This was going to be a short stay for us. It would only be 4 nights and 5 days. We wouldn’t be able to get the 5th night free if we used Marriott points. We were definitely looking to stay in a Marriott due to the benefits we would get from my wife’s status as well as working towards retaining our status for next year.

While I have a credit card that has a 4th night free benefit, by using that we would only be able to get the benefits of my status (Platinum) instead of my wife’s (Titanium). More importantly, the nights would not could towards renewing her status for next year.

Searching Marriott.com

We found there are a number of Marriott properties in Los Cabos at a range of prices. There is a Fairfield Inn which was hovering around $100 a night at the low ends to a new high end resort that was close to $600 per night. None of the properties we were interested in made any sense to book on points (cost too many points compared to the cash rates) so I was looking for the best deals on cash rates. I checked my go to AAA rate to see what options there were.

There were two properties that caught my eye. There was a Westin property that looked like it had large rooms with kitchenettes and was striking in that it appeared to be built into the side of a cliff. The other property we looked at was the Sheraton Grand Hacienda Del Mar. Both looked promising and had great reviews, but the Sheraton had much lower rates and seemed to be a larger resort property. After reading through the reviews on TripAdvisor, both properties had fans, so I chose based on price.

Booking

The AAA rates are usually ones that are refundable rates and can be canceled within a few days of your stay. This one was different. It was a prepaid non-refundable rate and I usually try to avoid booking those rates, but the price was pretty fantastic for an ocean front (better than oceanview) room rate. I ended up booking that rate as we had the flights booked and we knew were going to be staying there. The rate was only $168 per night. A few weeks after booking I did notice there was a Member Rate which was cheaper ($155 per night) which was a garden view rate that was prepaid, but refundable within 3 days of travel. In the end that rate was less than $60 less than what we paid so it wasn’t a big deal, but next time I will have to look closer at all the rates!

Looking through the pictures for the hotel it looked like it had a beautiful beach, though there were warnings from the comments that the currents are dangerous and you can’t often swim in the ocean. There were a bunch of pools to compensate for that, though. There was even a kids pool and a kids club which is another big reason we chose this property. With several restaurants we’d be able to stay at the resort if we didn’t find anything else to do.

Next up, renting a car.