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Reikart House, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel
Hotel credit cards that offer anniversary free night certificates can be an incredibly lucrative deal. Provided you redeem your free night at a hotel that costs more than the card's annual fee, you'll come out ahead — and sometimes, get a value many times more than that.
That said, considering many folks still aren't traveling much, it can be challenging to find an opportunity to redeem these certificates at a high value before they expire. That's the situation I found myself in with a free night certificate from my
I'd normally try to max out a certificate by booking a fancier hotel at a vacation destination. However, with no trips on the horizon and not wanting to waste the benefit, I decided to redeem my certificate in Buffalo, New York, for an overnight sports tournament my 14-year-old daughter is attending this spring.
Buffalo isn't exactly known for its luxury hotels (no offense, Buffalonians!), so I'd resigned myself to burning the certificate at a humdrum Courtyard hotel or Fairfield Inn. So long as I got a value that exceeded the card's
But after checking out the options I discovered a hidden gem of a property where I could cash in my certificate — and even better, my family will get a stay worth more than three times the annual fee.
The free night certificate that comes with the
After poking around on Marriott's website and finding the usual assortment of Marriott low to mid-range brands, I stumbled on a hotel I'd never noticed before – Reikart House, Buffalo, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel. Tribute Portfolio is a collection of properties under the Marriott Bonvoy umbrella, but they're independent boutique hotels, many with a historic or stylish feel.
This particular hotel was fully renovated in 2017 and subsequently named "Hotel of the Year" in the distinctive/premium category twice in a row by Marriott International. It looks positively delightful from online photos and reviews — an elegant, upscale property in a sea of nearby airport hotels.
The Reikart House isn't far from my daughter's tournament, and the award rate of 30,000 points meant I could book it using my Marriott 35K free night.
Marriott Bonvoy
Snagging such a lovely hotel with a free night certificate was a win in itself, but I was even more pleased when I checked the paid rate for the same room and date. With tax, the room would have cost us a whopping $450.
Marriott Bonvoy
This is a fantastic rate of return for a card with a
Insider values Marriott points as worth 0.7 cents apiece, on average. Even if I'd used points (versus a free night certificate) for this redemption, I'd be getting a value of around 1.5 cents per point — more than double Insider's valuation. That's an exceptionally good deal no matter which way you book.
Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Marriott points
I definitely would not have paid $450 for an overnight hotel on a tournament weekend, but this deal is making our trip a little more special and gives the kids and me something to look forward to. And it's redemptions like this that encourage me to renew my Marriott card year after year.
