Thanks to all. Sorry for the delayed replies--moved the family this week and was not on the forum.

Appreciate all the advice and am going to try it in reverse, as several of you suggest. Am doing my first stay next week (arrive on 26th). Also talked to some people and decided to drop the name of my client--a large company with negotiated rates--with sales. We shall see.

MDtR--I'm an independent consultant and am not billing these particular travel costs through--so trying to stay at a "nice" hotel while minimizing costs. If I ahve to go elsewhere, I guess I will.

Appreciate the advice. Will return the favor when I can.

Slight subject change--when I called to get my platinum challenge, the rep told me I couldn't since it had been less than 1 year since my last (gold) challenge--which kept me from starting the plat challenge until July 1. I asked for an exception (since I have 8 nights at Marriotts between now and July 1 that makes the challenge easy). She just went ahead and made me a platinum through 2012. Nice surprise!

Now I need to study up on the benefits!