Mary2e, you might consider breaking up your stay so the hotel does not consider the three reservations as only one stay. For example, put your companion's name & GP number(if you are not alone, of course) on the paid stay in the middle.
The hassel factor is, that you'd have to "officially" checkout for each of the reservations, but the front desk clerk is usually fine with re-assigning the same room you just checked out of to the new reservation. Just make sure they don't merge the reservations to one folio.
What this gains you, is two stay credits as long as you have some incidentals. While not officially a bene, in the past, any incidentals even on an award stay have triggered points & stay credit for me. YMMV