Marriott Bonvoy co-branded cardholders can earn 10x on Homes & Villas spending [through Dec 2021]

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Over the past few months, Marriott has been pretty aggressive when it comes to advertising its “Homes & Villas by Marriott” program, and the hotelier is now attempting to make its luxury self-catering option a little more tempting to Marriott loyalists by offering bonus points on Homes & Villas spending when a stay is paid for using a Bonvoy co-branded credit card.

Marriott’s pitch

Here’s how Marriott is describing the promotion:

Whether you need a change of scenery for work or just a weekend away, use your Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card to earn 10X total points per dollar on eligible purchases made directly with Homes & Villas by Marriott International starting from June 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, up to $7,500.

Link to the promotion page

Key terms

Amex Co-Branded Bonvoy Cards

• The promotion is valid for the following Amex co-branded Bonvoy cards:
  • card_name (review)
  • card_name (review)
  • Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card (no longer open to new applicants)
• Cardholders will earn 4 additional points on top of the 6 points they already earn (for a total of 10 points) for each dollar of eligible purchases made directly at Homes & Villas by Marriott International properties starting from June 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, (up to a maximum of $7,500 in eligible purchases) and changed to an eligible Amex Bonvoy co-branded credit card.

• Eligible purchases can be made by the Basic Card Member and any Additional Card Members on a single Card account.
• Eligible purchases are purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits.
• Points received from your Card will be posted to your Marriott Bonvoy member account up to 8-12 weeks after the end of each month that eligible purchase was made.

Chase Co-Branded Bonvoy Cards

Interestingly, the terms and conditions don’t specify which of Chase’s co-branded Bonvoy cards are eligible for this promotion so that suggests that all Chase cards that earn Bonvoy points should qualify (including cards that are no longer open to new applicants).

• Cardholders will earn 10 points total for each $1 spent on up to $7,500 total in qualifying purchases made on stays at Homes & Villas by Marriott International from 06/01/2021 to 12/31/2021.
• Stays must be booked through homes-and-villas.marriott.com and booked and completed during the promotional period.
• Total points shown are the maximum you will earn on those purchases during the promotion, regardless of what you already earn on those purchases in your rewards program.
• Purchases posted to your account with a transaction date during the offer period are eligible for this offer.
• Please allow 6 to 8 weeks after qualifying purchases post to your account for points to post to your account.

Full terms and conditions for all co-branded cardholders can be found on the promotion page.

Thoughts

I’ve never booked a villa or home through Marriott’s Homes & Villas program so I can’t comment on how good the offering is or if there’s value to be had from booking one of the many properties that the program offers. What I can comment on is the return that the Bonvoy co-branded credit cards are offering.

I value Bonvoy points at 0.6 cents each (based on the value that I know I can get out of them without too much effort) and that means that this promotion is effectively making sure that Chase and Amex Bonvoy cardholders will earn an effective rebate of 6% on their Homes & Villas by Marriott bookings through the end of the year.

It’s important to note that even without this promotion, all Chase and Amex Bonvoy co-branded cardholders would earn 5 or 6 points per dollar on Homes & Villas by Marriott bookings anyway, so this promotion is only really offering an uplift of 4 or 5 points per dollar (2.4% or 3.0%). That’s still a worthwhile uplift, but it’s important to keep in mind that the promotion isn’t a 10x deal. It’s a deal that offers an extra 4x or 5x. Psychologically, that may make a difference to how some people view this promotion.

Personally, I’m actually quite interested to try out a home or villa that Marriott is offering, but that has more to do with my wish to enjoy a more independent type of holiday rather than anything to do with this promotion.

Sure, the bonus points would be very welcome and would ensure that I used a card_name (review) to make the booking rather than a card_name (review), but they wouldn’t really figure in my deliberation when deciding whether on not to book a Homes & Villas stay.

Bottom line

If you hold an American Express Bonvoy co-branded credit card or a Chase credit card that earns Marriott Bonvoy points, Marriott is now offering you a total of 10 points per dollar on up to $7,500 of spending made through its Homes & Villas program. No registration is required so cardholders just have to make sure they pay with an eligible card and the bonus points should be on their way.