My wife won a $95 gift certificate to a local Hampton Inn in a silent auction, which we used a few weeks ago when our house was being painted.

The folio, instead of showing a room rate of $99, which we booked at, and a partial GC payment of $95 and balance to a credit card, just showed $0. Apparently the hotel waived the other $4 and treated this like a free stay. So of course no points posted.

I emailed the Diamond Desk asking for points to post for a $99 stay, and the response was that gift certificate stays don't earn points.

I reviewed the program members' guide and there is no mention of such a thing. I could see potentially not awarding points where the certificate was for a free stay without regard to a maximum, but this was a GC for $95, not a free stay (admittedly, most of the time $95 would cover the full stay at this hotel).

Finally, I don't know what the certificate itself did or did not say regarding points earning as my wife handled the transaction and we didn't think to keep a copy of the cert.

Anyone have experience on getting points to post in a case like this?

Thanks.