Last edit by: rustykettel
Ten (10) Elite Nights are given for each meeting held in a participating hotel under the "Rewarding Events" program. See below for non-participating brands. Information about the Rewarding Events program may be found at https://www.marriott.com/meeting-eve...els/rewards.mi
The 10 elite nights per meeting are independent of any hotel rooms booked in conjunction with the meeting. In fact, no hotel rooms have to be booked as part of the meeting in order to receive credit for 10 elite nights.
Although the Rewarding Events webpage refers to room nights for meeting participants, the most important section is the one that states 10 Elite Nights, regardless if you or your guest is paying for it
In general, a written contract is required (or should be obtained). In many cases, the meeting is booked through a central Marriott group sales office instead of directly with a hotel. If booked through a central Marriott group sales office, there is a three-page contract that makes reference to the Rewarding Events program on page 2 of the agreement. A MR member number should be included in this area of the contract by the group sales office.
FAQs:
Q: What brands participate in the Rewarding Events program?
A: AC Hotels by Marriott, Aloft, Autograph Collection, Courtyard by Marriott, Delta Hotels by Marriott, EDITION, Element, Fairfield by Marriott, Four Points by Marriott, Gaylord Hotels, JW Marriott, LeMéridien, The Luxury Collection, Marriott Hotels, Marriott Vacation Club, Moxy Hotels, Protea Hotels by Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, St. Regis, Tribute Portfolio, W Hotels, & Westin.
Residence Inn by Marriott, TownePlace Suites, & Marriott Executive Apartments do not participate in the program.
Q: How do I find a hotel that participates?
A: Click on the link to the Rewarding Events page and then in the "Plan" section of the page click on the "Find a Hotel" box. Enter the city you'd like to have your meeting in, purpose of event (Business) and then check the "I need meeting/event space" box. Enter the size of your meeting (2 attendees should work) and then click the "Find" box. Leave the start date and end date blank. A list of potential hotels will be shown. The smallest meeting room is not usually shown online --- you may need to call each hotel to find out which one has a boardroom or other small meeting room. Once you've found a small meeting room, then request a quote online.
Q: How quickly will Marriott respond with a quote?
A: Usually within a day or two --- and usually via email. The email should contain a telephone number of the group sales contact. Give them a call and tell them you'd like to follow up on the quote and you're interested in booking the smallest room available for a 2 person meeting for an hour. If they quote a price that's higher than you want to pay, ask them if they can get approval for a lower priced meeting (e.g., a recent quote was for $75 for an 8 hour use of a CY boardroom). They accepted a counter of $50 for a one-hour meeting in the room (plus service charge plus local sales tax). Urban hotels may charge significantly higher rates for meeting space than a smaller, less congested city.
Q: Is a contract required?
A: The terms of the program suggest "yes" --- although there are reports that 10 elite nights have been granted without contracts. A best practice would be to obtain a contract.
Q: How long do points and EQNs take to post after the event is over?
A: Generally, this takes 3+ business days. According to Marriott, it can take 15 business days. If you do not see anything post after 15 business days, contact the hotel before contacting Marriott customer support. The hotel has to be the one to post it.
You will get an e-mail with a subject line Your Rewarding Events Award has Posted: EVENT NAME
Q: Will the hotel know what I am talking about when I say points and elite night credits?
A: Probably not. They may know about the rewarding events points being 3x per dollar spent, but not always. Usually they know of only the Marriott system (Group Posting Tool) where they input how much you spent and when. This is done after the event and is usually authorized by the sales or general manager.
Q: The contract doesn't say anything about points, will I still earn them?
A: YMMV but so far all the electronic contracts from the website state it, but some fail to read it. The paper contracts usually talk about points, but some reports that they don't, but still post. Remember this is a Marriott Rewards benefit that the hotels don't seem to be footing the bill for.
The 10 elite nights per meeting are independent of any hotel rooms booked in conjunction with the meeting. In fact, no hotel rooms have to be booked as part of the meeting in order to receive credit for 10 elite nights.
Although the Rewarding Events webpage refers to room nights for meeting participants, the most important section is the one that states 10 Elite Nights, regardless if you or your guest is paying for it
In general, a written contract is required (or should be obtained). In many cases, the meeting is booked through a central Marriott group sales office instead of directly with a hotel. If booked through a central Marriott group sales office, there is a three-page contract that makes reference to the Rewarding Events program on page 2 of the agreement. A MR member number should be included in this area of the contract by the group sales office.
FAQs:
Q: What brands participate in the Rewarding Events program?
A: AC Hotels by Marriott, Aloft, Autograph Collection, Courtyard by Marriott, Delta Hotels by Marriott, EDITION, Element, Fairfield by Marriott, Four Points by Marriott, Gaylord Hotels, JW Marriott, LeMéridien, The Luxury Collection, Marriott Hotels, Marriott Vacation Club, Moxy Hotels, Protea Hotels by Marriott, Renaissance Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, St. Regis, Tribute Portfolio, W Hotels, & Westin.
Residence Inn by Marriott, TownePlace Suites, & Marriott Executive Apartments do not participate in the program.
Q: How do I find a hotel that participates?
A: Click on the link to the Rewarding Events page and then in the "Plan" section of the page click on the "Find a Hotel" box. Enter the city you'd like to have your meeting in, purpose of event (Business) and then check the "I need meeting/event space" box. Enter the size of your meeting (2 attendees should work) and then click the "Find" box. Leave the start date and end date blank. A list of potential hotels will be shown. The smallest meeting room is not usually shown online --- you may need to call each hotel to find out which one has a boardroom or other small meeting room. Once you've found a small meeting room, then request a quote online.
Q: How quickly will Marriott respond with a quote?
A: Usually within a day or two --- and usually via email. The email should contain a telephone number of the group sales contact. Give them a call and tell them you'd like to follow up on the quote and you're interested in booking the smallest room available for a 2 person meeting for an hour. If they quote a price that's higher than you want to pay, ask them if they can get approval for a lower priced meeting (e.g., a recent quote was for $75 for an 8 hour use of a CY boardroom). They accepted a counter of $50 for a one-hour meeting in the room (plus service charge plus local sales tax). Urban hotels may charge significantly higher rates for meeting space than a smaller, less congested city.
Q: Is a contract required?
A: The terms of the program suggest "yes" --- although there are reports that 10 elite nights have been granted without contracts. A best practice would be to obtain a contract.
Q: How long do points and EQNs take to post after the event is over?
A: Generally, this takes 3+ business days. According to Marriott, it can take 15 business days. If you do not see anything post after 15 business days, contact the hotel before contacting Marriott customer support. The hotel has to be the one to post it.
You will get an e-mail with a subject line Your Rewarding Events Award has Posted: EVENT NAME
Q: Will the hotel know what I am talking about when I say points and elite night credits?
A: Probably not. They may know about the rewarding events points being 3x per dollar spent, but not always. Usually they know of only the Marriott system (Group Posting Tool) where they input how much you spent and when. This is done after the event and is usually authorized by the sales or general manager.
Q: The contract doesn't say anything about points, will I still earn them?
A: YMMV but so far all the electronic contracts from the website state it, but some fail to read it. The paper contracts usually talk about points, but some reports that they don't, but still post. Remember this is a Marriott Rewards benefit that the hotels don't seem to be footing the bill for.
Platinum Status in Eight Days and $800 - No Stays Required
#2161
If I earn 100 nights for events to reach lifetime PP, will I get 10 suite nights in 2019 or do they start only based on 2019 stays.
Thanks
Thanks
#2162
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: LGA/JFK/EWR
Programs: UA 1K1.75MM, Hyatt Globalist, abandoned Marriott LTT (RIP SPG), Hertz PC
Posts: 21,171
#2163
Thanks. That means the $1000 I am spending this month for unnecessary events to reach LTPP will at least get me 10 suite nights in 2019. At least that’s some value. In the future I will never probably spend 50 nights. So not much future benefit as of now, may be the United Silver will come useful at some point.
#2164
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: South Florida
Programs: AA LTG (EXP), Hilton Silver (Dia), Marriott LTP (PP), SPG LTG (P) > MPG LTPP
Posts: 11,329
Thanks. That means the $1000 I am spending this month for unnecessary events to reach LTPP will at least get me 10 suite nights in 2019. At least that’s some value. In the future I will never probably spend 50 nights. So not much future benefit as of now, may be the United Silver will come useful at some point.
#2165
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: DL Gold, UA nothing (ex-GS), Marriott lifetime Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 920
Actually, I believe this is wrong. The new program is the one offering the SNAs at 50 & 75, and your earnings will be under the original program before the new program begins. It's not clear activity before your account is merged will earn all the benefits. If this was the case then all current Golds (MPG Plat) and Plats (MPG PPs) would be getting SNAs.
#2166
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, MM, NR; HH Diamond, Bonvoy LT Gold, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Diamond, others
Posts: 12,159
My wife is at 250 nights but 1.9 million points. Part of me wants to book 25 meetings in order to get her to the 50 night platinum level, but the other part of me in control of the wallet scoffs at even thinking of spending that type of money on a lifetime status! This would be the semi-scam mentioned above though...!
#2167
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, MM, NR; HH Diamond, Bonvoy LT Gold, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Diamond, others
Posts: 12,159
Plus all they have to do is price to make it less of a loophole. Yes, the title of thread from nearly a decade ago suggests $80 per meeting, but it's not easy to get it that low necessarily in all areas. That was just one example, but it was the example that gave the thread it's name.
I got $50 a few years ago, then the salesman let me have no-show meetings for $40 for a little while. Free money for him, and he scheduled them for times when they wouldn't interfere with anyone else wanting to book. But someone caught on and he had to stop.
#2168
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New York
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott LTPP, Hertz Five Star
Posts: 1,079
The meeting planner gets 15 credit card nights if they have one. They get 10 nights from the first meeting, putting them automatically at gold. Then for subsequent meetings (if the purported "new earnings structure" is true) they get 1 night for every night they stay, plus 1 night for every meeting they book. So if they book five more three day meetings (first one granted the 10 nights], and they stay two nights each attending those meetings, then they make 25 additional nights (3 meeting days [nights] + 2 butt-in-bed nights = 5 elite nights * 5 meeting sessions = 25 nights), then they're platinum with a 50% stay earn rate, lounge/breakfast, 5 SNAs, etc.
The biggest problem with Rewarding Events staying under the current structure is
1) SPG Elites who qualified on stay criteria can now use it as a cheap way to chase status, namely for plats who chased status. To get equivalent status in new program (Plat50 = new MR Plat) they can use credit card (15 nights), their existing stays (25 nights) plus one meeting (10 nights) to chase up to Platinum
2) For those trying to up their status or are close to the next status, Rewarding events is now a cheap way to buy up to Plat/Plat Premier in the new program. Some people here are getting the meetings for $100. If one is ten nights or less away from the threshold, they can use a single sub-$100 meeting to "buy" the SNAs and increased perks of the higher status.
3) The removal of lifetime points from the future elite lifetime qualification criteria makes buying meetings for lifetime qualification a lot more appealing, especially because it requires X years at that status or higher. You can "buy" a year of silver through the credit card annual fee alone, you can "buy" a year of gold for credit card annual fee + one meeting under Rewarding Events, and you can "buy" a year of platinum for credit card AF + four meetings (assuming you have no legitimate stay activity legitimate stay activity may reduce the number of meetings required.
MR could lose some traffic under this, but they may deem that to be acceptable.
A hybrid program may be more acceptable. Let's look at the alternatives.
Hyatt: Much smaller footprint. 3 qualifying meetings buys Discoverist status, (10 nights OR $5K spend) Explorist (30 nights OR $10K spend) after 10 metings, or Globalist (60 nights OR $20K spend). Compared to "buying" status under MR, it's a lot harder, as you need 20 meetings to buy the highest status, versus 8 meetings at $100 or less.
IHG: Better footprint. IHG is spend based. Their rewards are based on the meeting amount AND for rooms booked on behalf of others (where a business account earns the points instead of the individual person staying). Gold requires $3,333 in spend, Plat $13,333 and Spire Elite for $25,000. Many corporations (or smaller businesses with travelers) has travelers managing their own bookings as a matter of policy or strong preference (people want their own elite qualification/points). So bogus cheap meetings do virtually nothing to buffer up your elite qualification.
SPG Pro: Smaller footprint pre-merger. Nights based qualification, the elite qualification criteria is that group bookings driven by the planner earn one elite night for every 20 meeting nights they drive to Starwood as part of the meeting, with a max of 20 nights (20 room nights = 1 meeting * 20 nights max per contract = meetings of up to 400 nights at people staying). SPG Pro drew strong incentive to plan meetings where people (especially large numbers) drove traffic to Starwood. Again, nights qualification is based on butt-in-bed + only one night per 20 butt in bed nights you drive to SPG, so bogus meetings do nothing for you.
I suspect Rewarding Events will be changed to drive meeting to MR in a less generous way than Rewarding events previously did but still creating incentive real meetings that drove real people to Marriott. I wouldn't' be surprised to see a generous bonus for the first meeting (like the existing 10 nights) and then lesser bonuses (1 elite night + additional night for every X butt-in-bed nights of group traffic you drive to the hotel like SPG Pro) to create incentive for people driving actual hotel traffic with meetings rather than using it for status buy-up purposes.
#2169
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,962
Not everyone who plans meetings can get CC nights. All these programs are promoting CCs to get status but do not provide ways for ALOT of their
membership pool to gain those...
Atleast MR capped the amount lf nights for those.
Time will show what route they go, but I sure hope to let people know sooner then later so people can plan.
membership pool to gain those...
Atleast MR capped the amount lf nights for those.
Time will show what route they go, but I sure hope to let people know sooner then later so people can plan.
#2170
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,962
Eitherway it will be TOUGH to please us all
#2171
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: India
Programs: Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Trident Plat, DL Diamond, AI Maharajah
Posts: 29,680
how long do they usually take to reply????i sent in a request over 2 days ago but haven't heard back yet....
#2172
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,962
Hotels tend to reply within 24hours however on The weekends that can vary. Usually if you put a request in SAT-SUN they should reply by monday. I think the meeting coordinators/sales mgr's work Mon-Fri
#2173
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,050
If Marriott want to put a stop to the gaming, they'll bring in a minimum spend per meeting. But I suspect that they've put the spending criteria on Ambassador service precisely to keep it away from credit card and meeting gamers, but will otherwise leave the 10-nights per meeting in place.
#2174
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: Delta Diamond, Marriott Ambassador & Lifetime Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, United Silver
Posts: 6,334
So, my $100,000 meeting is less valuable than your $100 guest room? Marriott would be foolish to do this.
#2175
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: California
Programs: Hyatt Global, Marriot Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 2,282