Marriott Rewards Premier Business Credit Card — Full Review [2021]

As a business owner, you have enough on your plate. Between running your business and handling your own finances, anything that makes things easier is a no-brainer!

That includes having a business credit card you can depend on.

The Marriott Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card may be the solution. Between free employee cards and all of the great travel rewards from a hotel chain with over 4,000 properties worldwide, there’s a lot to love.

Sign-Up Bonus, Earning Categories and Points

The current sign-up bonus for the Marriott Premier Business card is detailed above, which you can get after spending the required amount in the allotted time.

Using this card, you earn 5x points for stays at Marriott properties and Ritz-Carlton locations.

Like most cards, only new cardmembers can take advantage of the sign-up bonus. If you are new to the card, this is a terrific way to stockpile points.

Because it’s a business card, you also get 2x points on airline tickets (purchased through the airline), car rentals, restaurants, and office supply stores. You’ll also get 2x the points for internet, cable, and phone services.

On everything else you purchase, you’ll get 1x points. With a Category 1 one-night award costing only 7,500 points, you can rack up awards pretty quickly.

Bottom Line: Earn 5x points at Marriott, and 2x points on airfare, car rentals, restaurants, office supply stores, internet, cable, and phone purchases with your Marriott Premier Business card!

Free Night Stay and Elite Status Benefits

Each year after your account anniversary, you get 1 free night’s stay at a Category 1-5 hotel just for being a Marriott Premier Business card member.

A 1-night stay usually requires 25,000 points at a Category 5 hotel, which includes Renaissance, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, and more!

Also, this card automatically earns you 15 Elite credits every year, putting you at Silver Status in the Marriott Rewards Program for as long as you participate. You completely bypass the 10-night requirement necessary to reach Silver Status!

Silver Status gives you a ton of great benefits, such as late checkout, weekend discounts, and a 20% bonus on your points each stay. Not only that, you get a 5th night free for booking 4 nights or more!

Spend 50 nights or $50,000 in purchases in a year and move up to Gold elite status. If you’re putting all your business expenses on the card, this can be quite doable.

Gold status means complimentary room upgrades, lounge access, breakfast for 2, and a 25% point bonus.

The card provides another way to reach Gold: Every $3,000 you spend on purchases earns you an additional credit (equal to one night’s stay) toward elite status, and there’s no limit to how many you can earn.

So, say you stayed 25 nights this year and earned 25 credits. Add the 15 credits you start out with each year from the card, and that’s 40 credits…not quite the 50 needed to make Gold.

But if you’ve spent $30,000 on the card, you can add 10 more credits, sending you directly to Gold status!

There’s one more tier, Platinum elite status, which requires 75 nights but earns you 50% additional points per stay. If your business requires a lot of traveling, this is certainly possible.

Bottom Line: Gain automatic Silver status in Marriott Rewards with the Marriott Premier Business card, and earn elite credits for purchases to put Gold status more easily within reach.

More Marriott Premier Business Card Benefits

The Marriott Premier Business card is great for international travel because there are no foreign transaction fees. These fees can add up quickly with other cards!

Plus, the embedded chip in the card provides enhanced security when used in a chip card reader in the U.S. and overseas.

Even though it’s a hotel card, you can score big with miles in the United MileagePlus program once you hit Platinum elite status.

That’s because you’ll automatically earn Silver status with MileagePlus and be able to transfer points with a 20 percent discount.

For instance, you usually need to transfer 10,000 Marriott points to get 2,000 MileagePlus points. But with the discount, you only need to transfer 8,000 points!

If you’re concerned about the $99 annual fee, remember you get 15 elite credits each year, 1 free night’s stay, and 80,000 sign-up points in return!  As a business owner, you may find this to be a very valuable card if you use it often.

Bottom Line: The free night each year alone more than makes up for the annual fee of the Marriott Premier Business card. Plus you get Silver elite status and even more benefits when you hit Gold and Platinum.

• You enjoy staying at Marriott properties (over 4,000 options worldwide!)
• You will authorize employees to use the card
• You travel frequently for business
• You enjoy perks like room upgrades and weekend discounts

• You prefer to stay in hotels other than Marriott
• Marriott brand hotels aren’t available in the cities where you travel
• You want more flexible redemption options

Because you are on the road as a business traveler, the fastest way to accumulate points is going to be staying at Marriott properties. But it’s certainly not the only way!

The tips below can help you rack up points in ways you may not have considered. Then you can redeem even more points for great Marriott Rewards.

After all, why not get as much value from the Marriott Premier Business card as possible?

Tip #1: As we mentioned above, the #1 way to earn points is by using this card as a Rewards member at Marriott and Ritz-Carlton locations. You’ll earn 5x points, plus 5x – 10x points with status, for up to 15 pts/$1!

The automatic elite status puts you on a path to great earning potential!

Tip #2: Hold large business conferences or events through Marriott for up to 3x points (up to 50k), which is a super fast way to build points.

Plus, earn points for guests that stay overnight and tons of elite credits!

Tip #3: Look for Marriott Rewards promotions worth extra points. For instance, you may be able to earn bonus points after 2 or more stays.

Marriott holds yearly promotions at the same time each year, so keep an eye out for these!

Tip #4: Book rooms with your Marriott business account when traveling with your employees or other companions to earn additional points.

You can get points for up to 2 additional rooms as long as you put them on your card and stay in a room yourself.

Tip #5: Work to reach the next status as quickly as possible to earn points faster. With Platinum status, your bonus jumps from 25% to 50%!

For example, as a Platinum member, you earn 10 base points plus 5 bonus points, for a total of 15 bonus points per dollar for your stay.

Platinum members also receive a bonus gift at check in worth 200-1,000 bonus points. Don’t forget to ask when you arrive!

Tip #6: Think outside the box by earning points on qualifying charges at participating Marriott luxury hotels. You can earn points on spa and resort services, golf courses, and hotel dining.

Tip #7: Get points for everyday spending with Marriott Rewards partners like ShopMyWay, NRG Home, and more. For instance, with ShopMyWay you earn 2 points per dollar spent with Lands’ End, Apple, and Lowes.com.

Tip #8: Rent a car with Hertz, another Marriott partner. You can receive 2,000 points on rentals of 2-4 days and 5,000 points on rentals of 5+ days. Just use the CDP code 154080.

Plus, when you earn Gold elite status with Marriott Rewards, you automatically reach Hertz Gold status, which comes with its own set of upgrades and bonuses!

Tip #9: Collect badges when you participate in Marriott’s Badges Rewards Program, a new part of the loyalty program. Each badge gets you Rewards points, up to a maximum of 1,725.

Earn 25 pts when you stay at one of the different brands for a minimum 2-night stay. Stay at all 14 for a total of 350 pts.

You also receive bonus points for becoming a 5-brand Explorer (50 pts), 10-brand Explorer (75 pts), or Uber brand explorer (250 pts).

Work toward 1000 nights of cumulative stays to earn more points. Here is a breakdown of the earnings for each badge.

Tip #10: Prefer airline miles? Switch from earning points to earning miles through your favorite airline program.

Take note, however, that the value of airline miles varies depending on your status. For instance, points and miles are equal value for basic membership. But as an elite Silver member, you earn more points than miles in equivalent value.

See Card Math for details.

After earning points with your Marriott Premier Business card, you’ll probably want to redeem them! With all of the ways to redeem your Marriott points, it can be a little confusing.

You have options such as room redemptions, upgrades, flights, and more. Here are some suggestions for redeeming your points for as much value as possible.

The table below breaks down the types of redemptions you can choose from.

Types of Redemptions and Their Value

In most cases, you can get the best value for redeeming points for hotels in the higher categories, but that’s not always the case. Our sample valuations found the value per point to range from $0.004 to $0.016.

Because the value can vary among categories and locations, crunch the numbers ahead of time. Aim for the highest redemption value possible, while booking the best trip for your needs.

For instance, it may be worth it to stay more nights at a hotel of lesser quality than to cut your trip short because a fancier hotel requires more points.

Quick Tips for Redeeming Points

Tip #1: The best value is usually through standard redemptions.

Tip #2: When possible, take advantage of PointSavers options. You can get a discount as high as 33%, which really stretches your points.

Check available PointSavers options regularly in order to find the best deals.

Tip #3: If you have some flexibility with your stay, try to redeem your points for 5 nights. For every 5 nights you book in standard redemptions, you receive 1 of those nights free!

Tip #4: Are you a United MileagePlus business traveler? Then you can transfer points from your Marriott Rewards account to your MileagePlus account at a 20% discount over other airlines.

Take note, transferring miles back to your Marriott account will be at a 1: 1 ratio.

Tip #5: Consider redeeming your points for room upgrades, but only when it works out to be a good value. You may be able to get a better deal for the upgrade using the cash option and saving your points for other rewards.

If you use a points upgrade you won’t earn points on the room. But if you are a Gold or Platinum member (who already receives free upgrades), you can still earn points.

Tip #6: Be careful using Instant Rewards, which often offer a much lower value than room redemptions.

Tip #7: If you have accumulated a ton of Marriott Rewards points, you may want to transfer them to an airline. However, airlines usually offer a lesser value than free Marriott nights.

Before transferring points to airlines, check the numbers.

For instance, the value of a free night with 10,000 Marriott points can be $80-$150. Yet you would only get 2,000 airline miles if you transferred the same number of points, for a value of $40 ($.02/ point).

There’s no question which option is more valuable.

On the other hand, transfer 140k points and get 50k airline miles, which can be worth $1,000+ in airline value. It would be harder to get more than $1,000 for a Marriott stay, depending on the property.

Tip #8: Don’t wait too long to use your points. Marriott Rewards points expire after 24 months if you don’t use them.

Tip #9: Check out unique ways to redeem points. Get gift cards from popular retailers, or trade points for gifts from the 10K and under collection that includes housewares, toys, and mobile devices.

When it comes to earning and redeeming points, Marriott has a wide variety of partners in the Marriott Rewards program.

Partners: Hertz, NRG Home Solar, Diner’s Club, Cruises Only, Flowers, Gifts & Wine Boutique, CTrip, Avios, ShopMyWay Mall, Traveling Connect, and Energy Plus

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas loyalty program is another partner.

On the low end, you can transfer 5,000 points from Marriott Rewards in exchange for 2,000 Identity points.  On the high end, you can transfer 250,000 Marriott Reward points for 100,000 Identity points.

Marriott Rewards Airline Transfer Partners

In order to take advantage of the sign-up bonus, you must not be a current cardholder and may not have received it in the last 24 months. Expect bonus points to take 6-8 weeks to post to your account.

When earning Marriott Rewards points for airlines, restaurants, and car rentals, you must book directly with these agencies to ensure the transaction is categorized correctly.

As of 2021, your Marriott Reward points will expire without qualifying activity after 24 months. The following actions are considered qualifying activity:

• Pay or redeem points for a stay at a Marriott property
• Make a purchase with the card
• Purchase points
• Earn points with one of the program partners
• Hold a meeting or event through the Events Program

Gifting or transferring points, receiving gifted or transferred points, and earning points through social media programs are not considered qualifying activity.

E-Certificates for the Anniversary Free Night expire after 12 months.

Elite credits are posted to your account 6 to 8 weeks from your account anniversary date.

Other Unique Features

Marriott Premier Business card members receive a variety of benefits.

Tax and expense management – Separate business expenses from personal purchases with itemized monthly statements. You can also carry a balance up to your credit access line to pay off purchases over time.

Quarterly management reports – Break out business expenses by employee and merchant type so you can take advantage of tax deductions.

Dedicated customer service line – Call 1-800-338-5960 24 hours a day.

Account alerts – Personalized alerts by email, text message, or voicemail help you track your balance, payments, and available credit.

Visa Signature Concierge Service – Personal assistance with restaurant reservations and special occasion planning by calling 1-800-953-7392.

Trip cancellation/interruption insurance – Reimbursement up to $5,000 per trip for prepaid, nonrefundable expenses if a trip is canceled or cut short by sickness or severe weather.

Trip delay reimbursement – If your travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you are covered for up to $500 of unreimbursed expenses.

Baggage delay insurance – If baggage is delayed over 6 hours by passenger carrier, you receive reimbursement for essentials purchased, up to $100 per day for 5 days.

Purchase protection – New purchases are covered against damage or theft for up to $10,000 per claim for 120 days.

Lost luggage reimbursement – Receive up to $3,000 per passenger if you or your immediate family members’ carry-on bags are damaged or lost by the carrier.