FT 101 - Take screen shots before major events like year-end, mergers, SEC investigations, etc.. I'm sure there will be many that will see their end of December transactions wondering why their nights didn't post.

If everything processes correctly, what is the typical time frame for these nights posting? I did a meeting on the 28th, did another on the 29th using a different Marriott number. These were at the same marriott and the agreement came through the corporate office. Is this normal? Neither had any language about the rewarding nights, but I spoke to the girl who had set both of these up for me and she had me write my numbers down and she said she would make sure "I got my points." Clearly not familiar with the program but I had sent her the link to it so I know she at least knows about it. Just wondering how long I should wait before emailing her as nothing has posted.

Typically posts should happen within ten days, but RE postings have been all over the board. Another caution is some have run into conflict where the event was before the merge but posted after and denied nights since they already had others. You might find them trying to post the nights in 2019 and if they were needed to gain status in 2018, you could be in for a fight. Hope it all works out.

I finally make it to platinum 50 night for 2018, but reading the wiki regard to the new rule after the merge. Which mean even if do 8 event in 2019? I will not be qualify for Platinum anymore? because new rule stated 1 night get 10 EQN, then 0 EQN until i reach 20 correct? so sad I just did it this year :(

:td: Seems unnecessarily complicated, and a jerkish attitude.

There's no need for you to gratuitously quote it just to make the point. Plus, OP has now corrected their post but we're still waiting for you. Plus if you were actually concerned with OP's privacy you could have used the alert-a-mod button as an alternative.

Thanks for the info. Just wanted to set my expectations. After reading all of these posts it just bewilders me that hotels have an issue with this. I don't want to discount what event organizers do, but its not rocket science, and you would think that if a hotel is part of a chain that these people would know the details of what looks like an extremely basic points/system. I guess also combine that with the fact that even if they were all educated on it, its obvious that backend application for marriott points in general is full of issues. Not to get onto a tangent, but I've never stayed at a hotel where they forget to charge my card. Nor have I ever stayed somewhere that flat out had no record of my reservation. Seems like the systems in place to collect and make money work flawlessly, everything else, not so much

RE was created back in the day when business travel was very low and MR put together a program where they (MR) would pony up the nights and not the properties. But the did depend upon the properties to post the event using the GPT (Group Posting Tool) to notify them of the event completion. There was nothing other than the posting for the property to do and they should have been doing it all along, so no change there. It is annoying that the loyalty program and the properties can't work as a single organization and resolve issues internally, but like with most multi-vendor functions, the finger pointing runs rampant. The lack of transparency doesn't help any either.

The need to "travel defensively" can be frustrating. At least we get to choose what effort we want to put into chasing down the benefits. If it's important to you, then expect to spend a lot of time tracking your efforts. Being a free agent and choosing the place that works best for your destination vs highest payback has merit.

anyone book a meeting this year yet and have the 10 nights post?

Had a meeting on Saturday. Nothing posted yet.

You hit the nail on the head. So this program is pretty old? Like so old its nearly defunct, or just has been around for a long time. Amen on the travel defensively comment also. This Marriott merger has really made the george clooney up in the air quote come true: "There's nothing cheap about loyalty."

So its been 10 days for one of my events, 9 days for another. What is the procedure to report a missing "event"? Do I use the same form as a missing stay or is this something more complicated? Also is this something that if the property uses the group posting tool that it should show up rather quickly? Or has it gotten to the point that hotels are using this but the nights are getting lost in the ether?

From what I can tell, no one can fix this but the property itself, so my best recommendation would be to contact the sales person with whom your contracts were negotiated.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Marriott International

[email protected]

All I can say is the ebonus program and the Group Posting Tool interface doesn't look like extremely basic point system. Both come from an internal system developed by Marriott called "SFA". I truly believe if it was Google, Apple, Microsoft with their army of engineers and psychologists in Human-User-Interface Design could make those two tools more intuitive so you don't need to read the manual. Making tools very user-friendly for hotel franchisee didn't seem to be that high of a priority or else they would have replaced the Marriott system with the more superior SPG system when they merge.

Fundamentally, the core part of a hotel operation is indeed taking money and giving you a room to stay in. So that part need to work as flawlessly as possible. Giving points to a guest are more bells and whistles - important but not core to a hotel's function. I totally agree a hotel should make sure the core part is working - guest get rooms, guest pays at check out. Managers should be dealing with the most pressing issues and demands of current staying guests. Then once you have staff time, worry about if points aren't posting automatically for certain guest and do it manually using the E-Bonus Tool ... or if more staff time is available someone needs to study how to use Group Posting Tools (because you can't just wing it).

Exactly this.

I had an issue with some missing EQNs lat August, and no matter how many times I called Marriott. The response was always 'the property has to apply it on their own'.

Funny enough, my issue got resolved this week. 20h later ( over the phone calling every 2 days for most of September ), I got my nights and thus Plat status for 2019.

got my nights
first meeting ever