Getting Points With Multiple Reservations
 

I have a weird situation coming up for a family trip. I am reserving two rooms at the same Marriott property - the first is for a 6-night stay that I am paying for myself and I will be staying in this room. The second night is for family members, is for a 5 night stay, and will be paid for with points. They are checking in the same day as me, but checking out a day before me.

I would think I would earn points and nights for my 6-night stay that I'm paying for with cash.

However, there are a number of weird quirks that come up when booking multiple nights at Marriotts using points and cash. Does anyone have any experience with this situation? Is there anything I should do in advance? or any specific way I should do to set up the reservation to obtain the points?

What kind of weird quirks are you talking about? I do this quite often and I am not aware of any problem that could possibly emerge. There might be some glitches if the point reservation starts earlier than the other on but even that is not the case here.

Mindzeye82 , welcome to flyertalk, I do hope you are able to stay.

In fact you are correct about there being complexities here - as the reservations are overlapping, but with slightly different end dates and Marriott's policy has change as a result, there is more here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...ug-2023-a.html . The risk is that the 5 night points reservation will end first and will "block" a subsequent reservation from posting with overlapping nights, if it was going to credit to your own Marriott account, which may cost you your cash earning.

In your case I would do two things:
1. Make sure that the points reservation is set up as a "gift" in another family member's name, and if possible remove your Marriott number from this reservation (so that it doesn't accidentally post before the six night stay)
2. Put all of your incidental spend, if any, onto your cash room, so that you get the points (along with any elite bonus) posted there, after the six nights. Due to the new policy earning, requiring room dates line up, any incidentals put against the points room can't be credited to your account.

In the past you could have combined the rooms onto one bill and it would have probably worked out ok, in this case it probably wouldn't (and since the second booking is a points booking, it doesn't matter as there would be zero earning anyway), I have a feeling that if you did try and combine them at the hotel it would probably work out, but may need some manual intervention later on, and agent back-and-forth, so you may as well reduce the chance through step #1.

Thanks for the follow-up and confirmation!

I have read a lot of quirks where multiple reservations at the same time may supersede one another or you may not get credit for nights when there are overlapping reservations. I'm glad that you have done this without issue!

Thank you for that suggestion - I called their helpline and booked the points room as a gift reservation. They confirmed that I would earn points and nights on my stay - but nothing for the points night (as expected). Calling Marriott and doing it that way is the way to go for these types of reservations.

We should emphasise that littlevoices has outlined the correct solution for you. Make the points reservation as a gift in the other person's name and thereby remove your Bonvoy account number. I've never gifted anything in this way but I believe that you have to call Marriott to do gift reservations which is a pain but it is the correct way to use points for a stay that is not your own whether you are also staying in the hotel or not. This way, your family members will check in to a reservation in their name and check out the day before you and the reservation will not be associated with your Bonvoy account for the purposes of EQN accrual or the welcome gift points neither of which you are eligible for as you have your own overlapping reservation. You are correct to approach this scenario with trepidation because unless you fix it like this in advance, there is a risk the points stay will post first with 5 EQNs and welcome gift points and your 6-night paid-for reservation will not post according to what you want.

In general, overlapping reservations must begin and end on the same dates to post correctly (one lot of EQNs + one welcome gift points + points for up to three room rates and charges). You'll get used to not-particularly-customer-friendly rules in Bonvoy that appear to be driven by IT quirks that cannot be fixed. Very much the IT tail wagging the Bonvoy dog. You came to the right place to get understanding. Welcome to Flyertalk.

To be perfectly clear, this is BAD advice. :eek:

Or should I say outdated, as of 30 August 2023. Since then, to receive points for two rooms (hardly worthwhile when one is an award redemption), the stays must be the same length. :idea:

Instead you should follow the excellent advice set forth in Posts # 3 and 5 above. :tu: :cool:

Thank you for all of this. Just to close the loop:

I called Marriott and they booked the hotel for my family over the phone using my points. I got an automated email from Marriott that stated my family member's name and all of the correct information associated with the reservation. This e-mail looked like something from a computer split out - no graphics or anything.

Then I received another e-mail that looked like the typical reservation e-mail. It had my name on that reservation, but all of the other information was the same as what I got in the first e-mail. I am going to assume all of this is OK. Worst case scenario is that I have to submit the folio at a later date.

There are a lot of advantages to have 2 players in the points world. This is a good example of it. In that scenario you have P1 book the cash room and P2 book the points room, and then you remove any risks. Even if the dates are identical we often will still book rooms divided between P1 and P2, so we both get night credits, and both get any bonus points that are only available for 1 room.