Table of Contents
As a reminder, this is our complete travel guide to Maldives;
Hotels
- The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort (Marriott)
- JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa (Marriott)
- W Maldives (Marriott)
- Sheraton Maldives (Marriott)
- Le Meridien Maldives (Marriott)
- Ritz Carlton Maldives (Marriott)
- Which Marriott Hotel?
- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island (Hilton)
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi (Hilton)
- SAii Lagoon Maldives, Curio Collection by Hilton (Hilton)
- Which Hilton Hotel?
- Marriott vs Hilton in Maldives
Flights
- Air Canada (Aeroplan) and their partners to Maldives from Canada & USA
- Alaska Airlines and their partners to Maldives from Canada & USA
- Cathay Pacific and their partners to Maldives from Canada & USA
- British Airways and their partners to Maldives from Canada & USA
Discretionary Expenses
There are two Hilton branded properties that you should seriously consider staying in the Maldives:
There are three Marriott hotels that are currently open that you should seriously consider staying in the Maldives:
- The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort (Marriott)
- JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa (Marriott)
- W Maldives (Marriott)
Ultimately, you won’t go wrong if you choose to stay at any one of these hotels. Despite that, choosing between the two hotels really depends on what your travel goals are.
Factors
Earning Marriott Reward Points
Let’s start off by calculating how many Marriott Reward points can be accumulated easily by a single member of the household through sign-up bonuses for both Canadian credit cards and US credit cards that can be obtained in Canada:
| Credit Card | Base Sign Up Bonus | Referral Sign Up Bonus |
| AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Personal (Canada) | 57,000 | 67,000 |
| AMEX Cobalt (Canada) | 72,000 | 78,000 |
| AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business (Canada) | 57,000 | 67,000 |
| AMEX Business Edge (CA) | 198,000 | 205,500 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card (USA) | 81,000 | 81,000 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card (USA) | 81,000 | 81,000 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card from Chase (USA) | 33,000 | 33,000 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from Chase (USA) | 81,000 | 81,000 |
In addition to the Marriott Reward Points earned, each cardholder will also receive the following free nights after the first year:
- 2 free nights from the AMEX Marriott Business and Personal Cards in Canada valid at up to hotel nights worth 35,000 points.
- 1 free night from Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant in USA valid at up to hotel nights worth 50,000 points
- 2 free night from Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant and Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from AMEX and Chase valid at up to hotel nights worth 35,000 points
If you were to add up all the points and free night certificates, that would give us a total of:
| People in Household | Marriott Reward Points | 35,000 Night Certificates | 50,000 Night Certificate |
| 1 | 589,000 | 4 | 1 |
| 2 | 1,200,500 | 8 | 2 |
| 3 | 1,812,000 | 12 | 3 |
| 4 | 2,423,500 | 16 | 4 |
Earning Hilton Honor Points
Similar to Marriott Rewards, let’s start off by calculating how many Hilton Honor points can be accumulated easily by a single member of the household through sign-up bonuses on US credit cards that can be obtained in Canada:
| Credit Card | Base Sign Up Bonus | Referral Sign Up Bonus |
| AMEX Hilton Honors Card | 78,000 | 78,000 |
| AMEX Hilton Honors Surpass Card | 106,000 | 106,000 |
| AMEX Hilton Honors Aspire Card | 132,000 | 132,000 |
| AMEX Hilton Honors Business Card | 109,000 | 109,000 |
In addition to the Hilton Honor Points earned, each cardholder will also receive the following free nights after the first year:
- 1 free weekend night from the Hilton Honors Aspire card valid at any property in the Hilton portfolio except for their all-inclusive resorts.
- 1 free weekend night from the Hilton Honors Surpass card valid at any property in the Hilton portfolio except for their all-inclusive resorts after spending US$15,000 per year.
- 1 free weekend night from the Hilton Honors Business card valid at any property in the Hilton portfolio except for their all-inclusive resorts after spending US$15,000 per year.
If you were to add up all the points and free night certificates (assuming you spend at least US$30,000 per year), that would give us a total of:
| People in Household | Hilton Honor Points | Free Night Certificates |
| 1 | 425,000 | 3 |
| 2 | 850,000 | 6 |
| 3 | 1,275,000 | 9 |
| 4 | 1,700,000 | 12 |
What are your future travel goals?
Everybody has different travel goals. My goals are very different from other people’s goal, so it’s important to look at a wholistic approach to redeeming points.
With Marriott, through 2 people, you are looking at sign-up bonuses worth 15 nights in the highest category hotel alongside 10 annual free night certificates after paying the annual fees.
With Hilton, through 2 people, you will receive sign-up bonuses worth up to 8 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, or 10 nights at any other top Hilton Hotel in the world. This is in addition to the annual 6 free night certificates that you will receive after paying the annual fees and minimum spend.
If you had the following travel goals:
- Santorini
- Maldives
- Dubai
- New York
- Singapore
- Sydney
- London
- Paris
You might start off with a very disappointing realization, that’s a lot more destinations than your points could get you. But if we look at the situation wholistically, you might determine the following:
- Choosing the best hotel in Maldives and Santorini is critical, so I want to leave aside a bunch of points for that.
- Singapore has 1 hotel which you can get for free at 35,000 points, so if I wanted to do a trip to Singapore, I might opt to use my free night certificates instead of points.
- Dubai and Sydney has multiple hotels that you can get for free at 35,000 points, so I will use my free night certificates in Dubai. It helps that most hotels in Dubai are rather luxurious in comparison to their Canadian or American counterparts.
- New York hotels are incredibly expensive, but, the service is often lackluster in comparison to what you might find in other parts of the world. You could use your 35,000 point or 50,000 point certificates instead.
- London and Paris you want to make it a special trip. So maybe not spend 5 nights each, but only 2-3 nights, possibly during a slightly low season period, helping you save on many points
Ultimately, it’s a matter of choices and recognizing you can’t get everything you wanted for. Instead, we have to be careful in selecting the best hotels within our constraint environment of earning a limited number of points.
Conclusion
Unlike Marriott hotels, where everyone has a choice depending on your goals, working with Hilton Hotel means that you will need to plan and decide which hotel you want to stay at. That is likely to be led by the different vacations you might want to obtain in the future along with your family.
