Multiple Rooms, Same Hotel Elite Qualification Rules
 

Hi - I am (was) an SPG Platinum member.

I just found out that as of August 18, you no longer get night credits for multiple rooms booked at the same property for the same nights. For example, if I were on a family vacation and I booked two rooms for the same dates, I used to be able to collect "qualifying night" credit for both rooms towards elite status (but I believe 1 stay for both rooms), but now I would only get night credit for one room.

The folks on SPG social media confirmed this. Is this correct? It would be bizarre to have this new rule for 2018 (I get it if it's for 2019), as in 2018 you could still qualify for Plat with stays (sadly I always qualify with nights).

Thoughts appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: Adding the T&Cs
https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi

This is confirmed. There is no functionality in the system we now use for posting extra rooms as separate stays and nights. All of the charges for extra rooms are now only able to be posted to your room only.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Marriott International

[email protected]

Welcome to MPG (or whatever they decide to call it when they decide to name it). Maybe a good idea to go back and read the current T&Cs and take NOTHING for granted as having been that way before. It's a new game and new rules to go along with it.

Thank you. I wish this would just go into effect in 2019. For some reason if this was announced, I missed it.

I booked two rooms using points - would it be possible to have the second night credited to my friend who will be staying in the other room? She's a plat as well. I can just do that at check-in perhaps?

Yeah, good idea. It's just a lot to read.

No, your friend could not earn night credit by this stay.

Best Regards,

Abbey Liu
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International
[email protected]

Thank you for the quick response.
What's so bizarre about all of this is that the rules for 2018 (for 2019 requalification) changed in August 2018. We all started the year with the thought that at least for 2018 things would remain the same, and any changes would go into effect on January 1, 2019 (for 2020 requalification). I just don't understand the logic (even if it's a systems issue).

Flyertalk has been saying this since the August date was first mooted, although the threads are way too long for a review at this stage.

But some Marriott exec seems to have decided that members were pounding on the door demanding to have our Marriott and SPG nights combined for status purposes. Many of us weren't...

Some of us are still being surprised with the things Marriott has done and is doing and most likely will do. The T&Cs do allow them to make changes at any time with or without notice including discontinuing the program in total. Marriott is not a good communicator, I think with the focus on stockholders and not customers. My guess is they have thrown 2018 out the door and want to hit 2019 clean. I find the best defense is to keep current with FT and see what others have run into and maybe avoid some of the problems.

As for getting credit for your friend, a possible solution would be to give his MR number at check-in and just maybe they will process the room under his number. Otherwise, the best you can hope for is to get credit for the incidentals charged to his room (but if you're together, charge your room instead).

I am still getting multiple rooms credited to my legacy SPG account and I haven't combined my accounts..... Anyone else experiencing the same? I wonder if this IT glitch will be missed or fixed by 2019.....

Yes, this was one of the main reasons for me to go with SPG...

Just keep in mind should MPG decide to audit your account, those nights/stays could go away and if you've counted on them for status, you'd be hosed. Definitely not part of the program today and probably not wise to post online where we know SPG has a presence here. Good luck.

All good advice, now let's hope MAR focus their effort on getting the basic IT solutions to work before clawing back erroneous credit multiple nights.... You can only hope...