What counts as a stay?
 

I'm considering doing the Marriott status challenge, 9 stays in 90 days. There's only one Marriott in Stockholm so don't really have that many options.

If I stay for one night, and then checkout from the hotel, and then return the weekend after, does that count as one stay or two stays? I mean there's a few days of a gap in-between, but ultimately i'm returning to the same hotel?

Thanks

As long as there's a day separating the stays you'll be fine. Example, check out Tueday & check back in on Thursday would be 2 stays. Check out Tues & check back in Wed would be 1 stay.

Cheers.

Sharon: In your second example of checking out Tuesday and checking back in Wednesday, the guest would not be staying there Tuesday night, so those would be two stays, with a night (Tuesday) separating them, wouldn't they?

An easier, very simplistic, rule is that you have to be "off the property" for a full day between checkout and the next check-in. I realize there's an exception to that if you are sharing a room with someone else and alternating stay credits with them.

This can be interpreted to mean the wrong thing. It's actually nights, not days, that count. "A “stay" or "qualifying stay" means all consecutive nights..." according to the Marriott T&Cs. Checking in and out does not matter if you stay consecutive nights. If you stay at a hotel Monday night, check out at 4pm on Tuesday and check back in at 1pm on Wednesday, you will have two stays despite not being away from the hotel for a full day. You skipped a night.

A Monday to Tuesday stay and a Wednesday to Thursday stay would not be combined into one stay.

Only consecutive nights are combined.

Although this doesn't help you with Stockholm, for others looking to complete the challenge, the consecutive night groupings (i.e., if you did Monday - Tuesday and a Tuesday-Wednesday stays, that would end up being combined into 1 stay) is per property.

Staying the same night at two separate Marriott properties on the same night would count as two separate stays, for an accelerator (i.e., Monday - Tuesday at a Marriott and the same Monday-Tuesday at a Courtyard).

What? How do you stay at two properties at the same time?

Long story short, there must be one bookable night (for which you are not booked and do not stay at the hotel [under your name at least]) between your checkout and check-in at a single property for it to count as two stays.

Even if you have a 9PM LATE checkout on Tuesday and an 8 AM EARLY check-in on Wednesday, this would still count as two stays since you were not an in-house guest for the hotel books on Tuesday night...

How did you do that? My understanding is that the stay is only valid if you are there and most programs will disallow same day bookings across different properties as invalid (for at least one of the duplicated date/property). Booking in the same area and spending ½ night here and ½ night there will not work either. There are case by case exceptions where one have a base room but traveled to another location for a short 1-2 night side trip while holding valid (paid) reservation at the main base to avoid the hassle of transporting luggage.

It depends, but if you check in in two completely separate properties (read: not two sharing the same back-office) there is a good chance (read: not a guarantee) that you will receive a credit of two nights. You don't even need to sleep at either property (AFAIK you need to be present at check in, what you do after that is completely up to you and you can usually check out using the app so there's no need to be present either). I have no idea what would happen if the rewards account is audited.

You may receive them, but you also may lose them in the future under an account audit. These have been reported many time here on FT.

OP only has one property in town, so a moot point, but others need to be aware of the risk they are taking and the ease with which it can be avoided.

Ooops - I meant check out Tuesday & check back in Tuesday on a separate reservation would not work. Hadn't had my cup of tea yet! OP needs a full day inbetween stays at the same property.

Cheers.

Just to add, OP also needs to be Gold to take Platinum challenge. Marriott offers challenge only for 1 level.

I did this during my own Plat challenge, when i had no status with Marriott. This was done in two cities; in one there is a property with 4 hotels all on the same lot.

Initially, my very patient wife who was on a business trip with me hopped a night at each hotel, doing the following:

Night 1 - Stayed at Hotel #1
Night 2 - Moved to Hotel #2 (stayed), but also booked a room and checked into Hotel #3
Night 3 - Moved to Hotel #4 but also booked a room at Hotel #1

In all cases I avoided a duplicate night stay at each location, and yes, I did physically go to each hotel (they all share the same parking lot), and checked into the room, went into it, and tossed around the sheets. There have been reports that even if you check in and there is no visible stay by you (i.e., no room card usage or signs of using the room) that your stay may be removed. The next morning I checked out individually of each hotel, packed up, and switched. I did actually take advantage of the free breakfast at the other hotels, since the ones we stayed in didn't have any (and I had no status).

In all, 5 nights, 5 stays, all individually posted. Each were fully paid stays - not a 1/2 night or day rate, but yes, I did book two separate full rate rooms on the same night, as the calculation of Plat benefits was worthwhile to me.

I then did the same in another city, where there were no side-by-side hotels and did a fair amount of driving, but to give my wife a break we stayed in one hotel for 5 nights, and I just booked a room at another for every other day.

As soon as I reached 9 stays, I emailed the plat challenge, they reviewed my stays (with all the duplicate nights), and I was given Plat status.