Booking hotels with corporate credit card
 

Our company makes it mandatory to book all hotel reservations using our company-issued credit card. I have a Marriott credit card but cannot use it to pay for my reservations but allowed to enter my Marriott Rewards number so I can get points that way but still losing out on the credit card points. Anyone know of ways to maximize point earnings or know of ways to get around the requirement? Some people have mentioned using the corporate card to guarantee the room and then ultimately paying for the room upon checkout with personal Marriott card? Any truth to this?

It really depends on your employer's travel & reimbursement policies.

If your company requires you to book all hotel reservations using your company issued credit card, they likely require the bill to be paid with the company issued card as well. If you sub out your personal card at check out, you run the risk of your employer not reimbursing the expense due to the policy violation. No one here can advise you on your specific employer's travel policy.

If employer requires lodging to be paid with company issued CC, but not meals, then charge any hotel meals and incidentals to your room and ask front desk to bill room rate to company card and other items to your personal card. That is likely the best you can do when employer requires use of company issued CC.

My employer has some exemptions from the corporate card requirement intended for low-expense infrequent travelers (something like 2 or less trips and less than $1000 spent in the year, IIRC). That may be something to look into--unless of course you travel frequently.

Another possibility if you use a corporate AmEx is to book hotels that don't accept it. While this may be difficult/impossible to do at Marriotts (and you may be unable to do so at all if there are other rules heavily encouraging/requiring stays at specific locations), corporate travel policies do tend to have exceptions in the event the card isn't accepted at an establishment. Double check with your own company's written policies before attempting, of course.

I feel your pain having worked for companies with similar requirements, but do you really want to be the person that intentionally breaks travel policies so you can get airline/hotel points? I guaranty if you read your company's policy it will specifically mention it is against the rules to use a personal card so you can get travel rewards. It's not like nobody is going to notice that you are continually getting large reimbursements. Are a few measly travel points really worth the possibly consequences of flagrantly breaking company policy?

As with anything, if you really want to do this, why not just ask the company for it's okay? Of course you wouldn't ask, which already tells you what you want to do is wrong.

If you are required to pay for your room with the corporate card, you must pay for the room with that card. Subbing the card at checkout is expressly what you should not be doing.

On the other hand, if you are not required to use the card for meals at the hotel, do not charge them to the room. Simply use your Marriott card in the hotel restaurant and those will never appear on your room bill. Then you won't have to go through the time-consuming mess of having a separate folio created.

As to other schemes, you first need to speak with your travel people to find out the reason for the requirement and then make a decision. Some companies are dead serious about this stuff and terminate people for violations. Others say they require it and could care less and haven't enforced it for 20 years.

As others note, this is about corporate culture and you need to figure that out before plotting next steps. It would be a pity to find out that you can break the rule and nobody cares and equally a pity to find out that if you break it, you lose your next promotion or some nice bonus.

OP ... you can make a reservation with one credit card and use another to actually pay for the room. I do that all the time and get my Marriott points for the card use.

As others have said, whether you should do so is another question and depends on your corporate culture.

For example, your employer may be receiving a rebate for credit card charges on the corporate card. Or, your employer may use the corporate card to aggregate data for negotiation with travel partners. Or, they simply offer it for convenience since some people don't want to pay their travel expenses and wait for reimbursement. We can't really answer that here.

But switching the corporate card booking and actually charging expenses to your Marriott Visa ... that's easy.

The last time I worked for a company where I had a corporate card, the policy was easy: if you don't use the corporate card, you don't get reimbursed. Made the decisions really easy.

Sure, but then you lose out on the 10 points per dollar at qualifying FS hotels. As others have said though, if this is going to go against OP's company policy, I would absolutely not try to find a loophole.

As a matter of fact,most properties in USA will let you switch your credit card even after your stay. Last month I stayed at Fairfield In. SJC and decided to get Amex SPG card for 35k bonus). Emailed the hotel and they switched the card for me (simple paperwork)

That's true, but I think we're getting away from the point that OP made that their company requires their hotel stay to be paid for with the corporate card. Presumably that means not only booking the reservation with the card, but also having the final charges go through on it as well.

agree

I said this just in case OP realizes after the stay that it was OK to use personal card. (Which is a unlikely event like 'water landing')

I actually was able to switch after a stay in a non-US property recently. It was a personal stay on a prepaid rate. The computer autopopulated the credit card. It wasn't until after my stay that I realized it was the card I use for online purchases, not my Marriott card, and the hotel was able to swap cards.

Again, that's info under the "can do it" heading. If it's against corporate policy, the OP shouldn't do it.