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MGM’s US casino hotels join Marriott Bonvoy after ending Hyatt partnership

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In what is a small coup for Marriott Bonvoy, and a blow for World of Hyatt, MGM Resorts International and Marriott International have announced the launch of ‘MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy’.

It covers 17 US hotels, mainly in Las Vegas, with a slightly ludicrous 40,000 rooms between them – an average of 2,350 per hotel!

Status ‘linking’ and points transfers will be available between Marriott Bonvoy and MGM Rewards.

MGM's US casino hotels join Marriott Bonvoy

The partnership replaces the current World of Hyatt deal. This will be a blow to many US members of World of Hyatt who used very cheap midweek Las Vegas stays to rack up their World of Hyatt status nights!

One MGM property, The Cosmopolitan, was already part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. It would be interesting to know how the performance of this property versus those sitting with Hyatt impacted the decision to switch partners.

13 hotels will join the new ‘MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy’ brand:

  • Vdara Hotel & Spa
  • MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
  • NoMad Las Vegas
  • The Signature at MGM Grand
  • Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
  • New York-New York Hotel & Casino
  • Luxor Hotel and Casino
  • Excalibur Hotel & Casino
  • Borgata (Atlantic City, New Jersey)
  • Beau Rivage (Biloxi, Mississippi)
  • MGM Grand Detroit (Michigan)
  • MGM National Harbor (Maryland)
  • MGM Springfield (Massachusetts)
MGM's US casino hotels join Marriott Bonvoy

The following four hotels will join other Marriott Bonvoy brands:

  • Bellagio Resort & Casino will join The Luxury Collection (top image above)
  • ARIA Resort & Casino will join Autograph Collection (second image above)
  • Park MGM will become part of Tribute Portfolio
  • The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will remain with Autograph Collection

Whilst only 17 hotels are involved, the sheer scale of them means that the deal increases Marriott’s global room count by 2.4%.

When will the new Bonvoy / MGM partnership launch?

It’s a little vague.

‘Several’ properties will become bookable, for cash or points, on marriott.com ‘beginning in October’.

All properties are expected to be bookable via Marriott channels by the end of the year.

MGM will continue to sell rooms directly via its own website so you should check pricing across both. It’s not clear if bookings via MGM channels will qualify for Marriott Bonvoy points or status credits.

MGM's US casino hotels join Marriott Bonvoy

How will the Marriott / MGM status match work?

It’s not clear yet, and it doesn’t seem to be a full status match.

The press release stays that members of MGM Rewards can link their account to Marriott Bonvoy and receive ‘select member benefits’.

It’s not clear which Marriott Bonvoy member benefits will be respected by MGM or whether you can receive status in MGM Rewards.

Marriott and MGM Rewads points transfers will be available

You will be able to exchange MGM Rewards points for Marriott Bonvoy points and vice versa. The transfer rate is not known.

Conclusion

This is an interesting deal for Marriott, and a bit of a blow for Hyatt.

It remains to be seen which Marriott Bonvoy benefits will be available via MGM. The sheer scale of Bonvoy means that there are likely to be literally hundreds of Bonvoy elites in each hotel each night.

A key Hyatt benefit – no resort fees (which are disproportionately high in Vegas) on stays by top tier members – won’t apply as this is not a standard Marriott Bonvoy feature.

You can find out more on this special page of the Marriott website.


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

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (November 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 for signing up 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

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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.)

Comments (21)

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

  • No Longer Entitled says:

    2.4% increase in rooms available is surprising. I can’t work out if I am surprised by the number of rooms Marriott had or the size of the 17 hotels joining.

    Out of interest, I went searching and Marriott came back as the largest provider of hotel rooms. Looks worse therefore for IHG with an overnight reduction of 4.5% if my internet search figure of about 886,000 rooms was/is correct.

    • Rob says:

      Press release said Bonvoy now had 180 million members. It’s scary stuff.

      • Alan says:

        Shame the mid tier benefits are so rubbish with them! At least a bit more accessible than Hyatt for UK customers but I still find IHG and Hilton much better schemes.

    • No Longer Entitled says:

      I wish there was an edit function!

      IHG should be World of Hyatt which makes it even more of a blow. Their 266,000 rooms have just dropped by 15%.

  • Richie says:

    So is this good news for lower balance MGM Rewards members, will they be able to redeem at Moxy NYC etc.?

    • Rob says:

      Looks like you’ll be able to move your points to Bonvoy, yes.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      Looks it, I’d have thought most MGM rewards members would likely have lower balances though given there are only 17 hotels to have earned points in!

  • JDB says:

    Although Hyatt loses a lot of rooms from this, I wonder if it isn’t ultimately much of a blow for them and rather more mutual. Marriott doesn’t mind what it takes on – it’s all about volume/land grab whereas Hyatt takes a more strategic, longer term approach and those MGM hotels are a totally different market than the one they know. MGM may wish to latch on to the Marriott empire but it also clearly wants some independence.

  • Sean says:

    As someone with lots of mgm rewards points this is an interesting way of diversifying them.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      Interesting exception to my assumption above but in order to have a lot of MGM reward points I’m assuming you have a very strong preference toward MGM hotels so perhaps diversification isn’t so appealing?

  • Gordon says:

    Being fairly loyal to the Hyatt brand I chose to stay at the Palazzo (via Emyr) in April (owned by Vici Properties and operated by Apollo Global),
    As is the sister hotel The Venetian,Because the standard rooms were good value and are suite standard in size, And one of the few hotels in Vegas that has a club room!
    Also stayed at the Aria which was not as appealing….

    • Gordon says:

      Edit, Club lounge.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Thought palazzo was IHG affiliated?

      • Gordon says:

        What I meant to say is, Being fairly loyal to the Hyatt brand and normally staying in their properties like MGM Grand and Bellagio etc.
        I opted for the Palazzo on price point and room size, Correct it is indeed IHG Affiliated!

  • MattB says:

    Personally I’d be surprised if the Cosmo impacted this move as its own Identity program was much more generous than Mgm rewards IMO so I never considered crediting anything to Marriott.

    Last year €3.5k resort spend plus some very modest gambling was enough to get Identity Gold which got 3 free FV terrace nights, 3 free companion nights for our friends, no resort fees and reduced cash rates for a couple of paid nights.

    I’m gutted it’s moving over to Mgm.

  • Panda Mick says:

    I have a stay at the Cosmo end of August with work. How does the current partnership work with Bonvoy / Marriott? Should / will I get points?

    • Rob says:

      If you booked via a 3rd party, no (same as usual Bonvoy rules). What I don’t know is if you earn for bookings made directly with the hotel – you usually would with Bonvoy but the Vegas hotels tend to operate via their own rules.

      • Panda Mick says:

        Booked though AMEX at work, so treated as if booking directly. I’ll keep you posted

    • MattB says:

      I don’t know if the Cosmo integration into MGM will be done by then, if not during your stay add your Marriott number to the booking on the front desk and ask to credit there.

      RE Robs point you can definitely credit a booking made direct through the Cosmo to Marriott, I accidentally did this trying to get a late checkout and had to wait a few weeks for it to be reversed.

  • Andrew says:

    I’ve stayed at The Cosmopolitan lots of times. There has been a clever trick where you could always go to most other MGM properties and charge food and drink purchases to your room at The Cosmopolitan. Therefore earning Marriott points that way. This should still work if you’re dining in a different hotel to which you’re staying

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

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