If you haven't heard, Australia and New Zealand have reopened their doors to tourists from all around the world after being closed and secluded for nearly two years.
We had reporters on the ground in both nations, in typical, to see what had changed since the pandemic, what it's like to visit now, and even assess a few hotels, like the Park Hyatt Auckland and The Tasman, both part of Marriott's Luxury Collection.
For Marriott Bonvoy members considering a journey to the Southern Hemisphere, hotels are no longer the exclusive option for earning or redeeming points.
The business announced this week that Homes & Villas by Marriott International, its home renting arm, is now operating in select areas in Australia and New Zealand.
While Airbnb and Vrbo come to mind when thinking of house rentals, numerous hotel brands, including Accor and Mandarin Oriental, are getting into the game as well.
Marriott entered the area in 2019 and just celebrated the collection's third birthday, with over 60,000 listings spread over 700 locations.
Marriott's Homes & Villas stands itself from the competition in a number of ways, starting with the fact that it provides a hotel-like experience in the comfort of a home.
All of the rentals in the collection have been carefully selected to satisfy Marriott's brand standards, and they are all handled by private management businesses rather than by regular people who own a holiday home and rent it out when they are not using it.
The primary difference is that Marriott Bonvoy members can earn and spend points on stays as well as elite qualifying nights with Homes & Villas.
And here, it's all about accumulating points and gaining status.
On an incredible Marriott Homes & Villas booking, I triple stacked and earned 210,000 points and miles.
With over 350 houses added to Homes & Villas in renowned places like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Orange, Australia, as well as Auckland and Queenstown, New Zealand, and other localities, you can now take your quest to the other side of the earth.
Renting an apartment with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms in Kirribilli (shown at the top of this article) for 700 Australian dollars ($480) or about 84,000 points per night, with a stunning view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, starts at 700 Australian dollars ($480) or about 84,000 points per night, as shown on the search page.
Things got a little complicated when I looked into the listing to see how that original pricing compares to selecting actual dates.
First, to book for two nights between June 27 and June 29, the price jumped to AU$1,168 (roughly $800) per night, which included a refundable deposit of AU$2,000 ($1,372), a cleaning fee of AU$300 ($200), and taxes of AU$233.77 ($160), for a total of AU$4,871.43, or $3,505.48 as shown directly on the booking page.
When I began browsing around to check what dates the listed AU$700 nightly rate was available, I was repeatedly informed that a minimum stay of 21 nights was required for my dates.
It wasn't until November that I discovered stays available for less than three weeks, but with a three-night minimum.
This time it's for the same AU$1,168 pricing as before.
I did my research and found a less costly apartment with "World Class 360° Sydney Harbour Bridge & Opera House Views."
This one was originally listed at AU$232 (about $150) per night or 28,000 points.
I discovered that stays prior to November required a minimum of 21 nights.
Prices were much more than previously stated for the November dates that were available for a strict three-night minimum, at AU$872.35 (almost $600) each night.
According to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment website, short-term rentals in New South Wales have varied limitations, including only 180 days per year in the greater Sydney area for residences where the owner isn't present or minimum stays of at least 21 days.
The warmer summer months in the Southern Hemisphere coincide with the Northern Hemisphere's winter, which is most likely why shorter rental terms are offered during those months when tourists throng to popular tourist destinations like Sydney.
In Queenstown, a house with "Jaw-dropping lake and mountain views" shows in the search box for $445 a night (the search in New Zealand was in US dollars, but the search in Australia was in Australian dollars), or 74,000 points per night.
For a five-bedroom, three-bathroom home, this isn't a bad deal.
However, attempting to reserve this resort was a nerve-wracking process because there was only one accessible booking choice for the entire year of 2022: Aug. 12, with a five-night minimum.
It's also worth mentioning that many homes that participate in home-sharing schemes are listed on several sites, which is typically why availability is restricted beyond local restrictions.
This property, for example, is also available to rent on Vrbo, where the calendar states it is fully booked except for the same dates as Homes & Villas.
The pricing was also substantially higher than it had been previously, coming in at 1,017 New Zealand dollars (about $632).
It also included a NZ$750 ($465) refundable security deposit, a NZ$386 ($240) cleaning fee, and NZ$319 ($198) in taxes, bringing the total to NZ$6,540 ($4,287.62) as indicated in the booking window.
These prices are comparable to what the property is posted for on Vrbo, where all pricing are in US dollars.
The nightly rate was $637.11, plus a cleaning fee of $241.95, taxes of $199.95, and a refundable deposit of $470.10.
As seen below, the total on Vrbo was $4,097.57.
The price difference between booking through Vrbo and Marriott is around $200.
While booking through Vrbo doesn't come with the same clear benefits as booking through Marriot, there are methods to maximise your spending to earn points and miles in other ways.
If you book through Marriott, the booking window also displays you how many Marriott Bonvoy points you'll earn if you're signed in to your account (as seen below for me) or an estimate of how many points you might get if you aren't.
I'd get 15,829 points for this particular stay.
On normal stays at Homes & Villas, you earn 5 Marriott Bonvoy points every dollar spent, with elite status earning up to 75 percent more bonus points.
Members who book a stay of at least five consecutive nights at a single Homes & Villas by Marriott property by June 22 and complete the stay by December 31 will receive double points and a free night ticket that can be used at participating Marriott Bonvoy properties.
While finding available days with Homes & Villas might be a pain, the benefits can be enormous — especially when compared to Airbnb, where you may have comparable problems obtaining dates or where surprise cleaning fees can completely ruin your booking.
As we continue on our journey through a slightly more regular version of life during a pandemic, the programme also offers attractive cancellation rules that appeal to travellers.
Final thoughts
In some ways, the world of home-sharing resembles the wild, wild west.
However, Homes & Villas by Marriott is one option that offers a higher level of care as well as the opportunity to earn or redeem points and stay on elite qualifying nights.
Although the introduction to New Zealand and Australia is new, we expect that properties under the programme open up greater availability so that members can take advantage of it when it makes more sense to rent a home rather than a hotel.
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