The Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card is a great card for business owners who are Marriott Bonvoy loyalists. It offers solid benefits benefits that can be used at more than 7,000 Marriott Bonvoy properties around the world. On top of earning 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy points after meeting the minimum spending requirements, you also get perks such as an annual free night award, complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status and 15 Elite Night Credits towards the next level of Marriott Bonvoy Elite status.

Who is this card for?

The card is targeted to business owners who are loyal to the Marriott Bonvoy program. If you are a Bonvoy fan, perks like the annual free night award and elite status will certainly enhance your travel experience.

You can apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card here.

Card Features

Bonus Offer

You’ll earn 125,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months. That’s good enough for a free off-peak night at a Category 8 hotel, like the St. Regis Bora Bora Resort. You could even get multiple free nights at a lower category hotel like The Westin Resort & Spa, Puerto Vallarta.

Annual Fee

The card comes with a $125 annual fee.

Earning Rates

The Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card earns:

• 6 points per $1 spent at Marriott Bonvoy properties
• 4 points per $1 spent at restaurants worldwide, U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on purchases made from merchants in the U.S. for shipping
• 2 points per $1 on all other spending

This card also comes with complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status, which means you’ll earn a 25% points bonus on paid stays. So in total, you’d earn 18.5 points per dollar spent (10 points as a Marriott Bonvoy member, 6 points from the card and 2.5 bonus point for elite status).

Redeeming Points

Marriott Bonvoy recently announced a move away from the standard award chart and towards dynamic pricing. This change will make it harder to be certain how much an award night is going to cost. However, you can still use the award chart as a guide.

Marriott Bonvoy Award Chart

The Marriott Bonvoy program has eight award tiers with prices ranging from 5,000 points to 100,000 points per night. In the new world, doing a search on marriott.com is the best way to check how many points a property will cost.

Here’s an example search for a five night trip at the The Ritz-Carlton, Koh Samui. This Category 7 hotel costs 65,000 points per night Tuesday through Friday and 55,000 points for Saturday night. With Marriott’s “Stay for 5, Pay for 4” perk, when you book an award stay of five consecutive nights, the fifth night is free. So in total, this booking would cost only 260,000 points for a King Suite with Balcony room.

If you don’t have enough points, you can also consider using Marriott’s Cash & Points option. This allows guests to book using a combination of points and cash.

Transferring Points to Miles

Another option to consider is transferring points into airline miles. Marriott Bonvoy allows you to transfer points to airline miles at a 3:1 ratio. Plus, for every 60,000 points you transfer, you receive a 5,000-mile bonus. This can be especially useful for award flights because they transfer to airlines that don’t partner with other transferrable-points programs, such as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. This opens up all sorts of options for booking sweet spots with difficult-to-earn miles.

Card Benefits

Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status

As long as your account is open and in good standing, you’ll receive complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status. The main perks of this status are 25% bonus points on Marriott Bonvoy hotel stays, 2 p.m. late checkout and the potential for room upgrades. Gold members aren’t eligible for suite upgrades but you can receive upgrades to larger rooms, rooms in preferred locations or preferred views. Plus, you also receive 15 elite night credits toward the next level of elite status.

Annual Free Award Night

You’ll receive one free night award, valid at hotels costing up to 35,000 points per night, on your card-opening anniversary each year. You can even earn a second free night award after spending $60,000 in a calendar year. 

Fifth Night Free

For every five consecutive nights you redeem (pay with points), you will receive the lowest point-value night free.

Booking Discount

Receive a 7% discount off standard rates for reservations of standard guest rooms at Marriott Bonvoy hotels when you book directly.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

For those who travel internationally, this card does not charge foreign transaction fees.

Who should look for another card?

The Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card is the only Marriott-branded business card on the market. However, there are several Marriott-branded personal cards that Bonvoy fans can own instead of, or in addition to the business card. For example, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card comes with a 75,000 point sign-up bonus, automatic Gold Elite status, an annual free night (up to 50,000 points), and $300 in statement credits every cardmember year for eligible purchases at Marriott Bonvoy hotels. The annual fee on this card is $450, but those are some pretty great perks.

Chase also has two Marriott-branded personal cards. The $95 per year Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® credit card comes with a 100,000 point sign-up bonus, an annual free night (up to 35,000 points) and automatic Silver Elite status. Whereas the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® credit card comes with a 50,000 point sign-up bonus and has no annual fee.

All the major hotel chains have co-branded personal cards and a few have small business cards as well. Hilton has the biggest lineup of cards worth consideration. American Express offers four different Hilton credit cards, three personal cards and one business card. These cards have sign-up bonuses ranging from 70,000 points to 150,000 points. Plus if you sign up for more than one card, you can build a huge point balance very quickly. You can read my comparison of the Hilton personal cards here.

If you aren’t loyal to any one hotel chain, stick with a credit card that earns flexible points like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Points in those ecosystems are transferrable to various airline and hotel partners and gives you virtually unlimited options.

Some good transferable points business cards to consider with similar annual fees are:

• Chase Ink Business Preferred Card
• Business Green Rewards Card from American Express
• American Express® Business Gold Card

Bottom Line

The Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card comes with 125,000 bonus points once you complete the minimum spending requirements. That’s enough for free nights at over 7,000 Marriott Bonvoy properties. It also offers decent earning categories which makes it one of the better hotel credit cards for small-business owners. Finally, because Amex business cards don’t count towards the Chase 5/24 rule, applying for this card will not impact your ability to apply for Chase cards.

Apply here for the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card