For Canadians who want a free Marriott hotel stay, look no further than the Marriot Bonvoy® Business American Express® Card. This credit card allows you to earn Marriott Bonvoy points on your purchases, and offers a free annual hotel night certificate after the first year!
Now is a great time to apply for the card as it’s offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 Bonvoy points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months if you apply before May 6, 2024. Plus, you can earn an additional 5 points per $1 spent on eligible gas, travel and dining purchases in the first 6 months up to a max of 15,000 points.
This means, you can earn up to 90,000 Bonvoy points which is higher than the previous offer of 50,000 points.
Plus, the cash back website, Great Canadian Rebates (GCR) is offering a cash back bonus of $75 if you’re approved for the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card!
Now, let’s go through the details of the card and how to apply via GCR.
Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card
The Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card is one of two credit cards in Canada associated with the Marriott hotel chain, which covers over 7,000 properties in 131 countries worldwide. Marriott Bonvoy is their reward program that allows members to earn points through hotel stays, car rentals and credit card spending.
Plus, it’s free to join the Marriott Bonvoy program and become a member.
The card does have an annual fee of $150. But you can offset this cost by applying for this credit card through Great Canadian Rebates to earn a $75 cash bonus! So, this card would only have a net fee of $75 in the first year which is half the annual fee!
Plus, there are multiple perks for applying and holding onto this card.
Multiple free hotel nights with the welcome bonus of up to 90,000 points
The Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card is offering a generous welcome bonus of 90,000 Bonvoy points (instead of 50,000 points) after spending $6,000 in the first three months. Plus, you can earn an additional 5 points per $1 spent on eligible gas, travel and dining purchases purchases in the first 6 months up to a max of 15,000 points (on $3,000 spend).
Now what could you do with those 90,000 points? Well to start, you could redeem them for a free hotel night with Marriott.
Marriott used to have an award chart to tell you how many points you could expect for a free hotel night. But that’s no longer the case since Marriott switched to dynamic award pricing in March 2022.
In this pricing model, the points rate reflects the underlying cash rate of the hotel. Thus, there is no set guidance on the number of Bonvoy points required for a free night.
Keep in mind that Marriott has their 5th night free benefit. If you book a 5-night stay with Bonvoy points, the cheapest night (out of the five) will be free! Consider using points to pay for your stay if you’re planning on staying longer than 5 days at a Marriott hotel.
Thus, you could obtain multiple free hotel nights with this 90,000 points bonus! The exact number of nights will depend mostly on the hotel and your travel dates.
Marriott Hotel examples
For example, you could stay overnight at the the Montreal Airport Marriott In-terminal hotel which generally costs 48,000 points per night.
Or for a better value of your points, stay at the TownePlace Suites hotel in Petawawa, Ontario. This hotel has decent pricing ranging between 5,500 and 10,000 points per night with an average rate of 8,500 points/night.
If you book this Petawawa hotel on off-peak dates, it could cost a remarkably low 5,500 points per night!
Add in Marriott’s 5th night free benefit and you could stay for 5 nights at this hotel for the price of 4! This is exactly what I did when I last stayed at this hotel in March 2021 so check out my full review of the TownePlace Suites Petawawa.
Free Marriott hotel night certificate every year
Another reason to get (and keep) the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card, is the free hotel night certificate that’s awarded annually (starting after your first card year)! This Free Night Award (FNA) certificate can be redeemed at Marriott hotels that cost up to 35,000 points/night.
The good news is that since April 2022, you can also combine your FNA certificate with up to 15,000 Bonvoy points to stay at a Marriott hotel worth up to a maximum of 50,000 Bonvoy points/night.
You’ll receive the Free Night Award into your Marriott account about 8-10 weeks after you renew and pay the card’s annual fee of $150.
To maximize the value of your certificate, you would ideally want to redeem it for a hotel that costs more than $150/night to come out ahead.
So, if you plan on staying at a Marriott hotel at least once a year, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card is definitely worth keeping!
Other benefits of the card
With the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card, you earn Bonvoy points according to the following rates:
- 5 Marriott Bonvoy points for every $1 in eligible purchases at Marriott properties
- 3 Marriott Bonvoy points for every $1 in eligible gas, dining and travel purchases
- 2 Marriott Bonvoy points for every $1 in other purchases.
Plus, with this card, you’re awarded Marriott Bonvoy “Silver Elite Status” which has the following benefits:
- Priority late checkout (based on availability)
- Member rates & free WiFi
- 10% bonus points for each eligible stay
Also, you’ll receive 15 elite night credits each calendar year with this card. These can be used towards attaining the next level of Elite status in the Marriott Bonvoy program. For example, you need 25 nights to reach Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status.
Or, you could reach Gold Elite status by spending $30,000 on the card each year. Gold Elite status offers 25% bonus points on stays, enhanced room upgrade & 2pm late checkout (based on availability).
Again, to join Marriott Bonvoy, you can click HERE to sign up.
Now, remember that mention about getting cash back for this card?
Bonus $75 when you apply through Great Canadian Rebates
Here’s where the interesting cash bonus comes in. If you apply for this card through Great Canadian Rebates, you could earn a $75 bonus!!!
What’s Great Canadian Rebates (GCR) you ask? For those unfamiliar, it’s a website that offers cash back rebates on almost every online purchase with select Canadian merchants. This includes stores such as: Sport Chek, Amazon.ca, Home Depot and many more. The cash back rate will vary between 1% to 8% with the average being 4% for most vendors; but they also provide cash back when you apply to certain financial products.
Interested in getting this offer? Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Sign up for Great Canadian rebates through this link, or login if you already have an account.
- Choose your cash back method such as Paypal, egift card, or direct deposit. My preference is to be paid by Paypal and then deposit the funds directly into my bank account.
- Type “Marriott Bonvoy Business” in the search bar to find this offer or look under Categories > Credit Cards & Finance and scroll down to find it.
- Click on the link to apply which will open in a new browser tab.
- Proceed with the Amex application by providing your personal information like address, date of birth, employer and income. Also, don’t forget to include your Marriott Bonvoy membership number!
*Important Note* applying for this credit card will result in hard inquiry by Amex on your credit report.
Once you’re approved, GCR will keep track of your application and send the cash back about 2-3 months later, (usually by the 28th of the month). To help you out, you can refer to the following schedule.
Next, Amex will mail your credit card usually within 1-2 weeks.
Summary
The Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card is a fantastic hotel credit card to have to earn Bonvoy points! Apply before May 6, 2024 to be eligible for the welcome bonus offer of up to 90,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, enough for multiple FREE hotel nights!!! Plus, the card offers a yearly FREE hotel night certificate, Marriott Silver Elite status and 15 Elite nights every year.
For those that don’t have the card, consider applying through Great Canadian Rebates to get a bonus of $75 cash back!
Do you plan on applying or already have the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card? Let me know in the comments below.
Disclosure: American Express is not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details and current product information, please visit the American Express website.
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