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Platinum Status in Eight Days and $800 - No Stays Required

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Old Dec 30, 2015, 10:18 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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.
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Platinum Status in Eight Days and $800 - No Stays Required

 
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Old May 14, 2018, 6:39 pm
  #2176  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
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Originally Posted by hockeyinsider
So, my $100,000 meeting is less valuable than your $100 guest room? Marriott would be foolish to do this.
I suspect if you drop 6 figures on a meeting you will be manually invited to Ambassador status even if you don't technically meet the night qualifications
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Old May 14, 2018, 7:46 pm
  #2177  
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Originally Posted by hockeyinsider
So, my $100,000 meeting is less valuable than your $100 guest room? Marriott would be foolish to do this.
That's like the most obtuse reading of that post that I can possibly imagine. If anything he was saying exactly the opposite.
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Old May 14, 2018, 11:06 pm
  #2178  
 
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If we look at the changes Marriott has made / announced recently, they are most interested in higher status to those that stay. Dropping roll-over nights, announcing a max of 15 night credits from credit cards, not continuing SPG's credit for 3 rooms per night each means less members at the higher statuses Making only the first meeting worth 10 nights follows in line, as does not mentioning a night credit for $3k spending on the new credit card.

I had read lots of complaints about lounges being packed. Limit higher status away from credit card people (Amex Plat, other CCs) and those taking short cuts would no doubt have an impact.
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Old May 15, 2018, 12:04 am
  #2179  
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Originally Posted by JackE
If you are spending $100K for a SMALL meeting room, you need to negotiate a little better.
I regularly do destination meetings and events between $30,000 and $60,000. $100,000 would be do-able.
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Old May 15, 2018, 12:20 am
  #2180  
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Originally Posted by kauppias
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
i put in one request on friday & another on saturday....still waiting to hear back....
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Old May 15, 2018, 1:42 am
  #2181  
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Originally Posted by getagb
I suspect if you drop 6 figures on a meeting you will be manually invited to Ambassador status even if you don't technically meet the night qualifications
You get base points from the meeting spend AFAIK. So you would pass the spending criteria. (but still need the nights)

Originally Posted by pvn
That's like the most obtuse reading of that post that I can possibly imagine. If anything he was saying exactly the opposite.
Indeed. But I'm not surprised that he is offended by anyone suggesting that his own issue isn't a MASSIVE DEVALUATION!!!!! If you are staying relatively few nights in hotels but earn lots of meeting nights (from proper, $$$ spend meetings), then you are barely taking advantage of the status and ought to spend some time reflecting about whether it matters much.
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Old May 15, 2018, 6:15 am
  #2182  
 
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Originally Posted by kauppias
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.
Agreed that not all can get the credit card nights, but I'm curious as to what the breakdown on property count/membership is for MR domestic US vs. international. Obviously those in the US can get the credit card. And MR needs to release details so they can plan. My guess is that other items are considered higher priority at this time.

Originally Posted by joeags
If we look at the changes Marriott has made / announced recently, they are most interested in higher status to those that stay. Dropping roll-over nights, announcing a max of 15 night credits from credit cards, not continuing SPG's credit for 3 rooms per night each means less members at the higher statuses Making only the first meeting worth 10 nights follows in line, as does not mentioning a night credit for $3k spending on the new credit card.

I had read lots of complaints about lounges being packed. Limit higher status away from credit card people (Amex Plat, other CCs) and those taking short cuts would no doubt have an impact.
Indeed. If the fancier cards (Ritz Carlton) only give Platinum after high spend amounts ($75K) and other cards only give gold after tens of thousands of spend, it will diminish elite amounts in lounges. If the credit card only gives 15 nights and the first meeting gives 10, then you still need another 25 nights to get to Plat and Lounge access. With 3 night stays (monday -thursday), 8 weeks of that would be 24 nights, and the ninth week (25th stay night) would push one over to Plat.

Originally Posted by hockeyinsider
I regularly do destination meetings and events between $30,000 and $60,000. $100,000 would be do-able.
I suspect rewarding events will be changed in a way that will account for your spend.

Even if you don't get the nights, an $100,000 meeting would net you 300K points on the meeting alone, and another 500K if the meeting was charged to an MR Visa (5pts/$ spent at Marriott properties) for a total of 800k, which is a pretty big incentive to continue staying at Marriott.

As I said earlier, I don't think they'll leave you high and dry on status. Even if the first meeting a year only generates 10 elite nights, they'll probably take aspects of SPG Pro (like giving an elite night to the planner for every 20 room nights your meeting generates from participants) or add nights on a spend amount on meetings.
Originally Posted by craigthemif
Indeed. But I'm not surprised that he is offended by anyone suggesting that his own issue isn't a MASSIVE DEVALUATION!!!!! If you are staying relatively few nights in hotels but earn lots of meeting nights (from proper, $$$ spend meetings), then you are barely taking advantage of the status and ought to spend some time reflecting about whether it matters much.
This is a bit of a head scratcher for me too, if the credit card gives 15 nights and the first meeting gives ten, then one only needs 25 nights to get to Plat and the 5 SNAs and breakfast/lounge access. Plat Premier doesn't offer much in tangible benefits at this time (75% elite point bonus on Plat Premier, and 48 hour guarantee barely anyone uses because rack rates suck) over platinum other than the 5 additional SNAs. The breakfast/lounge benefit of plat over gold isn't that appealing unless you're actually staying regularly at hotels. So I'm not sure what all the commotion is about.

Also, if one is driving multiple $30K-$100K meetings to MR at destinations, I'm surprised that one wouldn't be considered for status on an exception basis (Plat/Plat Premier/Ambassador status, or maybe even Plat Five Star)...

Last edited by phltraveler; May 15, 2018 at 6:22 am
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Old May 15, 2018, 6:18 am
  #2183  
 
Join Date: May 2009
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
... If you are staying relatively few nights in hotels but earn lots of meeting nights (from proper, $$$ spend meetings), then you are barely taking advantage of the status and ought to spend some time reflecting about whether it matters much.
Alternatively, if one spends a lot of money on Marriott meetings, but doesn't stay as often as those who actually stay 75 nights, the member who is Platinum through meetings may be more profitable for Marriott and doesn't contribute much to crowding the lounges.
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Old May 15, 2018, 10:07 am
  #2184  
 
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I am booking a meeting room at a Courtyard but the person I was communicating to has no idea what this Rewarding Event is. When I requested for a contract, she said she'll provide me with a banquet order that will serve as my contract. I'm not sure a banquet order is the same as a contract. Could someone please provide me with a sample contract that I can show her? You can redact personal info on the contract if you wish. I'll provide an email to someone who is willing to help me out with a sample contract. I am trying to book something for tomorrow and another one for Friday.

Thank you.

Last edited by BlindPilot; May 15, 2018 at 10:24 am Reason: to correct typo for clarity
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Old May 15, 2018, 10:13 am
  #2185  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
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Originally Posted by BlindPilot
I am booking a meeting room at a Courtyard but the person I was communicating to has no idea what this Rewarding Event is. When I requested for a contract, she said she'll provide me with a banquet order that will serve as my contract. I'm sure a banquet order is the same as a contract. Could someone please provide me with a sample contract that I can show her? You can redact personal info on the contract if you wish. I'll provide an email to someone who is willing to help me out with a sample contract. I am trying to book something for tomorrow and another one for Friday.

Thank you.

Hi, I dont have a form to share but ask her how she posts the points for the meeting. If she uses the marriott group posting tool you should be fine. Alot of properties dont know the details of the program.
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Old May 15, 2018, 8:57 pm
  #2186  
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Originally Posted by BlindPilot
I am booking a meeting room at a Courtyard but the person I was communicating to has no idea what this Rewarding Event is. When I requested for a contract, she said she'll provide me with a banquet order that will serve as my contract. I'm not sure a banquet order is the same as a contract. Could someone please provide me with a sample contract that I can show her? You can redact personal info on the contract if you wish. I'll provide an email to someone who is willing to help me out with a sample contract. I am trying to book something for tomorrow and another one for Friday.

Thank you.
Just say you want a contract (or you are used to getting a contract) and you aren't familiar with a Banquet Order.
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Old May 15, 2018, 10:55 pm
  #2187  
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Originally Posted by kauppias
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
Originally Posted by Keyser
i put in one request on friday & another on saturday....still waiting to hear back....
5 days since i sent in my first request & 4 days since my second request....haven't heard back from either marriott or any of the 2 properties....
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Old May 15, 2018, 11:21 pm
  #2188  
 
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Originally Posted by Keyser
5 days since i sent in my first request & 4 days since my second request....haven't heard back from either marriott or any of the 2 properties....

Was this a International Marriott or domestic USA?

I have only had one hotel not respond that was a hotel in HKG! I requested three quotes and only two responded. ..

So far ALL domectic hotels have responded fairly fast!

Did you receive an automatic reply from the reservation system or did you reach out to hotels directly?
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Old May 15, 2018, 11:28 pm
  #2189  
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Originally Posted by kauppias
Was this a International Marriott or domestic USA?

I have only had one hotel not respond that was a hotel in HKG! I requested three quotes and only two responded. ..

So far ALL domectic hotels have responded fairly fast!

Did you receive an automatic reply from the reservation system or did you reach out to hotels directly?
both properties are in india....i received both automatic replies from the reservation system but nothing after that....
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Old May 15, 2018, 11:45 pm
  #2190  
 
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
Originally Posted by Keyser
both properties are in india....i received both automatic replies from the reservation system but nothing after that....

That may prove tricky

I have not checked Indian properties so no experience with them but the HKG property did not respond despite multiple response so I just gave up.

If you NEED to have actual meetings there perhaps dropping a email to the GM may get some speed on your request processing
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