Marriott vs. Hyatt: Which Loyalty Program Offers You the Most Value?

Which hotel loyalty program should you join? It’s a fair question and one many travelers ask themselves because there are so many hotel brands and benefits to think about.

Fortunately, you aren’t limited to joining only one hotel loyalty program — you can join as many as you want because membership is typically free. But it could make sense to focus on one program at a time because your increased loyalty could result in better rewards and benefits.

In this Marriott vs. Hyatt comparison, we’ll cover the details between both hotel chains and their loyalty programs, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. This will give you the information you need to make an informed decision on which program might be best for you.

Number and type of properties

The number of available properties within a hotel chain is a big factor in deciding which hotel program to go with. In addition, the type of available hotels could sway your decision one way or the other. For example, a luxury traveler would likely want to see more upscale options, whereas a budget traveler might lean toward value properties.

Marriott has more than 30 different hotel brands and more than 7,000 properties across 131 countries. These are the Marriott brands, separated into Marriott’s different categories:

Luxury Marriott hotels:

• Bulgari
• EDITION
• JW Marriott
• St. Regis
• The Luxury Collection
• The Ritz-Carlton
• W Hotels

Premium Marriott hotels:

• Autograph Collection Hotels
• Delta Hotels
• Design Hotels
• Gaylord Hotels
• Le Meridien
• Marriott
• Marriott Vacation Club
• Renaissance Hotels
• Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
• Tribute Portfolio
• Westin

Select Marriott hotels:

• AC Hotels
• Aloft Hotels
• Courtyard by Marriott
• Fairfield by Marriott
• Four Points by Sheraton
• Moxy Hotels
• Protea Hotels by Marriott
• SpringHill Suites by Marriott

Longer stay Marriott hotels:

• Element by Westin
• Marriott Executive Apartments
• Residence Inn by Marriott
• TownePlace Suites

Hyatt’s portfolio has a much smaller global footprint. It has over 1,000 properties and 20 brands in 68 countries. These are the Hyatt brands:

• Alila Hotels & Resorts
• Andaz
• Caption by Hyatt
• Destination by Hyatt
• Grand Hyatt
• Hyatt
• Hyatt Centric
• Hyatt House
• Hyatt Place
• Hyatt Regency
• Hyatt Residence Club
• Hyatt Zilara
• Hyatt Ziva
• JdV by Hyatt
• Park Hyatt
• Miraval
• The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
• Thompson Hotels
• Tommie
• UrCove by Hyatt

As shown, Marriott soundly beats Hyatt when it comes to the number of properties and hotel brands worldwide. As a traveler, this could leave you less likely to find enough Hyatt options to choose from, depending on where you travel. But with Marriott, you get about seven times the number of properties as Hyatt, which means you’re far more likely to find a hotel when and where you need one.

Here are a few examples of popular properties from both companies:

• The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman
• JW Marriott Essex House New York
• The St. Regis Deer Valley
• Park Hyatt Tokyo
• Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort

Both Marriott and Hyatt have well-known brands within their portfolios, such as The Ritz-Carlton and Park Hyatt. And you get value, mid-scale, and luxury options with both hotel groups. But Marriott simply has more options to choose from, which gives it the edge in this category.

Winner: Marriott

Earning points

The general idea behind hotel loyalty programs is to reward customers for being loyal to a hotel group. For customers, this typically means earning points and receiving benefits that enhance their stays, whether it’s getting award nights, suite upgrades, or something similar. Both hotel loyalty programs provide similar methods for earning points, but you might find a few differences that could make one program better for you than the other.

Marriott Bonvoy offers these ways to earn points:

• Hotel stays
• Credit card bonuses and spending
• Car rentals with Hertz
• Cruises
• Dining
• Events
• Transfer partners, including Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Purchasing points
• Partnerships and promotions

World of Hyatt offers these ways to earn points:

• Hotel stays
• Credit card bonuses and spending
• Car rentals with Avis
• Experiences, including cruises
• Dining and spa services
• Events
• Transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards
• American Airlines flights
• Purchasing points
• Partnerships and promotions

Paying for stays at hotels is typically the most popular (and often the best) way to earn points through a hotel loyalty program. This is especially true if you use one of the best hotel credit cards to fund your stays. Applying this strategy, you’re likely to earn more bonus points for booking hotel nights.

You can earn additional rewards with car rentals, dining, booking events at hotels, and more. Looking at the available options from Marriott and Hyatt, the two programs are generally the same, with the biggest differences found in earning points with transfer partners and flights.

Both Marriott and Hyatt members can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to either hotel program, but Marriott has a partnership with Amex Membership Rewards points as well. This could be useful in certain circumstances, though it’s not typically recommended because Membership Rewards are often valued higher than Marriott points, so it might be a waste to transfer them to your Marriott account.

For Hyatt, you have the unique option to earn Hyatt points when flying with American Airlines. This can be useful if you’re an American Airlines AAdvantage member because you can earn AAdvantage miles and Hyatt points at the same time.

Overall, Hyatt wins this round because you can effectively double dip on earning more rewards with the American Airlines partnership. Having Membership Rewards as a partner for Marriott is nice, but it’s typically not the best use of your Amex points.

Winner: Hyatt

Redeeming points

The end goal of earning points is being able to redeem them, so what redemption options do you get from Marriott and Hyatt?

Marriott Bonvoy offers these ways to redeem points:

• Book a hotel stay
• Book a car rental through the Air and Car portal
• Book a flight through the Air and Car portal
• Book an experience
• Shop with points online
• Purchase gift cards
• Donate points
• Gift points
• Transfer points to partners

World of Hyatt offers these ways to redeem points:

• Book a hotel stay
• Upgrade a hotel room
• Book a car rental with Avis
• Book an experience
• Schedule a meeting or event
• Gift points
• Transfer points to partners

The best redemption options for hotel programs are typically award nights at hotels. Both Marriott and Hyatt offer this option, which makes it easy to use points from either program. You also get other redemption opportunities, though they may not provide as much value as a hotel stay.

For the variety of available redemption options, both loyalty programs are fairly equal. But because award nights are the most common way to use hotel points, it’s worth it to inspect how much value you get from each program.

Both Marriott and Hyatt award nights start at 5,000 points per night, though it’s possible to get Marriott nights at 4,000 points per night with PointSavers deals. However, Marriott Bonvoy points are typically valued at 0.8 cents per point, and Hyatt points are typically valued at 1.7 cents per point.

Using these valuations, 5,000 Marriott points would be worth about $40, and 5,000 Hyatt points would be worth about $85. So you get more value with the same number of Hyatt points, which is why Hyatt ends up on top in this category.

Winner: Hyatt

Credit cards

If you compare credit cards, you’ll typically find a few major card companies that issue most of the popular hotel credit cards. These card companies, including Chase and American Express, partner with hotel chains to issue co-branded cards that often provide benefits from both the card issuer and hotel group.

Marriott offers six credit card options, including five personal cards and one business card. All these cards can help you earn bonus Marriott points, but you’ll find more travel benefits on the cards with the higher annual fees. Marriott partners with both Chase and American Express for its credit cards.

Hyatt partners with Chase for its two credit card options, The World of Hyatt Credit Card and The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. Both cards fall within the mid-tier range of travel credit cards because of their annual fees — $95 for the World of Hyatt and $199 for the World of Hyatt Business.

If you frequently stay at Hyatt properties or plan to focus on the World of Hyatt program, you likely need the World of Hyatt Credit Card and/or the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. These are the only Hyatt cards available and they can help you earn additional Hyatt points on your purchases, including hotel stays. The personal card also provides a free Category 1-4 award night each year, whereas the business card offers up to $100 in annual Hyatt credits.

But Marriott tends to blow away the Hyatt competition when it comes to credit card options. You have six to choose from, including a business credit card, which is triple what Hyatt offers.

In addition, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex provides a premium travel card option that Hyatt doesn’t have. This card offers airport lounge access through Priority Pass (this benefit requires enrollment), up to a $300 annual dining credit (up to $25 per month), a free annual night worth up to 85,000 points, and complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status. These benefits and more, plus the earning potential, can easily offset the $650 annual fee and still offer more value.

Because Marriott has more credit card options, it’s easier to choose a card that fits your lifestyle and spending habits. This is why Marriott wins this round.

Winner: Marriott

Transfer partners

Many loyalty programs allow you to transfer their rewards to other programs. This can help you earn more rewards with certain programs if you’re looking to make specific redemptions. Both Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt have transfer partners that can make it easier to boost your hotel points totals.

These partners allow transfers to Marriott Bonvoy:

• Amex Membership Rewards at a 1:1 ratio
• Chase Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 ratio
• Diners Club International Club Rewards at 1.25:1.5 ratio

These partners allow transfer to World of Hyatt:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 ratio

Many of the best travel credit cards earn Membership Rewards or Ultimate Rewards, which could be helpful if you want to take advantage of these transfer partnerships. Marriott offers more transfer options than Hyatt, but that doesn’t automatically mean it wins in this category.

Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards are typically valued at 2 cents per point, whereas Marriott points are 0.8 and Hyatt points are 1.7. So you might lose some value by making a transfer to either Marriott or Hyatt. However, you wouldn’t likely lose as much with a Chase to Hyatt transfer.

Overall, Marriott has more transfer options, but a transfer to Hyatt is likely more valuable than a transfer to Marriott. Because the actual value you get from these transfer partners depends on your situation, this category ends up as a tie.

Winner: Tie

Elite status

Most hotel loyalty programs provide ways to earn elite status in addition to earning points. As you stay more nights within a hotel group, you’re likely to achieve a higher elite status. Each level of status offers different benefits, with the best benefits reserved for members who have attained the highest levels.

Marriott Bonvoy elite status is separated into six different levels. Moving up the levels typically requires staying more nights or receiving a benefit, such as complimentary elite status, from a co-branded Marriott card. In the case of the Ambassador Elite status, you have to stay a certain number of nights in a year and spend a certain amount of money at Marriott properties.

These are the main benefits you can receive in the Marriott Bonvoy program depending on your elite status level:

The World of Hyatt program offers four elite status tiers, including the basic Member level that has no requirements to achieve. If you want to move up membership levels, you have to stay a certain number of hotel nights, earn base points, or hold a certain number of qualifying meetings or events at Hyatt properties. Base points can be earned when paying for eligible charges, such as Hyatt stays and experiences at Hyatt properties.

These are the benefits you can receive for the different World of Hyatt elite status tiers:

Both Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt offer valuable benefits for their members, including the opportunity to earn lounge access and room upgrades. However, Marriott seems to offer a slightly more robust experience for its members because of its increased number of status tiers and a few additional perks.

For example, both programs offer ways to get free breakfast, free internet access, and room guarantees, but Marriott also provides Annual Choice Benefits for its most loyal members. With this benefit, when you hit 50 and 75 nights, you get to choose a gift between different options, with the most popular choice being five Nightly Upgrade Awards. This type of award can help you guarantee a suite booking before you show up to a Marriott property.

Hyatt does offer free parking on award nights, which can be useful in many areas. But overall, Marriott comes out on top with its elite status benefits.

Winner: Marriott

Customer experience

It’s typically difficult to judge the overall customer experience for an entire hotel organization because each property is likely to offer a different experience. In addition, each guest at a property has their own preferences and might have a different experience than another individual.

And when your revenue is in the billions of dollars, you’re likely to gather a few bad reviews along the way. According to worldwide hotel data from Statista in 2020, Marriott International had over $10 billion in revenue and Hyatt Hotels had over $2 billion in revenue.

Clearly, people are staying at properties within both hotel groups, but what do internet reviews have to say? Marriott’s TrustPilot page has over 240 reviews and a rating of 1.6 out of 5. Hyatt’s TrustPilot page has over 80 reviews and a rating of 3.2 out of 5. These aren’t the best ratings, but they’re typical for the hospitality industry.

Rather than looking at general hotel ratings, it likely makes more sense to find reviews of the specific properties you want to visit. This could give you a better idea of the type of experience you might have in store.

But if we have to pick which company generally has better customer service, it’s probably Hyatt. The Marriott Bonvoy program is known for its bad experiences. Ever since the program was launched in 2019, most loyalty program members seem to have had one or multiple complaints to share. Bonvoy members typically use the term “Bonvoyed” when referring to their bad experiences, which goes to show how bad it can get for some guests. We’re talking about poor customer service, miscommunication, inconsistent benefits, and more.

If you want to avoid the chance of being Bonvoyed, the only way is to avoid the Marriott Bonvoy program. In this case, Hyatt wins.

Winner: Hyatt

FAQs

Bottom line

In the end, the best loyalty program for you might not be the best one for someone else — it depends on your individual travel preferences. Even if two people are considered luxury travelers, one might prefer a certain Hyatt luxury brand, whereas the other prefers Marriott luxury brands.

To find the best hotel loyalty program for your needs, consider the many variables involved, from number of properties to elite status benefits and available credit cards. Any of these factors and more, including where you like to travel, could sway your decision one way or the other. And if it makes sense for your situation, you could join multiple programs and take advantage of their combined benefits.

A Great Card for Travel Rewards Beginners

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card

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Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card

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Current Offer

Earn 3 Free Night Awards after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening (each night valued up to 50,000 points)

Annual Fee

$95

Rewards Rate

up to 17X points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy; 3X points at grocery stores, gas stations, and dining on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year; and 2X points on all other purchases

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Earn 3 Free Night Awards after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening (each night valued up to 50,000 points)
• up to 17X points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy
• 3X points at grocery stores, gas stations, and dining on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year
• One free night each year at account anniversary
• No foreign transaction fee

Drawbacks

• Has annual fee
• No introductory APR

Card Details

• Earn 3 Free Night Awards after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening (each night valued up to 50,000 points)
• up to 17X points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy; 3X points at grocery stores, gas stations, and dining on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year; and 2X points on all other purchases