Quick answer: JW Marriott Costa Elena, open since September 10, 2026, offers 415 rooms and suites, 15 restaurants and bars, and 17 pools in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Award nights start from 110,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night for two guests, so price your exact dates both ways before booking, since cash value swings from about 0.6 cents to 1.6 cents per point.

Marriott just did something it’s never done before: opened an all-inclusive under the JW Marriott flag. The JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort & Spa in Guanacaste, Costa Rica — announced October 6, 2026, welcoming guests since September 10 — is the first JW Marriott all-inclusive anywhere in the world.

The headline numbers: 415 rooms and suites, 15 restaurants and bars, and 17 pools across what Marriott calls Costa Rica’s largest resort poolscape (44,000 square feet).

Details verified October 12, 2026.

The resort

Set above Playa El Jobo on Costa Rica’s northern Pacific coast, Costa Elena isn’t a new build — it’s a full transformation of the former Dreams Las Mareas property, reimagined with villa-inspired residential-style rooms, swim-out suites on select ground floors, and heavy Costa Rican design influences.

Beyond the pools and restaurants, the standouts:

• Griffin Club — a resort-within-a-resort with a private arrival lounge, 24/7 lounge, dedicated pool and beach area, personal assistants, and priority dining reservations.
• Mindfulness House — the brand’s first dedicated wellness sanctuary, plus Spa by JW and a 16,000-square-foot wellness destination.
• Family by JW Club — nature walks, creative activities, children’s yoga, storytelling, and family movie nights.
• A root-beer stand (LaGloria) honoring founder J. Willard Marriott’s original 1927 business.

Getting there: fly into Liberia’s Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR), the gateway to Guanacaste.

The points math — read this before you get excited

Award nights start from 110,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night — not the 114,000 figure floating around social media. (Four thousand points is four thousand points.)

Here’s the honest part: the points-vs-cash math swings wildly depending on your dates.

• Marriott’s official release quotes starting rates of $900 per person, per night based on double occupancy — that’s $1,800/night for two. Against 110,000 points, that’s ~1.6¢ per point. Excellent.
• But TPG found rates as low as $656/night for two through the end of the year on the hotel site. Against 110,000 points, that’s ~0.6¢ per point. Poor — below the ~0.7¢ baseline for a Marriott point.

So the verdict isn’t “book with points” or “pay cash.” It’s: price your exact dates both ways before deciding. In peak dry season (December–April), when cash rates climb, points could be the clear winner. On a $656 shoulder-season night, pay cash and save your points.

One more lever: Marriott’s fifth night free applies on award stays — five nights for the points cost of four (440,000 points at the base rate).

The family gotchas

This is a family site, so the fine print matters more than the pool count:

1. Rates are quoted for two. All-inclusive pricing is per-person/double-occupancy. A family of four pays more — price your exact guest count (ages included) before comparing anything. The booking flow requires the exact number of guests.
2. Award pricing is also for two guests. Adding kids to an award stay may mean extra points or cash charges — confirm the total for four before transferring a single point.
3. Room occupancy is tight. Third-party listings note no extra beds in standard rooms, so a family of four may need a suite or two rooms. Verify on marriott.com for your dates.
4. Your Bonvoy balance probably doesn’t cover this. At 110,000 points/night, most families will need to transfer in (Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to Marriott) — and transfers are irreversible, so only move points after you’ve priced the exact stay.

The bottom line

A genuinely interesting opening — JW putting its luxury flag on the all-inclusive format, with real family programming and a massive poolscape. But the value story is date-dependent: at $1,800/night cash, 110,000 points is a steal; at $656, it’s a bad redemption. Price your dates, price all four guests, then decide.