Maximum length stay?
 

I need to stay in a Marriott next year for 60 days. Is there a maximum length stay that makes me ineligible for night/stay credit and/or point accumulation? I know with other programs it's 60 or more nights. I'm looking at a Residence Inn if that makes any difference.

Yes, you can only earn night credit up to but not exceeding 365 nights in a year with the limit changing to 366 on leap years....there is no limit on earning points/miles

Haha - nice thanks! :D Makes you wonder why some programs have a max!

I did about 100 days in a Residence Inn, only thing was they had a $1500 max before they would have to charge my credit card so keep that in mind. Also, if you're working on upgrading status or anything they can periodically post your points. So for instance if your 30 nights from making plat they can post your points after 30 days to get the status then the last 30 you're earning the 50% platinum bonus.

great point...hotels dont like to let the folio balance get too large but my understanding is when they do charge the credit card that the nights/points will post too (it's been way too long for me to remember that with 100% certainty)

I seem to recall Starwood has a 30 day max. Also I've read here that stays over 30 days might be exempt from sales tax - research if that matters to you.

The number of days required to pay no sales tax depends on the state.

it does and during the recession many states have increased the number of nights required

It is now 90 days for Starwood stays. I suspect that part of the reason Marriott is more "lenient" is that Marriott has some extended stay properties where it may not be uncommon for some persons to go beyond 30 or even 90 night stays. For those property types, Marriott has reduced the earnings. AFAIK, Starwood doesn't do that for any of their hotel brands.

FYI - Element is a direct competitor of Residence Inn

True, but AFAIK, someone staying in an Element gets full SPG points and night credits, unlike a similar stay at an RI (which only provides half the Marriott points.)

very true but as noted before you only earn "full" SPG Points on the first 60 nights, at Residence Inn you earn credit on every night....but the big difference is distribution right now, there are only a handful of elements currently operating (and IMO they are working the kinks out of the brand)

I thought there was some max (I thought 30 days) where you could be considered a tenant and therefore most properties would not allow you to exceed this. Am I getting this wrong? I must be with all of these other examples.

I stayed at a TownePlace Suites for 100 days each two summers. There wasn't sales tax charged, and they would charge the credit card after a certain dollar amount or time period. It worked out to be about every 7 days.

Laws in most states (although I haven't found an exception in all of my years yet) are very specific for the lodging industry and as soon as you register you're considered a tentant - methods of evicting a guest do vary by state with some being extremely strick (NY comes to mind) however most leave it to management's discretion regardless of how long a guest has been registered.....there is no reason that I'm aware of why a hotel wouldn't want you to be considered a resident of the state - once that threshold is reached you become tax exempt which is a big selling feature (think of a 15% discount in total amount paid because you're now tax free...before anyone calls me on it, no one - this includes governmental workers - is ever exempt by act of congress for any taxes levied to promote tourism but just saving the use/occupancy taxes are a huge savings)

But with this said the reason some hotels wont allow you to stay longer than 30 nights is a system limitation - for example S*******'s CRS system was finally replaced within the past few months, the old S****** system could only accomodate reservations up to but not exceeding 30 nights (if you wanted anything longer you needed to be transferred to someone at the hotel where their PMS system could confirm it further however you'd never recieve a CRS confirmation number and be able to review it on the brand website) whereas Hilton & Marriott have been able to book reservations for a year or more for decades now

Hotel companies have never been accused of being cutting edge for tech (I know one brand who thought their systems were, once I started explaining all of the features Hilton and Marriott had the person stopped making the claim)....infact the hotel industry makes the airline industry look cutting edge at times

PS... Marriott as won numerous CIO awards for their technology over the past few decades, I was reading an article this morning where they won another one in the past few months (I would rate MI & Hilton the best two out there, Hilton edges MI out in some areas and vice versa)