I earn my first 500 Nectar points from a Marriott hotel stay

In July, Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar launched a two-way transfer partnership. This sees Nectar become the first ‘everyday earn’ partner for Marriott Bonvoy in the UK.

For most HfP readers, the key benefit is the ability to earn up to 1,500 Nectar points every programme year from completing up to three Marriott Bonvoy stays.

I just completed my first Marriott stay since the launch, so I can show you how it works.

To link your Nectar and Marriott Bonvoy accounts, you need to visit the Nectar landing page here.

If you are not already a Bonvoy member – although I know most readers will be – you will receive 500 Nectar points for opening an account. There is no requirement to do a hotel stay to earn these 500 points.

Get 500 Nectar points on your first three Marriott stays per year

This is how the partnership works.

After you have linked your Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar accounts, you will receive 500 Nectar points on each of your first three Marriott Bonvoy hotel stays in any programme year. (‘Programme year’ runs from 17th July.)

Note that:

• Only cash stays will receive 500 bonus Nectar points – stays booked with Marriott Bonvoy points will not qualify

• Your Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar accounts must be linked for 24 hours before booking (not before you stay) to enable your stay to qualify for the bonus

• You can earn a maximum of 1,500 Nectar points from this promotion every programme year

• You will receive your standard Marriott Bonvoy points and elite night credits as usual. Stays which do not qualify for Bonvoy points (eg bookings made via third parties such as Expedia) will not earn Nectar points either.

You should sign up for this offer even if you have no interest in Nectar points. At the very least you can transfer your 1,500 bonus Nectar points back to Marriott and receive 750 Marriott Bonvoy points!

What was my experience?

I stayed at the Moxy York hotel two weeks ago on my way to a family event. I’m not reviewing it but I’ve stayed there a few times and have a soft spot for it.

It is a pleasant 20 minute walk through the city centre from the railway station. That said, you pass multiple decent budget hotels on the way so it is best suited to someone (like me) who wants to knock off another elite night credit. You can’t complain at £87 with breakfast included.

As it happened, my Bonvoy points failed to post to my account. This is pretty unforgivable, given that my number was printed clearly on the invoice.

Marriott forces you to wait 10 calendar days before making a retroclaim. However, to their credit, the points were added within an hour of uploading a copy of my bill. This was on Wednesday.

My Nectar points were meant to arrive within seven days. They actually arrived just one day after Marriott manually credited my stay:

What’s not clear – because the ‘arriving within seven days’ note makes me suspicious – is whether one day is typical. It is possible that Marriott simply sends the data to Nectar once per week and your wait could be anything between one and seven days!

What is the transfer rate between Nectar and Marriott Bonvoy?

Your options for 500 Nectar points include £2.50 off a Sainsburys shop, 250 Avios (for 400 Nectar points) or 250 Marriott Bonvoy points.

The two way transfer rates between Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar are:

• 2 Marriott Bonvoy points get you 1 Nectar point
• 2 Nectar points get you 1 Marriott Bonvoy point

Full details can be found on this page of the Nectar website.

Whilst transfers work in both directions, there is a big loss of value if you transfer from Nectar to Marriott and then decide to transfer back to Nectar, or vice versa. You should only make a transfer if you are fairly confident that you won’t want to reverse it.

Conclusion

Irrespective of whether you will ever transfer points between your Nectar and Marriott Bonvoy accounts, it is a no-brainer to link them.

You will earn 500 Nectar points on three Marriott stays per programme year and this is on top of your usual Bonvoy points. It is a genuine extra benefit with no downside.

As I found this week, Nectar points are posting promptly after you complete each Marriott stay. I look forward to picking up another 2 x 500 Nectar points in due course over the next 10 months.

You can find out more and link your accounts from Nectar here.