FAQ: Points & credit for same-night, overlapping and nested stays at different hotels
 

Let's say I check into property A for seven days on a Wednesday. On Friday, while touring a nearby city, it gets kinda late so I check into property B for the night, and check out the following morning.

The following Wednesday morning I check out of property A.

By now I've paid for eight nights. Will I get that many nights credited towards status? Obviously there isn't any fraud in place, the one night at B is just a convenience thing.

Depends. Per the T&Cs, you should get the points for your 7-night and your 1-night stay, but you should only get night credit for 7 nights (as you would actually only be staying in one of those rooms each night.) Also note that my understanding is Marriott does periodically audit accounts and if they did so, even if that night were credited to you, it could be removed. And if they did that, there would be no notification/communications to you of that and no "paper" trail showing that extra night was ever in your account.

What does this mean? It means you might well see an extra night show up. It also means that even if that night shows up, it could disappear again. My recommendation is don't rely on that one extra night for any elite status or bonus promo requirements. If it shows up and stays, great, if it doesn't you weren't really entitled to it anyway, but you should expect to receive the points for all 8 nights of your stays.

Concur, elite nights only count for the nights you put your head on the bed. This is how it counts for other programs too, I experienced with Hilton and their CSR won't make any exceptions.

But can we believe that the Marriott IT correctly works out that the elite nights for the longer stay must be reduced by the one night actually slept elsewhere.

There's a similar scenario being discussed in a FB group: someone's on a very long stay for work and wants to nest a single night in a cheap hotel so the current promo kicks in when they check out of the second, longer stay. Impossible to determine how Marriott's IT will deal with this (if it deals with it at all) because we don't know if they use check-in dates, check-out dates or something else to determine which is the first stay for the rules of the promo. Apparently they cannot check out of the long stay for one night which would be the only way of accurately predicting the sequence of events.

Nested trip question
 

I'm doing an extended stay and have a shorter trip coming up in the middle of the long one. Called customer service and they said I won't earn points or nights for the shorter trip, but then I found an thread where someone said you can earn the points (FT won't let me link because I have a new account.) Anyone have experience with this and if so what did you earn?

Welcome to a world of pain. There are numerous reports in this forum of nested stays posting incorrectly and the advice is to either (a) check out of the original stay, check in to the new one, check out of the new one, and check back into the original one as a series of consecutive stays, or (b) stay off brand at a non-Bonvoy hotel for the shorter nested stay so you avoid any mis-posting nonsense.

To strictly answer your question, you should receive qualifying nights only for one hotel per night but points for both stays including the nested one. In practice, because the IT can't cope with the scenario, the shorter stay will post first with its qualifying nights and points and this will foul up the posting of the extended stay's qualifying nights when you eventually check out because the IT thinks you've already had elite night credits for some of the dates and it cannot do the correct calculation. You're then enveloped in a world of pain trying to get this fixed because you clearly want the elite qualifying nights from the longer stay.

Armed with this knowledge, it's now up to you whether you choose one of the two scenarios (a) or (b) or follow through with your original plan and enter the world of pain. Can't say you've not been told.

Seems like the sensible approach is either to do your nested stay at a different chain or skip entering your Bonvoy number if staying at a Marriott affiliated hotel.

Do the shorter stay at another chain. Anything else is just asking for headaches.

Unfortunately I can't really change my plans at this point, but thanks for the warning nonetheless 😂

I wonder if you could ask the FDA to remove your bonvoy number at checkout? Explain the issue and make sure the total isn't different.

Practically speaking, I wonder how often this is actually a problem. I've had innumerable nested stays with both qualifying nights and points posting without even the slightest issue. The only time I've had any issues is when the nested stay and longer stay end within a day or two of each other.

Only works if you use a separate Bonvoy account. You actually run the risk of getting your longer trip turned down and only getting points for the single night. Multiple similar threads with this being discussed:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...nt-hotels.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...st-option.html

Put your nights to a separate Bonvoy account, or (better plan) just try another chain a few times.

Booking two hotels in different cities
 

My company booked me a Marriott in Seattle for a month for relocation. Need to travel to Phoenix for a few days during the month and booked another Marriott hotel. Can’t checkout of the hotel in Seattle to check in Phoenix because I have too much belongings to take with me for a short trip. I’ve provided my Bonvoy membership number for both stays. Will I get points and nights for both hotels?

I suggest you cancel your Phoenix stay and find a different chain. Maybe IHG for their matching promo? Do you have a spouse that you could change one of the bookings to?

I’ll have to check with corporate if they can change hotels. No spouse but can I create another Bonvoy account under my name, provide that to the Phoenix hotel and then transfer the points to my first account after I get the points? I don’t really build loyalty at other hotel brands.