Marriott elite status offers some impressive benefits to frequent travelers. However, these benefits become particularly compelling once you accrue at least 50 elite nights in a calendar year. At this point, you’ll unlock Marriott Platinum Elite status, but you’ll also have the option to choose Marriott’s Annual Select offer.
When you stay 50 Elite nights in a calendar year, you can select one Marriott Annual Select benefit; when you reach 75 Elite nights, you can select another Marriott Annual Select benefit.
If you accrued at least 50 elite nights through Marriott Bonvoy during 2025, the deadline to select the select offer is February 1. So, here’s what you should know about choosing the Marriott Annual Select offer, including available options and how to make the best choice for your upcoming trip.
Overview of Marriott’s Annual Select Benefits
Earn Marriott Select benefits when you accumulate 50 elite nights in a calendar year. Then, after staying 75 nights in a calendar year, you’ll receive your second annual selection. However, the selection benefit options differ between the two levels.
How to Choose Marriott’s Annual Select Benefits
To select your Annual Select benefit, visit this page on the Marriott website. You must be logged in to your Marriott Bonvoy account to select your benefits.
Once you make your choice you can’t change it, so choose wisely. If you are eligible for the 50-night and 75-night benefits, you must select the 50-night benefit first and then the 75-night benefit.
Related: The best Marriott hotels in the world you can book with points
When to Choose Marriott’s Annual Select Benefit
If you accrue 50 or 75 Elite Nights in 2025, you must select your Annual Selection Benefit by February 1 at 11:59 PM ET. If you don’t make your selection by the deadline, Marriott will automatically select your nightly upgrade award.
How to Earn Elite Nights on Marriott Bonvoy
Earning 50 or 75 elite nights in a calendar year may sound daunting. However, Marriott offers several ways to earn elite stays. When you book directly with Marriott, you can earn Elite Night Rewards at participating Marriott brands, even when redeeming Marriott points or using a free night award certificate.
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You can also earn Elite Stay points with select Marriott Bonvoy credit cards. You can earn up to 25 Elite Stay Points per year with your Marriott Consumer Card, and you can earn an additional 15 Elite Stay Points with your Marriott Business Card. Some Marriott cards even offer additional Elite Night points when you reach certain spending thresholds.
Finally, it’s worth noting that you must meet the applicable Elite Stay threshold to unlock select benefits. Although Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card As long as your account remains open, you will automatically receive Platinum Elite status but will not be eligible for benefit selections.
However, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card does offer a similar benefit – the Brilliant Earned Choice Award – which cardholders can earn after they spend $60,000 in qualifying purchases using their Bonvoy Brilliant Card in a calendar year. Brilliant Earned Choice Awards (which you must select by February 1 of the year following the purchase) include five nightly upgrade awards, a free night award worth up to 85,000 points, 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or $1,000 off a bed at any Marriott Bonvoy retail brand. However, the discount on bed purchases is only available if you receive a Brilliant Earned Choice Award based on purchases made in 2025 or before.
Related: Why You Need a Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card for Personal and Business
50 Nights Annual Select Benefits Options
When you accumulate 50 Elite Nights in a calendar year, you’ll unlock your first Marriott Annual Select benefit. Here’s how you can get the 50 nights earned on stays in 2025:
- Five Elite Night Points
- Five nightly upgrade rewards
- $1,000 off mattresses
- Charitable donation of $100
- Gift Marriott Silver Elite status to another member
Most of these benefits are difficult to value, so let’s take a closer look at each option. I’ll start with an option that’s unlikely to make sense to most elite members.
Complimentary Marriott Silver Elite Membership
Giving others status may initially sound like a good option. However, the value of Marriott Silver Elite membership is not that high, as the main benefits are a 10% points bonus on paid stays and priority late checkout.
Instead of using your Marriott Collection benefits to gift memberships, you can encourage your friends or family to get a Marriott membership through a credit card. For example, principal cardholders with no annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card (See Rates & Fees) As a cardholder benefit, automatically earn Elite Silver status and five Elite Stay points each calendar year.
Make a $100 charitable donation
You can choose to donate $100 to several charities, including UNICEF, World Wildlife Fund and the Arne M. Sorenson Hospitality Fund, as part of your Marriott Annual Select offer.
If you don’t have access to any other annual election benefit options, a $100 charitable donation is a great option and may be the right decision. However, I prefer to earn points and miles by donating to a charity of my choice and maintain the ability to choose one of the other benefits.
RELATED: How to Donate Points and Miles to Charity
$1,000 off mattresses
If you like a specific Marriott brand mattress, you can buy a new mattress for your home. If you’re in the market for a Marriott mattress, you can select a $1,000 promotional code toward select Marriott-branded mattresses and box springs as part of your annual selection offer.
However, you cannot combine the one-time $1,000 discount with other offers. Therefore, check whether the promo code offers enough value compared to other discounts to justify its choice.
Earn 5 Elite Stay Points
For some travelers, choosing five Elite Stay Points for Marriott’s Annual Collection is a smart move. Marriott will credit Elite Night Points to the year you earned them (which may be different from the year you selected the points).
If you are 5 or fewer nights away from earning Titanium Elite status or the new Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime status in the 2025 calendar year, it may be helpful to select Elite Night Points. If you select 5 nights of Elite Night Credit to meet the 75-night threshold for Titanium Elite status, be sure to select your 75-night Annual Select Benefit before the deadline.
Get 5 nightly upgrade rewards
Nightly upgrade rewards can be confirmed one night in advance and upgraded to select premium rooms and suites designated by each hotel. For example, you would need five upgrade award certificates per night to request an upgrade for a five-night booking.
Many members keep their nightly upgrade awards for stays at higher-end Marriott Bonvoy hotels, while others keep them for stays where they want more space. In 2025, I used my nightly upgrade awards to book a suite at the Moxy Glasgow Merchant City and a one-bedroom suite at the Element Toronto Airport. But keep in mind that nightly upgrade awards don’t start settling until five days before your arrival (three days before check-in at EDITION, Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis hotels).
If you select five nightly upgrade bonuses as a select offer, your bonus will expire on December 31st of the year after you receive your bonus. Therefore, if you stay 50 nights in 2025, your nightly upgrade award will expire on December 31, 2026.
75 Nights Selected Privilege Options
After earning 75 elite nights in a calendar year, you’ll earn Marriott Titanium Elite status and a second annual selection. If you reach this threshold in 2025, you have the following options:
- Five Elite Night Points
- Five nightly upgrade rewards
- $1,000 off mattresses
- Charitable donation of $100
- Gift Marriott Gold Elite status to another member
- Free night awards worth up to 40,000 points
The options here are essentially the same as once you hit the 50-night threshold. I’ll skip the charitable donations, nightly upgrade rewards, and mattress discounts because I’ve already discussed those options in the previous section. Again, I won’t discuss giving away Gold Elite membership because it’s relatively easy to get Marriott membership with a credit card.
However, let’s take a closer look at the other two options.
Earn 5 Elite Stay Points
Earlier in this article, I considered how some travelers choose 5 Elite Night Points as a 50-night annual selection offer to achieve Titanium Elite or Lifetime Elite status. However, for Titanium Elite members, it may also make sense to opt for five Elite Night Points to earn Ambassador Elite status. This level typically requires 100 elite nights and $23,000 in annual Marriott spending.
This option may only make sense if you end 2025 with 5 elite nights at the higher Lifetime Elite level, or have 95 to 99 elite nights with at least $23,000 in qualifying spend at Marriott annually.
Get a free night reward worth up to 40,000 points
The final option, unique to the 75-Night Annual Collection, is a free night award worth up to 40,000 points. This free night award is slightly more valuable than the 35,000-point free night award certificate associated with many Marriott Bonvoy cards.
TPG’s January 2026 valuation shows that 40,000 Marriott points are worth $280, making it a valuable option. However, if you already have a lot of Marriott Bonvoy points and excellent free night awards to pay for your future travel, you may want to consider other benefits.
Which Marriott Annual Select benefit should you choose?
For most 50-night members, the best Marriott Annual Select offer is the five nightly upgrade bonuses. At the 75-night level, the best Annual Choice benefit is typically five additional nightly upgrade awards or a free night award worth up to 40,000 points. However, if you qualify for a higher tier, five Elite Night Credits may be a good option at either level.
You may be wondering what I typically choose for my annual election benefits. When I earned Titanium Elite status in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025, I selected five nightly upgrade awards (formerly known as suite upgrade awards) for my 50-night selection and a free night award worth up to 40,000 points for my 75-night selection.
However, I only accrued 71 elite nights in 2024. Therefore, I selected 5 Elite Night Points as my 50-night benefit to reach 76 Elite Nights in 2024, regain Titanium Elite status and receive the 75-night option. For the 75-night option, I chose the five-night upgrade bonus. A free night award worth up to 40,000 points might have been a better value option, but I was hoping to get some nightly upgrade awards since I didn’t select any as my 50-night deal.
Related: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Marriott Bonvoy Award Night Redemptions
bottom line
Marriott’s annual Select benefits are great value, with ample options for every threshold. These options are not all equal in value, so be sure to carefully consider which benefit is most valuable to you before making a decision.
If you’re not sure what to choose, the best value option in the 50-night tier is usually the nightly upgrade bonus. Meanwhile, the best options at the 75-night level are often more nightly upgrade awards or free night awards worth up to 40,000 points. Whatever you decide, please choose your benefits by February 1 at 11:59 PM ET.
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