stevenasmith98

Neeb here with a question:

Need one more night to get gold, so was going to book a night at the nearest Fairfield Inn, check in & split.

Thought I'd ask around the family to see if anybody wanted a night in a hotel somewhere. ... brother-in-law in Il.

Called Marriott to book & confirm I'd get the credit (putting it on my credit card), and they said that I must be the one checking in.

Saw this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...it+booked+paid

.. which seemed to confirm it.

Is this correct? Any way around it?

Seems weird to me. I'm willing to pay Marriott more for a room than I would otherwise, I get my night, BiL gets a free night.

Counsellor

It has long been the rule that the member must actually stay to receive stay (nights) credit.

There are stories of folks who got around this by reserving the room with two persons staying in the room, and giving the name of the person who would actually be staying in the room as the second guest.

Then the "second guest" would show up "early" and if the front desk asked about the member, the desk agent would be told, "Oh, I happen to be early; he'll be along later." If the question of a credit card came up, the "second guest" would say something to the effect that he understood there was a credit card attached to the reservation. I guess sometimes the front desk will accept that.

In the morning, the "second guest" wouldn't check out himself, but rather would allow the automated/automatic checkout to apply.

As I say, this is a story that has appeared from time to time; I don't know whether it would work, or whether the desk would require the "second guest" to provide a credit card to settle the bill. It may depend on the property, or the desk agent. So, YMMV.

TrojanHorse

there are two ways to do it

1. as stated above

2. to check in and leave. you do not have to stay, shoot, you do not even have to go to the room, you can check in at the FD and turn around and go home and you will be fine

Counsellor

I agree -- check in and leave is the easiest and cleanest.

I inferred from the OP that this wasn't possible, as the BIL was in another state.

Whataboutj

I thought you could use your MR account for another person's stay. My boss did this for several people on my team when we were first building the team and they didn't have MR accounts. He got 9 nights credits for one trip he booked for 3 people.

Is that not the case? Assuming you can do that, the OP should just book the room in the BIL's name and use his MR account for the booking

Please let me know if I am wrong as I plan to do this for a work trip I have in Feb where my colleague doesn't travel a lot and could care less about the MR credit for the stay
J

jtp1947

According to Marriott's Terms and Conditions, you can get points for up to 3 rooms, but night credit for only one room. However, mistakes do happen.

Whataboutj

Ok thanks. I was thinking this would help me get an additional 4 nights towards the spring megabonus (8 total nights) but I will assume I won't. If I end up getting the additional nights credit than it will be a Spring extra mega bonus!!!!
J

stevenasmith98

Thanks to all. I was pretty sure that was the answer.

I'll book a night at a local Fairfield Inn, check in & split. Too bad. Same result to me, worse result to Marriott (cheapest rate locally vs. full-service Marriott), worse result to my BiL.

I guess the point is to keep someone from racking up a bunch of nights, but if they're the one paying for it, not sure why they'd care.

RogerD408

My guess it keeps travel agents (corporate or otherwise) from booking rooms and collecting the credit to use on higher priced rooms and still charging their clients. In the early days of loyalty programs companies collected the benefits and not the guest/flyer. Someone with a broad traveler base could really score some good discounts.

Personally, being so close to the end of the qualifying period, I'd make sure there was no way for them to deny status.

Rom Sac

I haven't done it at Marriott recently, though I did it a year ago or so. It definitely works at lots of hotel chains.

After all, why wouldn't it? Sometimes two people staying together will arrive at different times, and the hotel can't reasonably keep you from checking in. And I've certainly left without checking out in person.

Frankly I think the whole "check your ID" thing has gotten totally out of hand.

helpless

I rarely get asked for an ID. Of my last 10 stays, I think I was asked for ID once. They usually just ask for my last name and credit card.

Recently, my dad needed one more night to retain status, so he booked me a room under his name. I was able to check in without any problems. They never questioned the different first name...I guess it helps that we have the same last name.

TrojanHorse

Sheraton (not sure if its all of spg as I primarily use the sheraton brand) is always asking me for ID (as in D/L) with my CC, they seem to be the biggest chain in my experience always asking for a D/L type ID. Note I differentiate that from a corp ID

mclymerne

My son and his fiance just stayed at the Newark Airport Marriott for 2 nights. I had put the reservation under my name and called them and told them who was staying there. They said no problem-- they changed the reservation and left my Marriott number on file. I received credit for both nights even though I didn't stay there and they knew I didn't stay there. So call the hotel if you're doing it for a family member. Its possible each hotel is different but I had no problems with this situation.

aacharya

Perfect advice, and one that's been repeated (twice by me alone on this forum) over and over.

Call with the 2nd guest's name and all is well.

Landice

Just curious, I'm also 1 night short of retaining gold. How lenient has Marriott been in the past to allow 49nt'r to retain gold? Is there an easier way than to do a Mattress Run?

I'm in San Francisco and the nightly rates here are not particularly cheap.