skyline101

I am currently 9 nights away to Platinum Premier Elite. Do you know which hotel is willing to sell a room at a cheap rate?

sdsearch

Are you able to travel anywhere for free?

You didn't mention any locations.

But to get night credit, you have to check in in person. You don't need to check out in person, but you do need to check in in person.

So your question is impossible to answer which location info provided.

Meanwhile, have you ever done a Rewarding Event meeting? If not, you can get 10 night credit for the first one only (we don't know if first one of the year or first one ever). One meeting may cost a lot less than 9 separate nights. See this thread for more:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...18-2018-a.html

margarita girl

Easy to find rooms in Indonesia for $30/night.

reslfakb

Second the recommendation to do a rewarding event. I booked a conference room at our local Marriott last month and received the 10 elite nights several weeks later. I think it cost me a total of $125 after taxes.

talfred

I could also reach PP in a few more nights.

Are there any significant difference compared to Plat Elite in terms of upgrades/experience?

Any idea if you will get soft landed to Plat Elite the next year assuming if you don't meet the requirements to maintain?

skyline101

Where did you book the conference room at? Do you have to be present?

sdsearch

There's a separate thread about that

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...18-2018-a.html

Many people get credit for unattended conferences, but I think there may have been exceptions here or there.

In my case, I booked at a hotel near work and I did show up, but I only scheduled a 1-hour meeting after work, and I left after 35 minutes or so. And I was able to use the hotel's wifi during the "meeting". I claimed 2 attendees (that was the minimum), but they never asked about anyone else. Don't request AV or catering as that is likely to incur extra cost.

escapefromphl

Did you make your 50 night choice benefit selection?

• 5 elite night credits
• 5 Suite Night Awards
• Gift Silver Elite status
• $100 gift to UNICEF
• 40% of the price of a Marriott-branded bed

Also did your annual birthday night post?

musicgal

HI. I am looking at reserving a 5-night award stay at a category 1 Marriott in order to get my total nights up to 50, for platinum status. I realize I have to check-in in person. Do I have to actually stay at the hotel? I'm fine with staying the first night, if necessary, but would prefer not to. It's about a 3 hour drive from where I live, but it's the cheapest way for me to get these last few nights.

sdsearch

Well, that could tricky with a 5-night stay. You have to make the hotel think that you're staying there for all 5 nights. If they decide, say based on housekeeping feedback, that you're no longer there after 2 or 3 nights, you may find the rest of your stay cancelled.

So I would say the safest thing would be to either visit the hotel twice (to check in and to check out), and leave a suitcase and some other stuff out in the room for the whole stay, or else find someone local to the hotel (whom you trust) to make the room look "used for 5 nights" on your behalf (but then you still have to go there once to check in and to hand off the keys to that other person).

For one night "fake" stays, it's sufficient to check in in person but to check out by phone. But that's doesn't work reliably for longer stays, because it's hard to keep housekeeping out of your room on longer stays, and it's hard to keep housekeeping from jumping to conclusions when they see no evidence you using the room night after night.

And you may want to evaluate, is it still the cheapest way if you have to factor in two drives to there? You've got lots of cat 2's near you, it looks like. Is 3 hours driving (one way or round trip?) 2 times worth the 25000 points in savings (of cat 1 vs cat 2 for 5 nights)?

musicgal

Thank you, sdsearch. You make valid points. Yes, there are a number of cat 2 hotels near me. It would be much easier to pull off a 5-night "fake" stay close by than 2 ½-3 hours away (one-way), and may very well be worth the additional points.
I need 9 nights to reach 50. I have 2 paid nights coming up and was going to use 2 certificates that expire soon for a couple of days in Savannah. That leaves me short 5 nights.

What's the deal with meetings? Could I schedule a meeting for 2 people, pay for it, show up, sit in the meeting room for an hour, leave, and get 10 elite nights? I've read through this thread, and some of the thread on meetings, referenced above, and it seems like it's a possibility. I've never considered anything like that before.
Thank you again for your help.

Travelosopher

MSPeconomist

sdsearch

Those Green Choice cards typically say there's a 3 night limit. So you can't use them to either get points for, or to keep them out, for all of a 5-night stay.

sdsearch

Yes, you could. The problem is that some hotels take forever to post those 10 elite nights from a meeting. If this was September or early October, I'd say go for it. But since you haven't even booked a meeting yet, by the time you'd have the meeting it's likely to be at least a bit into December, and then I'd worry that maybe it'd post by Dec 31 or maybe not. Some hotels post within a week or less but others take many weeks to post the meeting. And it might be even worse around this holiday period.

A number of people have gotten credit without even showing up for the meeting. But not every hotel. So if you really want to go down this path for 2018, I suggest you go back to that thread, find out a hotel which gives elite nights for no-shows and posts elite nights really fast (after the no-show) since Aug 18! The problem is that things may have slowed down since Aug 18 (when the Marriott system changed over, and so datapoints from before Aug 18 might be misleading. OTOH, the other problem is that since no one who did 10 elite nights before Aug 18 can get another 10 after Aug 18, there are way fewer datapoints for people getting 10 elite nights after Aug 18. So I don't know for sure whether you can find any datapoints for hotels that have given 10 elite nights for a no-show after Aug 18 and have posted those 10 elite nights very quickly. But that's what you'd want to look for if you want the highest chance of this working before the end of the year.