Originally Posted by
tetrahydrofuran
I believe this is the most cost effective way (<$1500 USD) to legitimately purchase platinum status in China (perhaps in the world). Check out the rates for yourself.
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...zhou-shangjie/
Only problem is, this place is not super accessible from city centers.
Yes, but "parking" a reservation there for 20-30 nights (I forget the cap on stay length) and going about your life with a room blocked out would make a certain amount of sense. I seem to recall similar stuff being done on mattress runs with cooperative hotels in the US (the user will check in but effectively not use the room).
My guess is that you have a few corrupt managers in China (pardon the stereotype, but having seen enough scandals out of China I'm not surprised) who will check folks in for "long block" stays (10-30 nights at a go) and meetings. The hotel probably pockets a large chunk of the room reservations (the coordinator getting a kickback for "steering" the nights) which they know will go unused, meaning that either they're getting paid for "nothing" or they're able to double-sell the rooms in question.
It is a real pity that Marriott doesn't "take them up" on the offer with a stalking horse buyer out of Vancouver and then drop a brick on the hotels that get used.
Edit: It isn't hard to envision having two hotels involved that folks just get swapped back and forth between.