Marriott vs Hyatt points per night: one chain publishes a chart, the other does not

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The verdict

1. Hyatt is the only one of the two where you can finish the sum before you open a storefront, because it publishes a fixed award chart and Marriott does not. Read the points your category needs off the chart below, price the same night in cash, divide, and you have your ceiling per 1,000 points — then see today's Hyatt points price and check it against that ceiling in our points-value calculator.
2. Marriott is the mirror image: it names a purchase rate in its own terms but no award price. Hyatt names an award price but says explicitly that the purchase rate can change without notice. Neither program gives you both halves of the fraction, and which half you are missing decides how you shop.
3. Purchased points buy nights, not status, in both programs. Marriott states that purchased points do not count toward Bonvoy Elite status; Hyatt classes vendor-purchased points as Bonus Points, which "do not count toward Member's qualification for elite status in the Program."

The comparison is really about one document

Every argument about Marriott versus Hyatt points per night comes back to whether a chart exists.

In a release dated 25 February 2026, World of Hyatt said it was "continuing to operate with fixed point thresholds rather than moving to dynamic pricing for award nights at Hyatt hotels and resorts," and set out an expansion from three to five redemption levels inside its existing eight categories, taking effect in May. The same release notes the chart "was last updated in 2021" and that annual category changes are announced in April.

Marriott's terms take the opposite approach and are equally explicit: the points required per night "varies by the Participating Property, the room types available at the Participating Property, length of stay, and may also vary by time of year," and "Points required per night are updated continuously and may change at any time." There is no chart to plan against, and Marriott does not claim there is.

That difference changes what "worth it" can mean. At Hyatt you can know the denominator months ahead. At Marriott you have to price a specific night, on specific dates, at a specific property, and the answer expires with the search.

The World of Hyatt award chart

World of Hyatt's own site is protected against automated requests and returned an error to every attempt on 22 September 2026. The chart below is transcribed from an archived capture of Hyatt's Free Nights & Upgrades page taken on 3 September 2026, cross-checked against the structure Hyatt described in its own February 2026 newsroom release. Standard rooms, points per night:

The same capture prices room upgrade awards as flat add-ons rather than by category — Club at 3,000 points per night, a suite upgrade at 6,000 and a premium suite upgrade at 9,000 — with the caveat that upgrade awards "may not be redeemed at all Hyatt hotel or resort locations and may have minimum room-type and rate requirements for the underlying reservation." Free nights, the capture says, come "with no blackout dates in standard rooms."

Treat the numbers as dated. Hyatt has said it will move a limited number of hotels into the Upper and Top levels during 2026, so a category that reads Moderate today may read Upper on your dates. What does not move is the structure: whatever the category and level, the points figure is published before you book.

What Marriott publishes instead

Marriott's terms do name one number, and it is the purchase rate rather than the award rate: "Points may be purchased at the rate of $12.50 U.S. dollars per 1,000 Points. Pricing varies during promotional periods."

Quote that sentence with its second half attached or not at all. It is rulebook language, not a live quote, and the terms themselves say the figure moves. We build no break-even example on it: a break-even is only as good as the price you are actually charged at checkout, and the terms decline to promise this is it.

Marriott does publish the purchase mechanics in unusual detail: a combined maximum of 150,000 Points per calendar year through the Buy Points or Gift Points storefronts, a separate combined 100,000 Points through the Points.com-powered window on Marriott's own sites, a 30-day wait after enrolment, posting "within seventy-two (72) hours after the purchase is complete," and no refunds. If you want that side of the decision on its own, we have written it up in whether buying Marriott points pays off — and you can see today's Marriott points price once you have a night priced to test it against.

What each program will sell you

Hyatt's annual ceiling is much the tighter, and it is the constraint people hit first. At 55,000 Bonus Points a year you cannot buy a Top-level night in a category 8 hotel, because that night alone needs 75,000 points. A category 4 Moderate night is comfortably within reach. The chart tells you in advance which you are attempting.

What the award night actually covers

Worth checking before you divide, because this is the part that survives the booking.

Marriott's terms state that an Award Redemption Stay "includes the cost of a guest room (with existing bedding) at a Participating Property, room tax, service charge, and extra-person charges (except at eligible all-inclusive properties), if any. All other charges, including incidentals, resort fees and The Ritz-Carlton Club level charges, rollaways, and other fees, are the responsibility of the Member." At an all-inclusive property the package — including the resort fee and standard food and beverage for up to two people — is covered.

So at a Marriott resort that charges a resort fee on cash stays, that fee is still due on an award night, and it comes off your numerator before you divide. Room tax and service charge, by contrast, are included — which is a genuine and often-missed saving on an expensive urban rate.

Long stays: two different discounts

Both programs discount a five-night redemption, and they do it differently.

Marriott's Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Offer: a member who redeems points for five consecutive nights under one reservation "will only need to redeem Points for four nights," with the free night applied to the lowest-priced night in the stay. It does not apply to stays assembled from multiple reservations, and Free Night Awards are excluded from it.

Marriott also permits a Free Night Award to be topped up: "Members are able to redeem or purchase up to 25,000 Points to expand the value of such Free Night Award" — a narrow but genuinely useful case for a small, targeted purchase rather than a speculative one.

Hyatt's equivalent is not a fifth-night rule but the chart itself: because each night's points cost is published, a five-night stay is five known numbers, and you can see before booking whether shifting a night out of a Top-level date into a Moderate one saves more than any promotion would.

Working the sum at each chain

Your ceiling per 1,000 points = (cash rate you would otherwise pay − cash still due on the award night) ÷ points the award night requires × 1,000

At Hyatt, the denominator comes off the chart. Find your hotel's category, find the redemption level for your dates, and you have it. That means you can decide whether a purchase is worth making before you ever see a price, which is the reverse of how most points purchases happen. Only the storefront quote is unknown, and you can see today's Hyatt points price once the rest of the sum is already written down. The single-program version of this walkthrough is in whether buying Hyatt points pays off.

At Marriott, the denominator only exists once you have priced a specific night. Do that first, subtract the resort fee if the property charges one, then divide. If you are reaching for the storefront because a Free Night Award is a few thousand points short of the room you want, that is the strongest version of the Marriott case; if you are reaching for it because a promotion appeared, it is the weakest.

Either way, do not skip the cash-rate step. The sum collapses if the numerator is the chain's own rate rather than the best price actually available for those dates.

So which points buy a night more predictably?

Hyatt, and it is not close — but predictability is not cheapness, and we cannot tell you which is cheaper, because only one program publishes a purchase price and only the other publishes an award price.

If you plan trips more than a few weeks out, Hyatt's chart lets you do the arithmetic first and shop second, which is the correct order. If you book late, Marriott's continuously updated pricing occasionally throws up a night that is cheap in points, and the only way to find it is to look. Both answers are compatible with buying nothing at all most of the time.

For the wider decision across all five big chains, start with when buying hotel points is worth it at all. For the pair with no chart on either side, see IHG versus Hilton on points value. For the mechanics of a small, targeted purchase, see how to top up points for an award night — and if the question is really which chain to concentrate your nights in, the best hotel chain for predictable rooms under a set budget and Accor versus IHG on cash room prices are the more useful reads.

FAQ

Does Marriott have an award chart?

No. Marriott's loyalty terms state that the points required per night vary by property, by the room types available there, by length of stay and by time of year, and that the figures are updated continuously and may change at any time. There is no published chart to plan against, so the points cost of a Marriott award night can only be established by pricing a specific night on specific dates.

How many points is a free night at Hyatt?

It depends on the hotel's category and the redemption level applied to your dates. On the chart captured in September 2026, a standard room ranges from three thousand points for a category 1 hotel at its lowest level to seventy-five thousand points for a category 8 hotel at its top level. Hyatt has said it will move a limited number of hotels into the higher levels during 2026, so check the current chart for your dates.

How many Hyatt points can you buy in a year?

World of Hyatt's terms allow a member to purchase a maximum of fifty-five thousand Bonus Points for their own account per calendar year, in increments of one thousand, with the same fifty-five thousand figure applying as a per-transaction cap and to gifted points claimed in a year. Membership of at least sixty days is required before you can buy, give or receive them, and purchases cannot be reversed.

Do purchased Marriott or Hyatt points count toward elite status?

No, in both programs. Marriott's terms say purchased points do not count toward Marriott Bonvoy Elite status. Hyatt's terms classify points bought through its vendor as Bonus Points and state that they do not count toward a member's qualification for elite status, which is earned through tier-qualifying nights and base points instead.

Is it cheaper to buy Marriott points or Hyatt points?

We cannot answer that honestly, and neither can anyone who has not seen both quotes on the same day. Marriott's terms name a rate per thousand points but immediately add that pricing varies during promotional periods. Hyatt's terms name no rate at all and say the purchase price is subject to change without notice. The only real prices are the ones each storefront shows your account at the moment you buy.