Per stay, not per night — and that changes how you should book
Up to 4,500 points1,500 points per paid stay of two nights or more, plus 3,000 more at resorts. No cap on how many stays. But you have to register first.
- The bonus is per stay, not per night. Two nights and six nights pay exactly the same 1,500 points.
- No elite night credits this time. The spring promotion handed out one per brand you stayed at; this one is points only.
- The 3,000-point resort top-up posts up to eight weeks after the promotion ends — so you cannot tell at checkout whether your hotel qualified.
- 🔴 If your account is set to earn airline miles instead of points, you are excluded entirely. That line sits near the end of the terms.
- Registration is free and takes under a minute, so do it now even if nothing is booked yet.
What you actually get
Marriott Bonvoy’s current global promotion is branded MoreAtResorts on the official site, and its promotion code is WL26. There are only two moving parts.
Source: Marriott Bonvoy official promotion page (captured 13 September 2026)
The phrase to hold on to is “per stay.” Not per night, and not scaled to how long you stay. Once you clear the two-night bar, the payout stops moving — which is exactly what makes the booking pattern in section 3 worth thinking about.
If you just want the headline, we covered it the day it launched in Marriott Bonvoy Global Promo: Earn Up to 4,500 Bonus Points. This guide goes into the terms themselves — and, in section 8, into the part the US points blogs cannot help you with, because the Marriott card sold in Japan is a completely different product.
Three dates people mix up
Marriott lists these as four short bullets, which makes them look interchangeable. They are not.
Source: Marriott Bonvoy official promotion page (captured 13 September 2026)
| Stage | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ① Registration | 12:00 a.m. Sep 9 – 11:59 p.m. Nov 13, 2026 | No registration, no points. Free, under a minute. |
| ② Eligible stays | 12:00 a.m. Sep 22 – 11:59 p.m. Nov 22, 2026 (61 nights) | Only stays completed after you register. Anything you checked out of before Sep 22 is out, registered or not. |
| ③ The 1,500 posts | Within 10 business days of checkout | Shows up attached to that stay record. |
| ④ The 3,000 posts | Within 8 weeks of the end of the earning period | Realistically mid-January 2027. Its absence at checkout is normal. |
You cannot register after the fact. The terms limit the bonus to eligible paid stays “completed after registration in this promotion.” There is no backdating, so register today even if your plans are vague — it commits you to nothing.
November 13 is not the end of the promotion. It is the end of registration; stays count through November 22. The practical consequence is the unpleasant one: if you remember this in the third week of November, you are already too late to sign up.
One clause works in your favor, though, and it is easy to miss. A stay that starts or ends outside the window still qualifies as long as at least one night falls inside it. Check in on November 21 and out on November 24, and you are fine.
Why “per stay” is the whole game
Marriott defines a stay as consecutive nights at the same property on the same reservation, regardless of how many times you check in and out, booked at a points-eligible rate.
Put that next to “1,500 points per stay” and the one genuinely interesting thing about this promotion falls out:
| Same four nights | Stays | Regular hotel | Resort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 nights, one booking | 1 | 1,500 pts | 4,500 pts |
| 2 nights at each of two hotels | 2 | 3,000 pts | 9,000 pts |
| 1 night at each of four hotels | 0 qualifying | 0 | 0 |
Moving hotels once doubles the payout for the same number of nights. And because elite night credits accrue per night, splitting costs you nothing on the status side — four nights is four nights either way.
- Change hotels rather than splitting one booking in two. The definition says “regardless of how many times you check in and out,” so consecutive nights at the same property may well be merged back into a single stay. Switching properties removes the ambiguity — and gets you a second brand to try.
- Price the split first. You typically lose a multi-night rate and may add a train leg. The prize is one extra 1,500-point bonus; if the rearrangement costs more than that is worth to you, skip it.
The resort bonus has no published list
The 3,000 points are the bigger half of this offer, and the only thing the terms say about which properties earn them is: “resorts participating in both Marriott Bonvoy and this promotion.”
We went looking. The promotion page carries no list of qualifying properties, and Marriott does not publish a page that filters its portfolio down to resorts (/travel/resorts.mi simply redirects to the general offers hub). So there is no list to check.
The 1,500 posts within ten business days of checkout. The 3,000 posts within eight weeks of the end of the whole earning period. Stay in October, look at your activity in November, and you will see 1,500 points and no way to tell whether the hotel was not a qualifying resort or whether the top-up simply has not been paid yet. That resolves around January 2027.
If the 3,000 points are load-bearing for your trip, confirm before you book rather than arguing about it in the new year:
- Call Marriott Bonvoy customer service and give them the promotion name and the property. In Japan the Japanese-language line is 0120-996-918, printed at the end of the terms on the official page; elsewhere, use the number for your region in your Bonvoy account.
- Or simply ask the hotel directly when you check the rate.
In Japan, properties with “Resort” in the name — the Okinawa and Hokkaido beach and ski properties — are the safe bets. The ones without it, such as the lakeside and mountain properties at Yamanakako, Karuizawa and Lake Biwa, are where the various blog lists stop agreeing with each other. A two-minute phone call beats guessing.
What does not count
By some distance the longest passage in the terms is the list of exclusions. Here it is in full:
Source: Marriott Bonvoy official promotion page (captured 13 September 2026)
| Item | Counts | Does not count |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Paid stays at a points-eligible rate | Award redemptions, Cash + Points, free night awards |
| Where you book | Marriott website and app, the property directly, customer engagement centres | Most third-party online retailers and certain travel agency rates |
| Rooms | One room at one property per qualifying stay | A second room booked at the same time |
| Earning preference | Members earning points | Members earning airline miles — excluded from the promotion entirely |
| Brands | Most participating brands | BVLGARI, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Marriott Executive Apartments, plus owner weeks at the various vacation clubs |
| Homes & Villas | The 1,500 applies | The 3,000 resort top-up does not |
Bonvoy lets you set your account to credit stays as airline miles instead of points. The terms state plainly that “members who have elected to earn miles are not eligible for this promotion.” If you switched your preference over to feed an ANA or JAL balance, you will earn nothing from this promotion until you switch it back.
Worth knowing separately: the JAL and Marriott Bonvoy partnership — status matching and FLY ON points — runs independently of this promotion, so you are not choosing between them.
A note on booking channels. What the terms actually guarantee is “Marriott’s booking channels and other eligible channels,” and they exclude “most third-party online retailers and certain travel agency rates” — without naming which third parties land on which side. Rakuten Travel, which does have a Bonvoy membership tie-in, is named in neither direction. If the bonus matters to you, book through Marriott directly.
How to register, and what to do if it will not show
- Open the promotion
Sign in to the app or the website and go to My Account → Promotions. Not a member? The signed-out page has a “Join and Register” button that does both at once, free. - Register, then confirm the state actually changed
Do not skip the confirmation. Assuming you registered when you did not is the most expensive mistake available here, and it is silent. - Check your earning preference while you are in there
Points, not miles. It lives on a different screen from the promotions tab, which is precisely why people miss it.
Bonvoy’s promotions tab does not reliably surface every offer for every account. Call customer service and they will register you manually — in Japan, 0120-996-918 for the Japanese line.
Also check that the account you registered is the account you will give at check-in. If you opened a second Bonvoy membership years ago under an old email address, stays credited to the other number will not attach to this promotion.
What the points are actually worth
Bonvoy points float; there is no fixed rate. Depending on how you redeem, a reasonable working range is roughly 0.7 to 1.5 yen per point.
| Redemption | Rough value | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Free nights at expensive properties | The best of the three; above 1 yen per point is achievable | This is the one to aim for. The higher the cash rate you are avoiding, the better your points perform |
| Airline miles | 3 points = 1 mile (transfer 60,000 at once and you get 5,000 bonus miles) | Effectively 3 points = 1.25 miles in 60,000-point blocks. Good if you redeem miles well |
| Rakuten Points | 3 points = 1 Rakuten Point | About 0.33 yen per point. Hard to recommend |
Marriott and Rakuten do convert both ways, but the rate is 3:1 each way — three Rakuten Points for one Bonvoy point, and three Bonvoy points for one Rakuten Point. Round-trip, you keep a ninth. Minimum 3,000 points, and up to about 14 days to land.
So: keep what this promotion pays you on the Marriott side and spend it on rooms. The reverse is equally lopsided — Rakuten Points have far better uses inside the Rakuten ecosystem, which is what our daily Rakuten deals coverage is for.
One more layer that is easy to forget: run your hotel booking through a cashback portal before you book and you can collect cash back on top of the Marriott points. Rakuten Rebates carries hotel offers, and which portal pays most changes constantly — Pointnavi, which we run ourselves, compares them side by side. New to all of this? Start with our beginner’s guide to Japanese cashback portals.
A card’s own welcome offer and the same card’s listing on a cashback portal are often mutually exclusive. Check both before you apply and go in through whichever is worth more.
If you live in Japan: the Bonvoy Amex issued here
This promotion pays a flat 1,500 to 4,500 points. What actually moves the total on the same stay is everything underneath it:
| Layer | Source | Rate | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Base stay points | 10 points per US$1 (lower at some brands) | Scales with the room rate |
| 2 | Elite bonus | Silver +10%, Gold +25%, Platinum +50%, Titanium +75% | Applied on top of layer 1 |
| 3 | This promotion | 1,500 or 4,500 points | Flat. Ignores the room rate |
| 4 | Credit card rewards | Up to 6% on Marriott spend (Japan-issued Bonvoy Amex) | Paid by the card, separately |
Two things follow. Because layer 3 is flat, cheaper rooms give you a better return on it — two nights at a Courtyard or a Fairfield beats one splashy night at a luxury brand in percentage terms. And layers 2 and 4 are the only ones you can move.
Here is where living in Japan actually changes the answer. The US Bonvoy cards the American points blogs write about are not sold here. Japan has its own, issued by American Express: the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Premium Card, and it moves both layers at once.
Gold Elite just for holding it — layer 2 becomes +25%
Gold Elite normally takes 25 nights a year. Hold the card and it is automatic, so every stay during this promotion earns 25% more base points, on top of room upgrades and late checkout. Spend ¥5 million in a year and you reach Platinum Elite (+50%).
6% back on Marriott spend — layer 4
Pay the hotel with this card and it returns 6% on Marriott spend on top of the stay points themselves. Ordinary spending earns 3%. For comparison, a typical Japanese credit card pays 0.5–1%.
An annual free night — the redemption that pays best
Spend ¥4 million in a card year and you receive a free night award worth up to 75,000 points, and you may top it up with 15,000 of your own points for a property costing up to 90,000. That is exactly the redemption section 7 identified as the strongest.
Source: American Express Japan — Marriott Bonvoy Premium Card (captured 13 September 2026)
The 100,000 points in the screenshot above is the direct-application figure. Apply through the referral programme and the middle component — the spend bonus — rises from 45,000 to 56,000, taking the total to 111,000 points. The requirement (¥1.5 million of spend within six months of joining) and the credit assessment are identical. The only difference is the door you walk in through.
Eleven thousand points is roughly another night at a mid-tier Marriott. As pre-application admin goes, it is the best-paid minute in this article.
Card first, stay second
If you are going to get the card, get it before the trip rather than after. Paying for the rooms with it stacks 6% back, the Gold Elite +25%, and a 111,000-point welcome offer on top of this promotion’s 1,500 to 4,500. Do it in the other order and this trip earns none of that.
American Express does not permit referral links to be posted publicly on blogs or social media, so we do not put one on the page. Send us a request through the form and we will email you a link directly.
Full card guide and how to apply → The 111,000-point breakdown →
This welcome offer runs to applications received by 5 October 2026 — roughly the midpoint of this promotion’s stay window.
If ¥82,500 a year is more than you want to commit, there are two lighter routes. The standard Marriott Bonvoy Amex costs ¥34,100, earns 2%/4% and gives a free night award up to 50,000 points, but cannot reach Platinum Elite at any level of spending. Or step outside hotel cards entirely — the Amex Gold Preferred, with up to 170,000 points by referral, is the usual alternative. Under about five hotel nights a year, a hotel co-brand fee is hard to earn back.
FAQ
- Q. Does a single-night stay earn anything?
- A. No. The stay has to be two or more paid nights on the same reservation. One-night stays are excluded completely.
- Q. I stayed before I registered. Can I register now and have it count?
- A. No. The terms limit the bonus to eligible paid stays completed after you register, and there is no backdating. Register first, then plan.
- Q. Four nights in one hotel, or two nights in each of two hotels?
- A. Splitting doubles the bonus, because it pays per stay and four nights earns the same as two. Consecutive nights at the same property may be merged into one stay, so change hotels if you want both bonuses. Elite night credits accrue per night, so splitting does not cost you any status progress.
- Q. Do I get elite night credits from this promotion?
- A. No. The spring promotion awarded one extra elite night per brand you stayed at, but this one pays bonus points only. Your normal per-night elite credits are unaffected.
- Q. Do award stays count?
- A. No. Award redemptions, Cash + Points and free night awards are all excluded. Only paid stays at points-eligible rates qualify.
- Q. When do the 3,000 resort points arrive?
- A. Within eight weeks of the end of the earning period, so around mid-January 2027. The base 1,500 arrives within ten business days of checkout, so a long gap between the two is expected and not a sign of a problem.
- Q. Which hotels count as resorts?
- A. Marriott has not published a list; the terms only refer to resorts participating in this promotion. If the 3,000 points affect your decision, confirm with customer service or the hotel before booking.
- Q. My account is set to earn airline miles. Am I still eligible?
- A. No. The terms state that members who have elected to earn miles are not eligible for this promotion. Switch your preference back to points to take part.
- Q. Can I book through a third-party site such as Rakuten Travel?
- A. Most third-party online retailers and certain travel agency rates are excluded, and Marriott does not publish which ones qualify. Book through the Marriott site, the app, the hotel or customer service to be certain.
- Q. Does this stack with everything else?
- A. Yes. Base stay points, elite bonuses and credit card rewards are calculated separately, and this promotion’s bonus is added on top of all of them.
Bottom line
As promotions go, this one is thin, and the points blogs have said so with some enthusiasm. Fifteen hundred points per stay is not much, one-night stays earn nothing, and dropping the elite night credits that the spring promotion offered takes away the reason a lot of people engaged with the last one.
What it has going for it is that registering is free, takes under a minute, and does not ask you to change a single thing about your trip. If you are staying anywhere this autumn, there is no argument for skipping it.
- Register today
App or website, My Account → Promotions, and confirm the status actually changed. - Check your earning preference
If it says miles, switch it to points, or the whole promotion passes you by. - Prefer two-night stops over one long one
Same nights, double the bonus — and put one of them at a resort if the routing allows. - Book direct, at a points-eligible rate
Award nights and free night awards earn nothing during this window. - If a card is on your list, get it before the trip
A referral pays 11,000 points more than applying directly, and this welcome offer closes to applications on 5 October 2026.
Amex’s terms do not allow referral links to be posted publicly, so we send them one to one by email after you submit the form. The button above is that form. Referral codes for every other service we use are collected on our referral codes page.
Sources: the promotion details and terms and conditions on the official Marriott Bonvoy promotion page (MoreAtResorts, promotion code WL26), and the Marriott Bonvoy Premium Card page on American Express Japan. Both accessed and captured on 13 September 2026.
Disclaimer: promotion terms, point amounts, conditions and deadlines can change without notice, and point values vary with how you redeem them. Always confirm the current terms on the official page before applying or booking. Nothing here is investment or financial advice.
