Looked for a thread on this, but couldn't find one so I'm doing it the old fashioned way.

Just booked an award trip in J to Europe for next May, I was amazed to find availability on good routings this late, but good things come to those who wait, I've heard.

Anyways, taking about 10 days, including travel to go and check out Barcelona and Amsterdam and am sitting on about 180,000 points to do it with. What're the best practices for booking these properties? Same as flights, do it as far out as possible? Is there a good time frame to book?

We're staying 4 nights in Amsterdam and 3 in Barcelona (missed the free 5th night, unfortunately), and I want to figure it out sooner than later. I'm a platinum this year as I stayed 84 nights in a row this summer working on a project and as I understand it you only receive the platinum benefits for the remainder of the same year you earned the status. In other words I will not have these benefits in 2015.

Checking into Amsterdam on 5/23, checking into Barcelona on 5/27, leaving on 5/30.

Any info/best practices on how to book would be much appreciated!

No, if you earned or requalified for Marriott status this year, those benefits cover all of 2015 and into the beginning of 2016, just like with airline status. Otherwise there would be almost no elites early in the year.

Of course, if you got the status through some special promo or status match/challenge, those T&C apply and the status might be of very short duration.

Your Plat status will be good through early 2016 since you earned Plat status via nights stayed.

Your 180K points will cover your stay in Amsterdam with 20K left over, as the 2 AMS properties are Cat 8. My recommendation would be to stay at the AMS Marriott.

You currently don't have enough points to cover your Barcelona stay. You'll need either another 70,000 or 100,000 depending on which of the two Renaissances you end up booking. The Ren is a Cat 8; the Ren Fira is a Cat 6. The former is closer to things.

The good news about Marriott is that you don't need all the points required for award stays at time of booking. You just need the points one week before your stay.

So I'd book the properties you wish to stay at now to secure the awards reservation & then work on getting the additional points.

You can get additional points either through more stays at Marriotts between now & your trip, getting a Marriott Visa w/ the 70,000 sign-up points or buying 50K points from Marriott.

If, when you go to book your stays the entire 4-night & 3-night blocks aren't available you can do a night-by-night search & possibly book them individually, or book what you can & then keep checking daily for the other nights to become available.

Cheers.