What Our Japan Marriott Hotels Actually Cost (and When Points Would Beat Cash)

We stayed at four Marriott-brand hotels across Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and paid $1,774 in cash for all seven nights combined — here’s what each one actually cost, whether it was worth the price, and when redeeming Marriott points instead would have come out ahead.

Updated August 2026 | 6 min read

How We Paid for Four Marriott Hotels

We stayed at four Marriott-brand properties over seven nights in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka in March 2023: AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza, Moxy Kyoto Nijo, Fairfield by Marriott Osaka Namba, and Prince Sakura Tokyo Tower on our last night, ahead of an 11am flight home. All four were paid in cash: $1,774 total for the week, split two ways.

No hotel points were used. All cash, every stay.

Flights were the actual points redemption on this trip — we booked business class out of JFK using transferred credit card points, which is a separate calculation from anything below. What follows is what each hotel cost, whether it held up against the price, and then, for anyone weighing whether to redeem Bonvoy points instead of paying cash on a similar itinerary, the math on where that trade would have made sense.

Getting from Haneda to Ginza Without Paying for a Taxi

Most people land at Haneda and immediately get in a taxi or book an airport transfer. Don’t. The process:

1. Follow signs to the Tokyo Monorail from the arrivals hall
2. Ride to Hamamatsucho Station (final stop, about 20 minutes)
3. Transfer to the JR Yamanote Line — 3 stops to Tokyo Station, 6 minutes
4. From Tokyo Station you can reach anywhere in central Tokyo

Total cost: about ¥600 ($4 USD). A taxi from Haneda to Ginza runs ¥4,000-6,000 ($27-40 USD). Do this once and you’ll never pay for an airport transfer in Tokyo again.

Before you leave Terminal 3, stop at the JR East Japan Travel Center on 2F of the arrivals lobby to activate your JR Pass. Then add a digital Suica card to your iPhone Wallet — this covers all subways, local trains, and konbini payments without carrying cash.

AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza — 2 Nights

Ginza is the right neighborhood for a first Tokyo trip. It is central, walkable, safe, and connected to everything by the JR Yamanote Line and several subway lines. The AC Hotel is a Marriott design brand: cleaner and more minimal than a full-service Marriott, no fuss, good beds, good espresso in the lobby. The location on the eastern edge of Ginza puts you about a 12-minute walk from Tokyo Station and a 5-minute walk from Ginza 6. We paid $588 for the two nights ($294/night), on a card, no points involved.

First night dinner: the restaurant on the rooftop of Ginza 6. The complex is a block from the hotel and the top floor has several restaurants with city views. After 20+ hours of travel, being able to walk one block to a good dinner without navigating the subway is worth planning for.

Ginza itself is a shopping neighborhood — Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Uniqlo’s flagship, Dover Street Market. If that’s not your thing, you’re still well-positioned for Tsukiji Outer Market in the morning (10-minute walk), teamLab Borderless (short subway ride), and Shibuya (15 minutes on the Yamanote).

Kyoto: Moxy Nijo — 2 Nights

The Moxy is a Marriott budget-design brand (not luxury, but the Nijo location in Nakagyo-ku is genuinely good). You’re within walking distance of Nijo Castle, a 15-minute walk from the Gion district, and well-connected by subway to Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama. We paid $440 for the two nights ($220/night): the cheapest hotel of the trip, and the one that overdelivered most on location for the price.

Osaka: Fairfield Namba — 2 Nights

Namba is where you want to be in Osaka. The Fairfield is functional and the location is the point: Dotonbori food street is a 5-minute walk, the covered shopping arcades are immediately outside, and the train connections to everywhere are seamless. We paid $408 for the two nights ($204/night). Spend the money you saved on hotel on food; Osaka is the place to do it.

Prince Sakura Tokyo Tower Autograph Collection — 1 Night

The Takanawa/Shinagawa neighborhood has a different energy from Ginza — quieter, more residential, with good izakayas and less tourist traffic. The hotel itself is a full-service property with a proper restaurant and a pool. The Tokyo Tower views from the upper floors are real. We used this as our last night of the entire trip, not a Tokyo stopover: an 11am flight the next morning meant we wanted to be close to transit, and Shinagawa Station is a 7-minute walk with a direct line back to Haneda. We paid $338 for the one night, the highest per-night rate of the trip, though it bought us a much less stressful morning than dragging bags across the city would have.

The Honest Points Math

We paid cash for all four hotels. But we’d priced out Marriott Bonvoy redemptions before booking, so here’s whether converting points instead would actually have beaten what we paid. (Flights were the one part of this trip booked on points — business class out of JFK — and that redemption isn’t part of this comparison.)

If you had points to spend, AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza was quoted at around 25,000 Bonvoy points per night when we checked. Against our actual cash rate of $294/night, that would have landed close to break-even once you value a point around 0.8-0.9 cents, roughly what Bonvoy points are worth at a Category 5-6 property like this one. If you already have the points sitting in an account with no better use for them, Ginza is where they’d have gone furthest on this itinerary — but it isn’t the runaway win that “just use points” advice usually implies.

Whether points beat cash at Prince Sakura Tokyo Tower is closer to a toss-up: it was quoted at around 35,000 points for the night, against the $338 we actually paid. At the same valuation, that redemption would have worked out close to what we spent, maybe slightly worse depending on the exact point value you use. It was also our lowest-stakes night logistically — one night, chosen mostly for proximity to the airport rather than for the hotel itself — so cash and points land closest to a wash there.

Moxy Kyoto Nijo is the one where, if you had the points, they would have clearly beaten cash: quoted around 15,000 points/night against the $220/night we paid, the redemption comes out well under a cent per point (meaningfully better value than what most people can extract from Bonvoy elsewhere in the program).

We never checked whether a points redemption existed for Fairfield Osaka Namba before the trip. We paid $204/night in cash there and have no comparison to offer.

If you’re weighing whether to burn points or pay cash on a similar Japan trip: Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum both transfer Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy at a 1:1 ratio, and Amex occasionally runs 1:1.2 transfer bonuses worth watching for. That’s the actual lever: not whether Marriott hotels in Japan are “worth it” on points in some general sense, but whether your specific redemption clears what you’d otherwise pay in cash for that specific room, on that specific night.

Total Trip Hotel Math

• AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza x2: $588 cash
• Moxy Kyoto Nijo x2: $440 cash
• Fairfield Osaka Namba x2: $408 cash
• Prince Sakura Tokyo Tower x1: $338 cash
• Total: $1,774 for seven nights, two people ($887/person)
• All four paid in cash — flights were the points redemption on this trip

Whether points would have made sense instead depends entirely on what your own Bonvoy balance is worth to you and what else you’d spend it on. For us, Kyoto was the clearest case for redeeming; the rest came out close enough that paying cash and saving the points for a different trip made just as much sense.

Book Your Tokyo Activities

• Tokyo day tours and experiences on Viator — teamLab, tsukiji food tours, Shinjuku night walks
• Tokyo food tours — the Tsukiji and Shibuya food walks are worth pre-booking

Gear That Made the Trip

• Compression packing cubes — essential for keeping a week of clothes organized across 4 hotels
• Universal travel adapter — Japan uses Type A plugs (same as US), but useful for the rest of the trip

Related Reading

• Japan in One Week: Temples, Ramen, and Perfect Trains — the full overview
• How We Use Credit Card Points for Travel — the full points strategy
• How We Plan Every Trip — logistics framework

Book Tours and Activities

• Tokyo Tours
• Mt Fuji Day Trip
• Transport: Book trains, buses, and ferries on 12Go

Find Flights to Tokyo

Book Activities: Klook for Tokyo attraction tickets and day tours | Book teamLab, Shibuya Sky, and other Tokyo attractions through Klook

Related: Mt. Fuji day trip from Tokyo | Japan lessons learned

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Marriott hotels cost in Japan?

We paid $1,774 cash for seven nights across four Marriott-brand properties in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka — $887 per person for the week. AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza was $588 for two nights, Moxy Kyoto Nijo was $440 for two nights, Fairfield Osaka Namba was $408 for two nights, and Prince Sakura Tokyo Tower was $338 for one night.

Are Marriott points worth using in Japan?

Whether points beat cash depends entirely on the property. Based on the redemption rates we priced out before the trip, Moxy Kyoto Nijo (about 15,000 points/night against our $220/night cash rate) was the clearest case for using points instead of cash. AC Hotel Ginza and Prince Sakura were closer to a wash at the rates we were quoted. We ended up paying cash for all four hotels and used points for flights instead.

Which Marriott hotel has the best location in Tokyo?

AC Hotel Tokyo Ginza. It’s a 12-minute walk from Tokyo Station and a 5-minute walk from Ginza 6, within reach of Tsukiji Outer Market, teamLab Borderless, and Shibuya without a long subway ride.

Book Your Japan Trip

Flights: Compare flights to Tokyo on Skyscanner

Hotels: Tokyo Ginza on Booking.com

Tours: Tokyo on GYG | Tokyo on Viator | Tokyo on Klook

Japan Rail Pass: JR Pass on Klook

eSIM: Japan eSIM from Airalo

Travel insurance: SafetyWing

Related Reading

• Japan in One Week
• Credit Card Points Strategy
• City Trip Showdown
• Singapore Hawker Centers

Plan your own trip: guides I actually use

Related guides:

• What 2 Weeks in Japan Actually Costs