Free Night Award: Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel

In July, we made our way to Colorado. We had previously booked a three-night timeshare presentation at the Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas. With a Free Night Award from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card that had to be used before September, we decided to fly out a day early to visit Rocky Mountain National Park in our quest to visit all 63 U.S. National Parks. After flying into Denver, we drove to Broomfield, Colorado to use our free night award at the Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel.

What is a free night award?

As Marriott Bonvoy Titanium members, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card is an important part of our paid travel strategy. On stays we pay for, we earn 6x Bonvoy points on top of the points earned for the stay that all Bonvoy members earn.

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card comes with one annual Free Night Award per year that can be used for one night valued at 35,000 points or less. If desired, you can add Bonvoy points to redeem at a night valued at 50,000 points.

This card does have a $95 annual fee. The Points Guy, however, values 35,000 Marriott points at $294. This fact alone makes the Marriott card worth it to us.

Where we stayed

As mentioned earlier, we used our Free Night Award at the Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel. It was about a 20-minute drive from the Denver Airport. The hotel lobby was modern and updated, and the front desk was quick to check us in. There was plenty of parking outside, and we picked up dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant (Azafran Indian Cuisine).

Since this was just a one-night stop on our way to somewhere else, we didn’t need much for our stay beyond a nice place to sleep. The room was spacious, clean, and perfectly met our needs.

The value of the night

As mentioned above, the estimated value of 35,000 Marriott points is $294. And while you can top up Free Night Awards, we were actually able to stay at the Renaissance for only 35,000 points. This was especially impressive because for the night we stayed in late July, the room we stayed in was going for $646 for one night. Paying a $95 fee for a $646 stay? Yes, please!

Summary

We’re sharing this experience for a few reasons. One, we like to demystify traveling on points and miles. While this technically wasn’t a points redemption, this was a free stay thanks to our travel hacking strategy. Two, as a friendly reminder to USE YOUR BENEFITS. Popular travel hacking credit cards are popular for reasons like the Free Night Award. You get one annually, and if you don’t use it, you’re leaving a free night (maybe worth upwards of $600) on the table. Three, to show that annual fees aren’t all bad. Yes, we pay $95 a year for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless. But we’re able to get well over that in the value of our redemption for just the Free Night Award. And that doesn’t even include utilizing the other benefits of the card.

We want to hear from you – where would you use a Free Night Award?