Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
You'll earn points sooner, but probably not more points. Even if status changes during a stay, the new status isn't recognized during that stay, where stay is defined in terms of consecutive nights at the same property regardless of how and when the bill is settled.
Yes/no. The OP's dad will qualify for status based on # of nights, not stays, so when he hits the # of nights for Gold or Plat, he'd be at that status. Normally it doesn't kick in until the next stay.
However, the OP's dad can do two things to push it through: a) check out one night for a stay elsewhere & then check in again, thereby breaking it up - or if he's free on the weekends (ie, gets sent home), he can check in somewhere cheap near home to get the extra stay; b) see if MR will manually push through his status once he hits the Gold/Plat mark in terms of nights.
As you note, there really aren't any bennies at RIs, but getting to the Gold/Plat status would start him earning bonus points.
From the description of the OP's OP, they're trying to get points for the dad so he can use them on a vacation w/ his wife.
Also, if it's not direct bill (ie, the OP's dad is paying it himself & gets reimbursed/does't have a corp credit card), I'd recommend the dad get a Marriott credit card asap & put the hotel charges on that, as it will earn 5pts/$ spend on the CC, plus get the dad a free Cat 1-5 cert.
Cheers.