Originally Posted by pinniped

Here's exactly what I did. Like I said, it was Marriotts - not SPG - but the situation does make sense.

I received an assignment to downtown San Antonio for an undetermined number of weeks. I was given the direction to use hotels, not corporate apartments, because the gig could get canceled at any time. I knew there was a Residence Inn near downtown so I called them directly and explained the situation. They offered me a rate scale that varied by length of stay up to 1 month. I liked what they offered and moved in to my room with a crapload of luggage on my first day in S.A. The gig lasted a couple of months, and I paid them monthly to keep the transactions processed as "normal" hotel stays. I think this was more for their accounting and perhaps local tax law, but it also worked for my own company's accounting and - oh yeah - the rewards points posted normally as regular stays.

During that time in S.A., we'd do short trips to Dallas and Chicago for meetings. I'd pack a small bag - leaving most of my stuff in S.A. - and fly out for a night, usually staying at another Marriott while still checked in to the R.I.

Anyway, I didn't think it was an unusual thing to do. Everything posted normally. My motivations for staying in the first hotel had nothing to do with points - it was about convenience, as well as the rate scale I was offered for my stays by the property. (At the time, I actually knew very little about hotel points. It was several years ago...)

I never had to convince some "member account integrity" group that I wasn't doing something unusual - that would have been a quick way to ensure that I permanently checked out of all of their hotels. I could maybe understand the hotel wanting to confirm that my credit card hadn't been stolen, but other than that you'd think they would enjoy the extra business.