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North Island Resort now bookable for 358,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night

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You may have heard of North Island Resort in the Seychelles.  If the name rings a bell, it is because it is where Prince William went on honeymoon, as did George and Amal Clooney.  It is situated 30km from Mahe Island, the capital of the Seychelles.

The resort website is here and it looks like this:

Book North Island using Marriott Bonvoy points

North Island Resort has a grand total of 11 rooms across its 500 acres.

‘Rooms’ is perhaps understating it, however.  The 11 villas are each 450 sq m, so about 6x the size of the average new-build UK house.

It is reassuringly expensive as you would expect, with rates at €6,500 per night before a 15% tax and 6% service charge.  That is £6,765 per night all-in.  If your children are 12+ there is an extra charge.

If you want to read a review, my friend and occasional HfP commentator Tom has been a couple of times.  He reviewed it on his blog – which is probably the worlds biggest source of private island resort reviews written by the same person – here and here.

Last February, as we covered at the time, ASMALLWORLD took over management of North Island.  Our 2019 article covers this in more detail, including its links to Harvey Weinstein and its ‘Facebook for rich kids’ history.

ASMALLWORLD decided to add North Island to “The Luxury Collection”, one of Marriott’s brands.  It has now become bookable on Marriott Bonvoy points!

Don’t rush to book though.  The cost is 358,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night:

The 2-bedroom villas will sleep four people, but even adjusting for that it is not exactly a bargain.  On the other hand, if you are one of those HfP readers who spends six-figures each month on credit cards (hello heavy Google and Facebook advertisers) then this could be for you.

Here’s the thing.  Given my valuation of 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point, this is actually a good deal.

Compared to paying £6,765 in cash, you are using £1,790-worth of Marriott Bonvoy points.  That is a pretty chunky saving.  In reality, the saving is less as Marriott appears to be selling the hotel for a little less than rack rate.

Redemption rooms only include breakfast so you are on the hook for your other meals.  You also need to pay for a helicopter transfer (€814 each way, per family group) and of course get to the Seychelles in the first place.

The North Island section of the Marriott website is here.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (195)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • The Original David says:
    19 Feb19 February 04:05

    Be careful with crediting Malaysian flights to BAEC – there are some fare codes that produce zero avios or TPs. Check the BAEC calculator before booking – helpfully the MH website clearly tells you what fare code your ticket is in during the booking process.

  • Ian M says:
    19 Feb19 February 05:20

    North Island looks tempting! But I wonder what dinner will cost!

    • Anna says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:03

      I think the villas have kitchens so you’d just pack a suitcase full of food 😂

    • Alex W says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:30

      Looks more like a willy to me 😂

    • Tom C says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:48

      I’m the chap that’s reviewed it and been twice before, but previously North Island was a single rate and all-inclusive. Now I feel the best rate is actually B&B, so that is what we’ve booked for our stay next month. The reservations team have been incredibly prompt at responding to me, but they’ve now gone quiet since I requested the menus as I did suddenly start wondering whether the B&B rate is so much cheaper than Full Board (€1200/n), as a slice of bread is going to cost €50.

  • BJ says:
    19 Feb19 February 05:28

    OT: Amex offers are back at Morrisons. Looks like several variants. On 2 of my 4 cards. 10%/£20+ on Green and 7%/£30+ on Gold.

    • Anna says:
      19 Feb19 February 05:44

      Got it on SPG and BAPP but only till 11/3.

      • BJ says:
        19 Feb19 February 05:51

        Lucky you, I think amex are trying to stop me earning another 241. I’ve held the green for almost a year now and not yet upgraded it. I’m very impressed with offers that I’ve had on it. Recovered the £60 fee several times over, all on spend I would have done regardless of offers.

        • Shoestring says:
          19 Feb19 February 07:39

          10% on Green, 5% on Gold 🙂

          I’ll test the new plastic giftcard on diesel later on – I’m sure it works fine but getting the cashier to accept it sounds like a slightly different matter

          • Shoestring says:
            19 Feb19 February 07:56

            you lot had me worried there (thinking it was limited to £40 etc!) – but no: Spend £20 or more, get 10% back every time

          • BJ says:
            19 Feb19 February 08:09

            EwanG confirmed yesterday that he used the plastic card bo problem following the advice from Andy and Dave I think it was (Morrisons gift card on screen then scan IIRC)

          • xcalx says:
            19 Feb19 February 08:27

            No problem using plastic GC for fuel last week

          • MattB says:
            19 Feb19 February 08:52

            Are the plastic cards available on manned tills?

          • EwanG says:
            19 Feb19 February 09:18

            @MattB. Yes, no need to go to kiosk. In fact if you use self service, it’s pretty easy. Scan card, select how much to top up (up to £250) and then place on scales along with your phone or a glove etc so the scales register, as the GC is not heavy enough by itself.

          • Shoestring says:
            19 Feb19 February 09:19

            yes like any giftcard

            slightly more complicated than most giftcards as you need to say how much you want (increments of £5) – so you might save time by buying at the kiosk

          • Sal says:
            19 Feb19 February 13:32

            For someone thats not been following this morrisons fuel thing. You buy a gift card in store and pay at fuel pump? I’m guessing only top up at £20 each time as you want the amex reward each time? So only a £20 fuel top up each time? 🙂:)

          • jc says:
            19 Feb19 February 13:48

            @Sal you may want to take a refresher on how percentages work

          • BJ says:
            19 Feb19 February 14:42

            …and if it works at the pump then please let us know 🙂

          • Andy says:
            19 Feb19 February 15:08

            It seems we’re all gradually training the petrol staff at Morries in taking the plastic GCards 😀

        • RakishDriver says:
          19 Feb19 February 10:51

          I was thinking of referring myself from plat for the green. Cancel plat. See how I go with the green offers and then upgrade to plat again – would I still be ok getting the upgrade bonus? Or do the sign-up bonus rules rule the upgrade bonus out?

          • Sal says:
            19 Feb19 February 13:31

            For someone thats not been following this morrisons fuel thing. You buy a gift card in store and pay at fuel pump? I’m guessing only top up at £20 each time as you want the amex reward each time? So only a £20 fuel top up each time? 🙂

      • idrive says:
        19 Feb19 February 11:32

        Plat: Spend £40 or more, get 5% back every time
        seriously.disappointed.

        Also, do i need to spend £40 the first time to have unlimited 5% afterwards? or it is only of >40£ everytime?

    • MattB says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:10

      Across my 3 cards I have totally different offers, best being 10% off £20, followed by 7% off £30 and 5% off £40. Unsurprisingly the best offer card is the only one I’ve never used in these Morrisons offers previously.

      Is the bonus virgin in-store promo still going? Could stack approx 18% back in total.

    • Andrew M says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:13

      Another variant. 5% on £40+. Boo.

    • Andrew says:
      19 Feb19 February 08:39

      BA Blue 7% off £30 every time until 11th March
      8 Miles per £1 on Virgin until 26th February. (Under £20 shop, standard 1 mile per £1)

    • Anna says:
      19 Feb19 February 09:09

      So can you buy gift cards (i.e. for other stores) using this offer? I need a few at the moment (OH got some substantial B & Q spending coming up) so this would be handy.

      • Shoestring says:
        19 Feb19 February 09:25

        sure, Morrisons have a good range incl Amazon 🙂 – I’ll be topping up my credit later on

        so – tells self – no need to get het up on that last Monese offer when they blocked my account for no good reason – that was a free £15 on £85 whereas this is a free £10 on £90 (effectively), MR points and More points on top (1% + 0.5%)

        *don’t forget to scan your More cards, folks 🙂 *

        • Shoestring says:
          19 Feb19 February 09:29

          actually this promotion on its own entirely justifies my Green card fee £60 – I already did one referral 5000 MRs this year – but with my 10% here I reckon I’ll go for it along the lines £2K for diesel, £1K for Amazon, ie pays my Green sub 5x

          I got it to upgrade to Plat but have been happy enough with it just sitting there costing me nothing with the offers

    • PJJ says:
      19 Feb19 February 09:39

      +1 on BA Blue card

      • Freddy says:
        19 Feb19 February 14:33

        Thinking of several large purchase off Amazon. Will Morrison happily sell me £500/£1000 gift card or are they a bit funny with high sums

        • bsuije says:
          19 Feb19 February 15:59

          Last time the offer was around, my OH and I did £250 or so of Amazon & John Lewis each without any issues. The annoying thing was loading the Amazon cards onto our accounts!

          • Shoestring says:
            19 Feb19 February 16:07

            @Freddy they are not funny but can be careful, which is fair enough. ie the cashier might call over a supervisor to OK it. I never bought Amz in great quantities but I did buy a couple of £Ks M giftcards – each time the mgr got called over to collect the book of vouchers (old paper ones) and was happy to sell them! They weren’t difficult about giving you accusing looks or treating you like a criminal, once the Amex transaction gets approved, everybody’s happy.

          • Freddy says:
            19 Feb19 February 19:58

            Thanks both 🙂

  • Joel Harding says:
    19 Feb19 February 06:01

    What is the best way to accumulate Bonvoy points with a credit card? Is there a Visa/Mastercard one can use?

    • BJ says:
      19 Feb19 February 06:17

      Yes, Monese (topped up with an SPG soon to be Bonvoy card, or an amex MR card.)

      • Go says:
        19 Feb19 February 08:56

        Are we talking paypoint via co-op?

      • Joel Harding says:
        19 Feb19 February 12:32

        Thanks BJ. I just spoke to Monese and they said that their account cannot be topped up by Amex. Is that just the party line do you know?

        In the best case scenario, it sounds like I can set up a Monese account, top it up with an amex and switch all of my DDs to it, paying only the account fee of £14.95. Is that correct?

        • Shoestring says:
          19 Feb19 February 12:38

          you’re joking, right?

        • BJ says:
          19 Feb19 February 14:50

          Search the articles on Monese and read them, including comments from thd begining. Don’t call Monese again please.

          • Joel Harding says:
            19 Feb19 February 14:54

            OK. I did try that initially but will have another go.

            They have also only given me a £600 pcm top-up limit. Is that likely to increase substantially?

          • Genghis says:
            19 Feb19 February 21:30

            Lol. Not since you told them what you’re planning on doing. Funny.

          • Shoestring says:
            19 Feb19 February 21:37

            hey Genghis – No2 on the way? if not, why not?

            3 here

          • Rob says:
            20 Feb20 February 09:24

            I wouldn’t recommend 3 🙂

            Although in the City many have 4 as a status symbol. I just bought some expensive jumpers instead ….

          • Joel Harding says:
            19 Feb19 February 21:42

            I do sincerely apologise, the_real_a on.

            In order to avoid inconveniencing you in any way, if in the future I have a question, I’ll ensure I read every single comment on every single article on the site before asking.

          • Genghis says:
            19 Feb19 February 21:47

            @Harry. We’re only just getting into the swing of having one. Give it time. He loved my wife’s UD CW bed to/from Cape Town the other week. He slept v well, not a peep. Shame my wife didn’t have much room. We’ll have to get him his own bed in future. Got his own seat in the summer to Portugal.

          • Shoestring says:
            19 Feb19 February 21:55

            tbh the greatest time with kids is when they are under 5 – they are cute and lovable, not saying they aren’t when they’re 15 but under 5 is definitely best

          • EwanG says:
            20 Feb20 February 11:16

            3 does make it more awkward for travel. Round numbers far easier!
            Jumpers for you @Rob? What did the wife get?

          • EwanG says:
            20 Feb20 February 11:18

            Round numbers – d’oh, I meant even numbers!!!

          • the_real_a says:
            20 Feb20 February 15:09

            It is not the inconvenience, its a lack of common sense shown discussing loopholes with the companies themselves…

          • Lady London says:
            20 Feb20 February 16:26

            @Rob the status symbol number was 5 when I was in the City. Especially amongst East Coast Americans.

          • Lady London says:
            20 Feb20 February 16:37

            @Joel Harding, cc to @Ash/Ashish. This game isn’t just about the facts and what’s possible. Lots of good things are found empirically by people just trying something a little then seeing by themselves if they can be done ‘a lot’ testing the limits.

            Generally you do not, ever, call the airline or the card if you think you’ve found something. People do share but discreetly. Some things may only be hinted at once in a comment. You don’t know it but 1,000 people may have been using it for 2 years. There may be no further comment from anyone. Some of the best things are like that. It’s up to you to work it out for yourself. No one is going to drop worms into the mouths of little birds that are constantly open.

            Watch carefully and share discreetly. That keeps things open for everyone.

        • Joel Harding says:
          20 Feb20 February 21:30

          I didn’t know it was a loophole. I was just told that Monese could be topped up by Amex. I had not heard of Monese so just assumed it was a legit way of accumulating points.

          If I had been told I had to go into a Post Office every time I wanted to top up and it was capped at a few hundred quid a time, I would have ruled it out on the grounds of laziness pretty quickly.

    • Rob says:
      19 Feb19 February 08:35

      Mastercard is closed to new applicants. You need to get the SPG Amex before 26th Feb when it gets worse – see recent articles.

      • Anna says:
        19 Feb19 February 09:42

        I’m moving all my spending to BAPP and MR gold from next weeks when the changes kick in. Going to keep our one SPG to earn 6 x points on upcoming stays between now and April and renew gold status for my OH then going to bin it until status needs renewing again.

  • BJ says:
    19 Feb19 February 06:12

    semi OT: There is currently a 50%bonus on purchasing Bonvoy points through Match 25. Apart from North Island that may be of interest in numerous ways. Not least because BA usually runs a 35% hotel-avios conversion bonus in February. This year it has yet to appear, probably because they had an unexpected one in November. It may come later or not at all. Still, the Bonvoy bonus represents a good opportunity to tidy up balances to round 20k increments for those who may be interested to transfer to avios or other miles now, or in the future with a bonus. Keep an eye on the maths though, even with the bonus. For me the decision will be waiting for an avios conversion bonus or Alaska MP.

  • Scandinavian traveler says:
    19 Feb19 February 06:31

    OT: Any solo traveler(s) interested in taking part in the current Lufthansa business offer for two from Amsterdam to New Zealand?
    Found dates that work mid December till mid January with half of the trip booking into J class (the rest in P) for 1.292 gbp per person. Bargain for NZ and earns more than 80 % of *A gold on some airlines.

    • Lady London says:
      19 Feb19 February 14:14

      Would be perfect for me but currently this isn’t something I can spend on. If there are similar deals oct-nov I would probably do. So I hope people will post in future if looking for someone to make up a 2-must-travel deal

  • Ben @ OMAAT says:
    19 Feb19 February 06:48

    Rob

    No credit to me for the north island info. I posted yesterday.

    Thanks

    • BJ says:
      19 Feb19 February 07:13

      Doesn’t Lufty small world promotions work better (I’ve no idea, just ccurious)?

    • Rob says:
      19 Feb19 February 08:33

      It read like Marriott US had sent it to loads of US writers, given the quote. We are used to not being included in US press release drops.

  • Tim W says:
    19 Feb19 February 07:18

    Given the usual standard of customer service at Accor, I won’t be first in the queue for their Visa card.

    • Lady London says:
      19 Feb19 February 14:19

      You would be dealing with the Visa card provider for most things and Accor would just be getting a rake-off

      I am not a fan of the low customer service effectiveness of Accor however I am fairly impressed with some of the new CEO’s innovations. Such as places where you can drop in to work a bit like Regus but with more facilities.

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