Most travellers know about earning hotel points on room nights and credit card spending. Far fewer know Marriott runs a dedicated portal for tours and activities where you can collect 5 Bonvoy points per dollar on everything from snorkelling trips to food tours — often at no extra cost.
The Marriott Tours and Activities site works as an aggregator: Marriott doesn't run the excursions itself, it simply lists tours from local operators around the world. The catalogue spans walking and historical tours, boat and fishing charters, snorkelling outings and food tours.
The idea recently proved its worth on a trip to Grand Cayman. A traveller booked a private boat to see the island's famous bioluminescent bay for $600 — a group of five — and banked 3,000 bonus Bonvoy points for it. The kicker: booking directly with the operator would have cost exactly the same, so those points were essentially free money left on the table for anyone who didn't book through Marriott's site.
There are a few fine-print details worth knowing before you use it. First, redemption: you can pay for activities with points instead of cash, but the rate works out to roughly 0.4 cents per point — 25,000 points covers a $100 tour. Since The Points Guy values Bonvoy points at around 0.75 cents each for travel, redeeming this way is not the smartest use of your balance. Earning, on the other hand, is straightforwardly worthwhile.
Second, the credit card catch. Even though the charge showed up on a statement as Marriott Bonvoy, it did not post as a Marriott purchase — it coded as a general entertainment/attractions spend. So don't expect your Marriott credit card's hotel bonus category to kick in. If you're chasing maximum value, put the charge on a card with a strong everyday earn rate or one that bonuses entertainment spending.
Third, it's always worth a price check. Marriott isn't marking anything up in this example, but with third-party booking sites that isn't guaranteed. Compare the portal price against the operator's own website before committing — the play only makes sense when the price matches or beats booking direct.
Is this going to transform your points balance? No. A few thousand points here and there won't fund a week at an all-inclusive. But the appeal is precisely how low-effort it is: you were booking the tour anyway, the price is identical, and you walk away with a bonus that compounds alongside your other everyday earning tricks — dining programs, rideshare partnerships and the like.
For anyone with a big trip coming up — think excursion-heavy destinations like the Cayman Islands, Hawaii or the Mediterranean — it's worth running your planned activities through Marriott's portal before paying the operator directly. Worst case, the price is worse and you book as you originally planned. Best case, as with that glowing bay boat ride, you pick up a few thousand points for doing absolutely nothing extra.
Story via The Points Guy.