Travel Hacking 101: How We Got Marriott Hotel Nights for $12

Travel hacking is how we turned a credit card welcome bonus into 10 nights at 3- and 4-star hotels for about 12 Canadian dollars each. In 2018, we picked up the American Express Marriott Bonvoy card, hit the minimum spend, and redeemed the points for real stays during our round-the-world trip. Here’s exactly how the math worked, and how the Marriott Bonvoy program has changed since.

Travelling can be expensive. Everyone agrees on that. When you factor in flights, accommodation, car rental, food and activities, a travel budget can quickly get out of hand. Contrary to popular belief, the largest expense is not always the flight tickets, but more often accommodation. On a long trip, the cost of the flight is spread over the whole duration. But accommodation is a daily cost, which can escalate a budget and ultimately shorten a trip. So it pays to know the tricks of the trade.

There is, of course, couchsurfing, which costs nothing. If you’re travelling alone, it can be practical, since you also make friends along the way. For a family of 4 like ours, though, it’s a little restricting. Otherwise there are hotels and services like Airbnb (if you haven’t tried Airbnb yet, click this link for $45 credit. It helps us out too!).

2026 update: Airbnb’s guest referral credit is no longer available in Canada. As of 2026 it’s limited to guests in mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brazil and India (Airbnb Help Center).

From our experience, Airbnb is often cheaper than hotels in Europe. In North America, it’s the opposite. When travelling, I try to choose the cheaper of the two, but it always ends up adding up. That’s why I want to talk about the advantages of travel hacking.

Introducing Travel Hacking

How Credit Card Rewards Work

When we talk about rewards, we generally think in terms of money. Now think of the credit card you use most often. Does it give you cash rewards, or rewards in another form? What’s its reward rate? A card with no annual fee that returns 1% on purchases can be considered respectable. To get 2% back, you often have to pay an annual fee, and it’s only worth it if the benefits outweigh the cost. What if a travel-hacked card could offer a reward rate of up to 60%? Does that get your attention?

The Foundations of Travel Hacking

Some people are passionate about extreme couponing. I prefer travel hacking. Don’t worry, it’s completely legal, and plenty of people practice it methodically and profitably. The goal is to benefit from the sign-up bonuses offered by credit card companies. These bonuses are usually credited as points after the cardholder spends a minimum amount within a set period. Depending on the card, points can be redeemed for flights, hotel rooms, merchandise or cash credit. The principle is simple, in 4 steps:

• Sign up for a credit card offering a promotional points bonus;
• Hit the minimum spend to unlock the points before the deadline;
• Enjoy the points;
• Close the account before the annual fee renews (recommended), if applicable.

Of course, travel hacking has its downsides:

• You need a good credit history, since each application can lower your credit score.
• Remember to pay the balance before the grace period ends, or interest charges will erase the benefit.
• Managing cards takes time. It’s an activity like any other.

If these trade-offs don’t scare you, you’re qualified to succeed! Let’s get down to business: here is the card to hold to start travel hacking. Get ready, there will be numbers.

The American Express Marriott Bonvoy Card

Card Basics

Credit card benefits change often, and the details below reflect our 2018 application. Do your own research before applying for a card today.

Whether you travel often or only once a year, the American Express Marriott Bonvoy card is worth considering. Marriott International is a hotel chain that owns more than 30 internationally recognized brands, including The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, JW Marriott, Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, Le Méridien, Element, Aloft and Four Points. Marriott’s points-based rewards program can save frequent and occasional travellers real money. It’s considered one of the most flexible in the travel industry.

The American Express Marriott Bonvoy offered 50,000 Bonvoy points after spending $1,500 in the first 3 months when we applied. Each dollar spent on the card also earns additional points, depending on the spending category.

2026 update: As of September 2026, the card’s welcome offer is elevated to up to 110,000 points: 80,000 after $6,000 in spend within the first 6 months, plus 30,000 for a purchase made during month 15, through September 22, 2026. The annual fee is unchanged at $120 (Prince of Travel).

The card also comes with insurance benefits. We won’t dwell on them since that’s not the subject here, but they include:

• Travel accident insurance up to $500,000;
• Car rental loss and damage insurance;
• Flight delay insurance;
• Delayed/misplaced baggage insurance;
• Lost or stolen baggage insurance;
• Coverage for theft at a hotel or motel.

The card cost $120 a year. Some may frown at that. If so, stop reading, because travel hacking isn’t for you. Otherwise, here’s the potential we saw in it: a hotel night could cost as little as 5,000 points, so 50,000 bonus points were worth 10 nights - about $12 a night.

Spending Bonvoy Points at Marriott Hotels

To put this in perspective, let’s work out a reasonable reward rate for what we found in 2018. At 10 nights of 5,000 points worth about $100 each, the cash value of the 50,000-point bonus was roughly $1,000. A $1,000 value for $1,500 in spend plus $120 in fees works out to a 61.73% reward rate - a long way from 2%.

We can also look at it as a return on “investment.” Since the $1,500 was spending we’d have made anyway, our $120 initial fee returned $1,000 in value: ((1000-120) / 120) x 100, or 733% within 3 months.

We used $100 as a guide price for a night at a category 1 hotel; some nights were worth less, some more. For example, a room at the JW Marriott Hotel Ankara, a category 2 hotel, cost 10,000 points for a room with a city view worth 332 EUR, nearly 500 CAD.

At the time, points needed per night in each hotel category were:

• Category 1: 5,000 - 10,000 points;
• Category 2: 10,000 - 15,000 points;
• Category 3: 15,000 - 20,000 points;
• Category 4: 20,000 - 30,000 points;
• Category 5: 30,000 - 40,000 points;
• Category 6: 40,000 - 60,000 points;
• Category 7: 50,000 - 70,000 points;
• Category 8: 70,000 - 100,000 points.

2026 update: Marriott eliminated these fixed award categories on March 29, 2022, and switched to fully dynamic pricing, so the points required for a given hotel and date are no longer set by a chart and can vary considerably (The Points Guy). You can check current pricing on the Marriott Bonvoy website.

The Strategy to Accumulate 282,000 Points

That alone would have been good, but hang on - this next part is worth staying seated for.

We collected 282,000 points, potentially 56 hotel nights. Many people take more than 5 years to earn that many points at a rate of 1 point per dollar spent. It shows how profitable travel hacking can be. First, you need an accomplice, ideally a spouse. American Express gave us a 10,000-point bonus for referring someone who subscribed to the Marriott Bonvoy card, who also received 10,000 bonus points. The catch was that instead of spending $1,500 in the first 3 months, our referral had to spend $3,000. So our accomplice earned 60,000 points.

The Marriott Bonvoy card was also available in a business version, which also gave 60,000 bonus points: the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business card. You don’t need an actual business to apply - just enter your name in the “Company name” field. The business card cost $150 a year instead of $120 for the personal card, a small difference given the benefits.

2026 update: The Amex Marriott Bonvoy referral bonus is now 15,000 points per successful referral (occasionally elevated to 20,000-30,000), capped at 150,000 points per calendar year; the business card’s annual fee remains $150 (PointsWise).

Here’s how we reached 282,000 points across 4 cards:

Credit Card	Bonus Points	Referral Points	Purchase Points	Total Points
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Personal (principal)	60 000		3 000	63 000
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Personal (spouse)	60 000	10 000	3 000	73 000
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business (principal)	60 000	10 000	3 000	73 000
Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business (spouse)	60 000	10 000	3 000	73 000
			Total	282 000

An extra tip: on the card’s anniversary, you got a certificate for one night worth up to 35,000 points.

Marriott also offers a 5th free night for every 4 nights redeemed at the same hotel - still true in 2026 - so your points stretch further.

All that’s left is to find Marriott hotels for your next trip! Categories 1 and 2 are especially common across the United States. You may want to start collecting Bonvoy points!

Conclusion

Convinced of travel hacking’s potential? If so, the American Express Marriott Bonvoy card is a solid way to start - just check today’s welcome offer and award pricing before you apply, since both have changed since 2018.

In a future post, I’ll explain how to quickly collect 430,000 airline points, and especially how to redeem them to maximize their value.