deal.
Some of the hotels in India where we can book PointSavers rate:
- The Westin Chennai Velachery (unable to view now but have seen previously)
- Fairfield by Marriott Kolkata
- The Westin Kolkata Rajarhat
At the Fairfield by Marriott Kolkata, we could reserve a room with lounge access for 2,700 fewer points than the base category and an additional Rs 800 with a Cash Upgrade option. In addition to the PointSavers rate, we could also reserve the suite for Rs 4,500.
The Cash & Points Redemption, which includes a cash component and points requirements that are half of that of the standard rate, is interesting. The cost per point is 0.33 paise (0.4 cents), which suggests that selecting this rate over standard redemption makes sense .
For The Westin Kolkata Rajarhat, we have two booking options: directly using the Points Upgrade option or paying 2,300 fewer points and Rs. 3000 in cash for a room with lounge access. A one-way airport transfer is also included in the lounge access room, making it a great redemption. However, access to the lounge is anyway included, this may not make sense for Marriott Bonvoy Elite members above the Platinum tier, but at least we can guarantee a better room.
Redemption with Points Upgrade
We could book a much better room by paying higher points than that we would pay for the base category of room. If one doesn’t have any status, this option would be especially helpful because it would allow us to guarantee ourselves a better room with lounge access, a suite, or a room with a view.
Most Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad Marriott hotels accept reservations for better rooms (at a higher points requirement). Hotels do offer a paid upgrade option at check-in, but that would depend on availability at that time. Sometimes we would prefer to use points only or could use this method to ensure ourselves a better room for a special occasion.
Hotels in India listed under the Points Upgrade (changes possible):
- Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield Hotel & Convention Center
- Courtyard Bengaluru Hebbal
- JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort & Spa
- JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru
- Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield
- Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway
- Renaissance Bengaluru Race Course Hotel
- The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore
- Fairfield by Marriott Coimbatore
- Le Meridien Hyderabad
- Courtyard Hyderabad
- Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel
- Hyderabad Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre
- The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace
- Fairfield by Marriott Jodhpur
- Courtyard Kochi Airport
- Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam
- Fairfield by Marriott Visakhapatnam
- Fairfield by Marriott Sriperumbudur
- Courtyard Siliguri
- Courtyard Chennai
- The Westin Chennai Velachery
- Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa
- Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort & Convention Center
- Courtyard By Marriott Madurai
Below is a list of some noteworthy mentions from the hotels above:
JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort & Spa
We can choose the signature suite or the room with club lounge access. You can check my Signature Suite Review.
Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway
We could book a room with Iskcon Temple view or a club lounge access room.
The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore
At the Ritz-Carlton, suite upgrades, are only available to Titanium Elite Members and above. Even then, no status grants access to the lounge. The lounge options at Ritz Carlton are argueably of a higher quality than those of other hotels. Therefore, having a suite or guaranteed access to a lounge at an additional cost is nice.
Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa
One of my favourite hotels in India is this beach resort, so it’s nice to reserve a suite or a room with a view of the ocean or crocodile park. Personally, I would choose the room with the view of the crocodile park over the one with the sea.
Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort & Convention Center
This is also one of my favourite Marriott hotels to stay. We could reserve a suite which has a private plunge pool.
Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel
We could choose the 2 Bedroom Apartment, Studio or the suite.
Redemption with Cash Upgrade
This option is nothing more than the Redemption with Points Upgrade with a portion of the cost paid in cash. This is generally a base room point requirement plus an up-charge for the better room (almost like paying for an upgrade). Most time, I observe that it is better to go for a cash upgrade than outright Redemption with Points Upgrade based on my valuation of Bonvoy points. I have seen that we could “purchase” points for as low as 0.28 paise (0.22 cents) and hence can be an excellent way to get upgraded.
However, note that we won’t get points for the cash-paid portion as Marriott treats this as the cost of purchasing the additional points.
Bottom line
Sometimes it could be worth the splurge to have an upgrade with lounge access, a suite, or a room with a view. By looking around the various options on the Marriott Bonvoy website or App, we can see if we can snag a better room for the same points requirement, Redemption with Cash Upgrade, Cash & Points Redemption, PointSavers, or Points Upgrade options.
Booking a room better than the base category for the same (or occasionally even less) points requirement could be a sweet spot in the Marriott Bonvoy program in India. We can book the best possible room and stretch the value of each Marriott point even further.