747kona

I've got three questions...

Plan: I am going to be booking a group block at a Marriott soon and want to maximize night credits (points are a lower priority) and will have multiple rooms that will range from 1-6 night reservations over a 6 night period. IE some will do 3 nights in the beginning, some will do 2 nights at the end, some will do all 6, etc. They will all be at the same property and under the same contract. I am anticipating around 80 room nights (total nights booked x total rooms) over the course of the 6 nights, however, each night will vary on how many rooms will be occupied. They all will have over 10 rooms booked for each of the 6 nights. I [as the meeting planner] will be paying for all room and tax.

1. Will I only earn 10 elite night credits through the meeting contract for the entire stay (excluding any CC bonus)? Or will I earn an elite night credit for each night stayed assuming I have over 10 room nights booked each night? IE around 80 Elite Night Credits?
2. I am planning to split the points/nights with a colleague, do we each get capped at 50,000 points, or is it a total 50,000 point cap meaning we each could earn a maximum of 25,000 points? Likewise, are the elite nights split and is there a cap on those?
3. Has anybody negotiated guests also earning points? On top of the normal meeting planner point earning structure AND the guests not paying for room+tax? I am assumming only the meeting planner earns if they pay, but am curious if anybody was able to have guests also earn?

Thanks for the help and I apologize in advance if this information is already out there, I had a hard time finding clarification.

dank0014

From my experience (usually host 2-3 large meetings annually):
1. You will only earn 10 elite night credits for the entire contract. You're best bet to separate, take the 10 elite night credits as the contract and book your room separate from the contract - you will earn 16 nights that way
2. You will earn a maximum of 50,000 points. If you split with someone else, you will each earn 25k; however, some hotels, and you can definitely put in your contract, that you will both earn 50k. I now do that on mine to indicate. The hotel has to purchase the points, but if you give them enough revenue (e.g. room + F&B / meetings, etc), they may give it to you. Only room block (given you are only giving them a small amount of rooms), you'll probably only get the 25k each. Note, my contracts usually with Marriott are well north of 500-800 total room nights, plus $50-100k in F&B spend, so I can really push them to give me the extra 50k to seal the deal.
3. Guests could potentially earn points. Many times, if they have their rewards number onto the reservation, the hotel isn't going to spend significant amount of time to pull them apart from the auto process. You can ask them to include in contract, or just tell guest to put their MR number into the reservation. What it really comes down to is the actual rate code the hotel sets up though (qualifying vs. non-qualifying). The big question to ask yourself is if it's a Marriott owned hotel or franchise. My experience has been Marriott owned hotels follow everything to the rules, so they wouldn't receive points.