Stay on points without enough points
 

Let's say I need 100000 points for a stay at a Marriott property and I have only 50000, and maxed out how much I can buy per year.
Can I still take this stay and pay 50% with points and 50% with cash, or do I have to do two separate bookings, one for the stay-with-points, one for the stay-on-cash ? If it's two bookings and it's outside the USA I suspect it will be tough to get points-credited for the cash part of the stay.

and, why can't you buy the other 50K points on 01 Jan 2011 - you can't have maxed out next year!

If you have a family member with an account, they can buy the 50K points and gift them to you at no additional charge.

If you just can't get to the 100K points, I would expect two reservations needed, one for points and the second for cash (personally I'd do the cash stay first). Make the effort to actually go down to the front desk to check out and then check back in again for the second rez. With any luck the property will treat it as two stays and process each as it's own and all postings will flow as needed. There is never any guarantee a stay will be error free.

I've done this before several times with no trouble. It does process as two back-to-back stays, but I've never had to discuss it with the front desk again after checking in for the first night. (Unlike EEOs which always seem to require multiple discussions.)