What's the fastest route to Marriott Gold/Platinum levels?
 

Currently at Silver and need to find deals/offers to get to Marriott Gold/Platinum levels. Any suggestions with stays, partners, promos, etc.?

I believe that reaching next higher levels must be done before end of the calendar year...is the right?

Fastest way to gold or plat would probably be a challenge or status match to another program. I hear these are difficult to accomplish however.

2nd fastest way would be to get the new Marriott Premier Visa card, gives 15 nights credit to your account, then stay the rest of the nights.

And Officially, Marriott is on a calendar year period for status. Unofficially, they are on a rolling 12 month tier. Search a little and you should find a thread.

Cheers,
bassmanben

Marriott is fairly stingy with comping or giving out Gold/Plat elite levels. So you will pretty much have to stay the nights to get the elite levels.

Of course, if you haven't applied and received it yet, the Premier Signature VISA will get you a quick 15 nights toward your needed thresholds. Also, while it isn't an "officiall" benefit, Marriott will promote you to the next higher level if you can get the needed nights (15/50/75) within a rotating 12 month period, not just in a calendar year. This means you don't have to wait until January to start counting nights.

But while Marriott doesn't usually have to many "accelerated" elite level promotions, they do tend to have point promotions. They have their Megabonus promotion going right now. The amount of bonus points you receive is based off your existing elite level and recent stay history. I received a stay 15 nights before Jan. 31st and I will receive 25K bonus points.

accor favourite guests, sofitel gold,
 

same question but from canada??

can we fast track??

I have the accor sofitel gold card, would they be willing to match..?

thx.

There are reports of a soon to be released Marriott Rewards card for Canadians. Watch this thread for details: Marriott Rewards Visa for Canada

I would guess the answer for Canada would be the same as for the US. I don't know much about the new Canada VISA card, so I have no idea if it will give you night credit or not. But in general, Marriott just doesn't do much in the way of fast tracks toward status for anyone.

As for matching, check out the Hotel Status Match Master Thread. Though from what I have heard/seen, Marriott isn't very liberal with their status matching either. But as always, it probably wouldn't hurt to ask.

Most of my work friends were able to match status with Marriott up to Gold status. Platinum is very difficult unless you can proof length of stay at the hotel. Good luck!

I've heard if you use a corp discount code of a company known to travel alot, you can move up faster.

hmm, will try the sofitel card or the accor favourite guests card to do a stat match; especially since hve already booked nearly 15 days for nov/dec...thanks..

I was recently "comp'ed" Gold status with the condition that I had to stay more nights in order to keep it for the next calendar year (which wasn't a problem). This might have had something to do with staying at the same hotel for the past 3 months on a corporate code.

DRUSTEIN: Was that through speaking to someone at the hotel or through 1-800 number?

You can reach elite status through hosting meetings, however not sure that would be quicker unless you do trainings, conferences at hotels:
2 meetings = Silver Elite
5 meetings = Gold Elite
7 meetings = Platinum Elite

Actually, I just got a letter via snail mail letting me know that they were giving me complimentary gold status, I never actually talked to someone on the phone.

Do you have additional details or was this just posted as a joke? I always stay with our corporate rates and my nights accrue just as they do if I would book a regular room rate from marriott.com

Just my experience, first job out of college working for the big IT services company with the golfer ad you see at the airports.

I also work for a large IT company and have used the corporate rate for many, many stays. As far as I can tell, no different treatment. But as always, YMMV.

Now I have been able to get a couple of status matches on AA through my company. And AA doesn't normally give out one status match, much less two of them. So company based status matches can happen, I just haven't seen anything from Marriott on this front.