Marriott Rewards (including Ritz-Carlton) - Summer Promotion-2 night stay with reward night in between?

If I stay 3 consecutive nights in a CY but use points for the middle night, will this count as 2 separate stays for purposes of the Summer Promotion (2 nights = 1 free night)?

One stay.

unless middle night is in your spouse's name as primary and you can convince FD of that.

If I stay 3 consecutive nights in a CY but use points for the middle night, will this count as 2 separate stays for purposes of the Summer Promotion (2 nights = 1 free night)?

Could you spend the middle night at another hotel? A lot of packing and unpacking but might be worth it in your case.

unless middle night is in your spouse's name as primary and you can convince FD of that.

Yes, you can do that as long as you check out and check back in again.

I made a reservation for my MIL with this same issue. I am not counting on it and since the stay is the last week of Aug it will not help much because it will be to late to squeeze in another stay for the promo. My real purpose for booking three separate reservations is because she is not certain she wants to stay the third night. Now she has the flexibility to cancel the third day while she is checked in. Also I reserved both of the paid stays using two different offer codes. One is AAA and one is M11. So we will wait and see what happens.