Defining a "stay"
 

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I didn't see a posting in the several pages I reviewed. I'm staying three weeks in China and I'll be staying every night in a Marriott (but different locations) with my weekends spent in Shanghai. The Renaissance Pudong is my favorite hotel there, but Yangtze is offering bonus points for weekend stays.

Marriott defines a stay as: "A "hotel stay" or "stay" means all consecutive nights spent with Marriott by a registered Marriott Rewards member."

Since all my nights in China will be consecutive with a Marriott or Courtyard, albeit different locations, is that still considered one stay? If I stay each weekend at the Yangtze hotel, will I only get the bonus points once?

Thank you.

Related to this, if I redeem a hotel stay, and then upgrade with cash, is it counted as a stay for status?

If you change hotels, then you will have multiple stays. You have the consecutive nights correct, but the requirement is really "consecutive nights at the same hotel." So every time you change hotels, you will be starting a new stay.

No, you will not get night or stay credit as your stay is still considered an award stay.

With that said, sometimes mistakes happen and you might get lucky. So while it is possible to get a stay or night credit when you upgrade an award stay with cash, it just isn't normal or part of the rules.

The stay definition is meant to prevent you from checking out and back in to the same hotel to accrue stays - SPG has much better wording. If you're changing hotels, no problem.

I figured that's what was going on.

I'm at this one property 4n/wk, but there's times I'll either extend the stay such that it ends when the next week's reservation starts, or (esp. if the rate is lower) will book the add'l days on another reservation. In both cases, that initial stay won't credit to my account for nearly two weeks after checkout. I'll get credit for the subsequent stay before the previous stay posts.

I guess the system sees that I haven't left the property, and holds onto the first stay for manual review or something. I got bitten by this after having accrued enough nights to make Plat, yet they hadn't shown up yet at the time I'd booked a FS stay and wanted my bennies. (A call cleared it all up.)

... but I just realized- does MR even have any "stay-based" benefits?

Not for status, but Megabonus or other promos can be based on stays.

That's probably why they don't have a very clear definition of "stay" - it's only the occasional promotional offers that are tied to stays, all status earning is tied to nights.