Some lodging companies offer a free night at hotel and resort properties as a discount to a stay that is paid with points — but here is the reason why the fifth award night may not be completely free.
The Reason Why That Fifth Award Night May Not Be Completely Free.
The reason is actually explained by Marriott International, Incorporated within the terms and conditions of their version of the offer, which is called Stay for 5, Pay for 4, as highlighted in bold red text below:
Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Offer. A Member who redeems Points for five consecutive nights for an Award Redemption Stay using a Standard Redemption Award or PointSavers Award under one reservation (i.e., one confirmation number) will only need to redeem Marriott Bonvoy® Points for four nights.
For every Five Consecutive Nights you redeem (pay with Marriott Bonvoy® Points), you will receive the lowest Point-value Night free.
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- Your stay must be Five Consecutive Nights at the same Hotel.
- All-Inclusive Resorts participate in the Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Offer.
- The Free Night will be the lowest Marriott Bonvoy® Point cost night during your Stay.
- Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Offer cannot be applied to a stay comprised of multiple reservations with consecutive nights.
- If you make a reservation for more than 5 Nights we will consider the entire length of Stay when determining the Free Nights. For example, if you book a 10-Night Redemption Stay, we would deduct the two lowest Nights of the entire 10 Nights, no matter when they occur.
- This offer cannot be applied after Check-In to a Hotel.
- There are no Marriott Bonvoy® Point Refunds or Free Night Credits for any unused portions of the Stay.
- The Marriott Bonvoy® Point cost is based on a Standard Room only and does not cover the upgrade cost for a Premium Room.
- Stay for 5, Pay for 4 Award does not apply to Cash + Points Awards, Upgrade Awards, Nightly Upgrade Awards, and Promotional Awards (e.g. issued through Co-brand Credit Card, Annual Choice Benefit, etc.)
- If the Member makes a modification to the Award Redemption Stay, the Member is responsible for changes to the Points required.
- Stay for 5 for 4 Award is available for any Marriott Bonvoy® Member.
As a random example, I started to book a reservation at the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Times Square hotel property for Monday, December 29, 2025 for one night and found a rate of 76,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to redeem for that night…
…so to conclude that booking a reservation for five consecutive nights would mean a savings of 76,000 points for that night is not far fetched — but that would be incorrect, as booking five consecutive nights to check in on Monday, December 29, 2025 and check out on Saturday, January 3, 2026 for a total of 288,000 Marriott Bonvoy points plus $17.50 yields the following result:
Notice in the screen shot above that the least expensive night is at 63,000 points and not at 76,000 points.
How Hilton Differs From Marriott
What a free award night is worth may seem to be more obscure and unclear with Hilton when initially reading the complete terms and conditions of what is known as 5th Night Free on reward stays, as unlike the aforementioned terms and conditions of the Marriott offer, the terms and conditions do not specifically mention that the free night will be the lowest redemption of points during a stay — only that the fifth night would be free:
5th Night Free on reward stays : For every Standard Room Reward stay of five or more nights, every 5th night is free. Members can utilize the 5th Night Free on reward stays benefit on an unlimited number of stays annually. Applies only to five consecutive nights within the same full Points Standard Room Reward stay at the same property, up to 20 nights, when confirmed at time of booking. No more than four free nights will be awarded per stay. If free night is declined, reservation is cancelled, or check-out occurs before fifth night, the free night is forfeited and has no cash, Point, or Reward value. After the 5th Night Free benefit is applied, eligible members will be charged 0 points for the 5th night, 10th night, 15th night, and 20th night of the stay, as applicable. All other nights of the stay will be charged at the applicable full Standard Room Reward price. A standard room is defined by each hotel and subject to availability at participating hotels within the Hilton Portfolio. Applies to Standard Room Reward stays only, not to paid stays or Points & Money Rewards™. Does not apply when stay is booked as part of a Reward Stay offer, package, or promotion offered by Hilton or any of its partners.
I started to book a reservation at the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Times Square Central hotel property for five consecutive nights to check in on Monday, December 29, 2025 and check out on Saturday, January 3, 2026 for a total of 390,000 Hilton Honors points, which yielded the following result:
Whatever that free award night was worth on Friday, January 2, 2026 is not specified — although I checked on a single night reservation and found that that night would cost 80,000 Hilton Honors points. I did notice that a redemption of 150,000 Hilton Honors points was required for the night of Wednesday, December 31, 2025.
I wondered what would happen if I started to book a reservation for the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Times Square Central for five consecutive nights to check in on Saturday, December 27, 2025 and check out on Thursday, January 1, 2026 in which that night that costs 150,000 points was the fifth night.
The answer is that the fifth night — which is New Year’s Eve — that would have otherwise cost 150,000 Hilton Honors points was indeed free…
…plus, no cash was charged by Hilton — unlike the aforementioned example with Marriott.
Final Boarding Call
Based on the examples that are featured in this article, Hilton actually does offer the fifth night of an award stay completely free of any charge — which by my experience also includes all taxes and fees not being charged either.
Marriott will take the least expensive night and deduct the cost of that night from the total award stay — plus charge cash when applicable — for their Stay for 5, Pay for 4 offer. Notice that Stay for 5, Pay for 4 is not that the fifth night is completely free of charge as it is with Hilton, as even the name of the offer is ambiguous as to which of the five nights is actually “free”.
Of course, myriad other factors also determine the final outcome of whether a deal is better or not — such as the cost of points per night and the hotel or resort property itself as two examples…
…and although the Stay for 5, Pay for 4 is still a good deal with Marriott, the examples in this article illustrate that it seemingly is not as good of a deal as 5th Night Free on reward stays with Hilton, with which the fifth night is truly free.
All photographs ©2023 by Brian Cohen.
