Last month, Marriott’s long-stay brand Homes & Villas by Marriott ran a very lucrative promotion. Under the promotion, members could book a 4-night stay at any property on Homes & Villas by Marriott platform and earn 40,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points per stay.

There was no minimum spend requirement for the booking, as long as it was for 4 or more nights, you were eligible for the bonus. You can read more about it over here.

The news of promo spread like jungle fire, and soon enough, canny points collectors all over the world (but primarily in U.S.) swooped-in and booked multiple, cheap properties in Asia, Africa and even parts of Eastern Europe for as little as USD 100 for 4-nights (USD 25 per night).

As lucrative as the promo was, it was also one of the worst in terms of how poorly it was conceived and executed. As a result, Marriott were forced to amend the terms of the promotion multiple times, after it went LIVE.

• First up, Marriott brought in the condition that only bookings made in USD, GBP & EUR will be eligible for the 40K bonus. This wiped out many of the dirt-cheap properties, as properties in the aforementioned currencies tend to be the most highly priced. It caused a lot of outrage in the points community, there were even murmurs of Marriott being dragged to the courts in U.S. for illegally changing the terms of the offer on-the-run. In the end, Marriott ended up rescinding this rule.
• A day later, Marriott took all the properties in cheaper markets like Malaysia off-line. Yup, every single one of them.
• The next day several people reported receiving a rather cautionary email from Marriott reminding them they must check-in, check-out and stay at the property for the entire duration of the booking to be eligible for bonus points. While its reasonable to expect Guests to check-in and perhaps check-out, how on earth Marriott could ensure their presence at the property for 4 full days is beyond me.

Update on the Promotion

Like many people, I had made multiple bookings to take advantage of the promotion. But when Marriott brought in the currency rule, I ended up cancelling most of them except a couple.

Homes & Villas by Marriott Booking

As you can see above, one of those bookings was for a 4-night stay in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. I won’t talk about whether or not I ended up travelling to Bosnia, but lets just say I was prepared to forego the booking in case I couldn’t 😉

Well, I am pleased to report that points and elite night credits from the above stay have now posted, including the 40K bonus.

Marriott Points from Homes & Villas by Marriott Booking

I value Marriott points at about USD 0.006 (.6 cent per point). So the 42,544 points I earned from the stay are worth around USD 255. But that’s just the price I consider fair for acquiring Marriott points, when it comes to redemption, I am confident I can get USD 400 in value from those points, if not more.

I still have another 4-night booking to come, at a town in regional NSW at the end of the month. So I will report back on that after completing my stay.

In Conclusion

Points from Homes & Villas by Marriott promo are now posting. The promo was wildly popular at the time for just how incredibly valuable it was since it had no minimum spend requirement. Although that also contributed to the booking frenzy, much confusion and multiple changes Marriott were forced to bring in mid-way through the promo.

The good news is that Marriott seemed to have learned its lessons from the debacle, and so, when the promo was brought back a second time last month, the T&C’s were clearly spelt out.

Did you take advantage of the 40K promo? Leave a comment below.