Marriott Tours Site Earns Bonus Points on Excursions

Marriott Bonvoy members can earn bonus points by booking excursions and activities through a dedicated Marriott Tours and Activities website, an often-overlooked method for accumulating rewards. This platform functions as a third-party broker, aggregating a variety of tours and activities available worldwide, which members can book using or earning Marriott points. The author recently utilized this site to book a private boat excursion in Grand Cayman to witness a bioluminescent bay, successfully earning 3,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points. This experience highlights an alternative avenue for points accumulation beyond traditional methods like credit card spending or direct travel bookings.

The Marriott Tours and Activities site offers a diverse range of bookable experiences, including snorkeling trips, walking tours, boat and fishing excursions, food tours, and historical tours. While members can redeem Marriott points for these activities, the redemption rate observed was 0.4 cents per point. For instance, an activity costing $100 would require 25,000 Marriott points. This valuation is lower than The Points Guy's valuation of Marriott points at 0.75 cents each when used for travel, as of September 2026, suggesting that redeeming points through this channel may not represent the most optimal use of rewards for maximizing value. However, the primary benefit highlighted is the ability to earn points on these bookings.

Members can earn Marriott points at a rate of 5 points per dollar spent on bookings made through the Tours and Activities website. In the author's case, a private boat tour for five people in Grand Cayman, which cost $600, resulted in the earning of 3,000 bonus points. This booking was comparable in cost per person to a standard group tour, demonstrating that premium experiences can still contribute to rewards balances. The site allows users to earn points on a wide array of activities, effectively turning leisure bookings into opportunities for future travel benefits. Marriott does not directly operate these tours but facilitates their booking, acting as an intermediary to enhance the loyalty program's offerings and provide members with more engagement touchpoints. The platform aims to capture spending on ancillary travel activities that might otherwise not be associated with hotel loyalty programs.