Can anyone share their experience is booking a meeting for qualifying nights? Is 10 nights EQN the standard for any type of meeting or is there is minimum stay, rooms requirements, min spend etc? Thanks
There's a whole thread on meetings within this form. You can look up the nuances there. But here are the bottom line facts as I experienced them last June:
There was no minimum stay or spend.
It's critically important to mention the EQN to the event managers when shopping for the venue. Many have not even heard of the Rewarding Meetings program.
Insist that your Marriott Rewards number be put in the contract next to your name.
My ten EQ nights posted about a week after my meeting. It was a daytime meeting and no overnight rooms were involved. A few other aspects of my meeting may or may not be helpful:
1. My meeting was a "legitimate" business meeting with 12 attendees. Here on FlyerTalk, I've read about people who scheduled a one or two-person meeting at an inexpensive property. Then they planned to just show up, sit in the room a few minutes doing nothing, and claim their EQN. I don't know if that hack worked.
2. My meeting was at a Marriott in a major west coast city. I also received a very competitive bid from a Courtyard nearby but favored the Marriott because of its location. I mention this because I'm not sure if you'd be equally successful at an SPG property.
3. I made sure that the Event Manager knew that there was high potential for repeat business from my organization. I also made it clear (politely) that getting those ten EQNs was THE factor that made me choose Marriott over a comparable Hilton nearby. This may not have made any difference but it couldn't have hurt. The Event Manager made a point of assuring me I'd get my nights and was extremely attentive on every aspect of my meeting. The entire meeting staff was great.
4. The space alone cost roughly $500 and we also bought a beverage and light snack from the hotel's catering department. I don't know if that mattered at all. But I'm not sure you'd get the same quick EQM result holding a two-person hour-long meeting at a Fairfield Inn.