I think my run has come to an end.

My normal mode of operation is to get to a new area where I'll be working, stay at all the likely Fairfield Inns, pick the best one, and then work a deal with the manager. This method has worked very well for the last three years or so. I've easiy made Platinum and earned a lot of points.

My current assignment is near Binghamton, NY. There is only one Fairfield Inn in the area. The manager refuses to deal. In fact, he acted a little miffed that I wasn't already staying at rack rate. He was completely unmoved by my past experience or my 150 nights/year. It's retail or not at all.

So I'm walking. Remember, I pay for all my stays out of my own pocket; they're not reimbursable.

Given that I'll probably be here for anywhere from six months to six years, I'm going for low price -- hello, Motel 6.

Actually, there is a Motel 6 a short walk down the street, and he's $50 a night cheaper than the "best" price the Fairfield would offer me. Now, I love Marriott and the perks, but they ain't worth $50/night!

So, I'll find a cheaper Fairfield 50 miles away and finish out the Megbonus promo, and then it's so long. It was a nice ride while it lasted, and I'll probably spend my points while I'm still plat, but then that's it.

<sniff>

Is the Courtyard in Binghamton willing to negotiate with you? They seem to be charging the same rack rate as the Fairfield Inn, but you might be able to get a lower negotiated rate.

BigLar,

What's with the loyalty to the lowest end brand? Did you do a web search filtered just for Fairfields? Don't get me wrong, I regularly stay at Fairfields, and generally find them perfectly comfortable, but sight unseen, and at a similar price, would always take the Courtyard. As VA1379 pointed out, there's a Courtyard nearby offering the exact same published rate for a single night stay. If nothing else, you would have a different manager to take a stab at negotiating a long term rate. Moreover, there's a Residence Inn on what appears to the same block as the Courtyard. While the daily rate is higher, the brand almost guarantees they'll negotiate with you, and a quick check of a 30 day stay revealed a significant discount off of the nightly rack rate. I don't know you, and don't care what you do, but considering one of those options seems like a sounder plan than finding "a cheaper Fairfield 50 miles away and finish(ing) out the Megbonus promo".

It sounds like you've found the Motel6\Fairfield option a good one for long term stays, so more power to you, but I would strongly recommend considering the Residence Inn solution if the price is similar. I'm currently in an RI on a three month project, and I'm very pleased to have the extra room to spread out, the kitchen, etc. That's a personal taste issue, though, so whatever floats your boat.

Now that I'm done beating up on you :-), I will relate a similar experience. A sales manager at another Residence Inn near my current project (near NYC)flatly refused to negotiate a 60+ day rate. Again, it was a RESIDENCE INN. There were no issues similar to the recent thread on discouraging long term stays. It was just an issue where she said her hotel had a high occupancy and she didn't need to come down on the rate. She was pretty self-congratulatory about it as well. I pass by fairly regularly, and she's right, her hotel is largely full - 4 nights every week. Presumably with much higher turnover and the associated housekeeping and administrative expenses. I understand hotels don't always come down off of the rate in order to preserve pricing, but it amazes me how some can be so dense about business decisions. I certainly wasn't the guy in the back office, and I suppose there could have been other issues that I wasn't aware of, but given the conversation I had with the sales manager, I doubt it. Another property worked for the business, offered a fair (though certainly not rock bottom) rate and got a 90-120 day quiet, no-turnover block of business for their trouble.

Let's particularize the problem.

1. My hotel expenses are not reimbursable nor even deductable. I work with a per diem structure, which is the same whether I sleep in my car or take a suite at the local JW. Naturally, the incentive is to minimize my lodging expenses.

2. I spent 18 months in Michigan at a Fairlield Inn at $30/night. Following that, I was in Minneapolis and Massachusetts at $42 and $44 respectively. I could have probably knocked a few bucks off by staying at Motel 6 or Super 8, but I was willing to pay the premium for the Marriott benefits and the points.

3. The cheapest rate here for the FI is about $85/night, and the CY and RI are around $125 and up. The difference between that and, say, Motel 6 is $50 to $100/night.

4. I leave the hotel at 6:30-ish in the morning and get back at around 7:00 at night. I don't entertain clients or hookers. I don't sit and drink and brood. I don't take work home with me (it's tough enough to get me to work during the day ). I watch a little TV, talk to my wife, read a little, and go to sleep. Someplace that's safe and meets these minimum resuirements is not hard to come by.

5. For the price difference ($50-$100/night), I can buy very nice breakfasts and still have a bundle left over. At the end of the year, I'm looking at anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 (after tax dollars, too) that stays in my pocket. With that kind of money, I can certainly pay for some very nice vacations independent of whatever points I may have.

The Fairfield Binghamton is a Category 1 property for rewards. Since you get a per diem, why don't you use some points and stay for zero cost and pocket the entire per diem? As you said, money in your pocket can go further than points.

After you have been there a couple of weeks and become a familiar face, THEN negotiate for a better rate. They should realize that 1) you really will be a steady guest and 2) A discounted rate would be more than they are getting for the reward vouchers.

First of all, you're misunderstanding how the per diem works. Each area of the country has a government-calculated lodging and meals & incidentals (M&I) rate. For Binghamton, it happens to be $110/day.

As I work, effectively $110 of my income for that day is considered to be tax-free income to me, and I am expected to be using this to pay for my lodging, meals, and incidentals. The alternative is to keep a receipt for everything.

So, whether I sleep in my car and subsist on Ritz crackers or stay at the Ritz and dine on caviar doesn't matter; the perdiem doesn't change. Only by decreasing my expenses can my net income increase, just like everybody else.

It's not money that I get -- it's just the portion of my income that is considered to be tax-free because of away-from-home expenses.

As far as spending my points on free nights, the whole purpose of staying at a Marriott property is to get Marriott points, so I can spend them in places that, it turns out, will not be Fairfield Inns.

If a stack of folios covering 300+ nights at FIs over the last 2 years or so doesn't convince him that I'm a regular customer, just staying there for free won't help much, either.

Besides, I'd run out of points in a month or two, and then what do I do for the next six months or a year if he doesn't go for it?

Well, I can't say that if I am the manager of the hotel I would be horrified to lose you. If I am busy why should I give up $40 a night in revenue for you???? Even if I can only sell that room just a TINY bit over half the time I am making more money then you would be paying.

Have you considered staying a bit more upscale Marriott locations and then using Bonus Bucks or Premium Pounds as a method of payment? They reduce my nightly rate considerably and I absolutely hate paying more than $100 per night for my lodging expenses that do come from my own pocket.

Alternatively you could try if you could get some good deals on Priceline for that particular city.

I have received the points on Marriott program for most of my Priceline Marriott stays that I did last year when I made sure that my MR number was on the folio when I checked out.

Well, of course. He is perfectly within his rights to insist on any payment structure he deems appropriate.

If you'll notice, my only complaint about the manager was that he conveyed an attitude that he didn't like people who stayed on any sort of discounted rate. He may be new to the hospitality industry, because discounts are a way of life in the travel industry in general.

My tale of woe is the fact that he is the only game in town, so I've nowhere else to go to negotiate what is an acceptable rate (to me). I have had no problem arriving at a mutually acceptable agreement with other managers in other hotels in other locations.

On the other hand, he may be in for some problems down the road. One may very well believe one has a superior product and well worth the premium, but in today's world, price is king. He's not selling Mercedes's ... he's got a Chevy and he's surrounded by Fords, Toyotas, and Dodge Neons, and they can all beat his price.

For me, the whole purpose for staying at a Marriott property is to get status, which can make business travel go just a little bit smoother. The points are nice, too.

I wasn't suggesting using points for months on end. I was suggesting using them to stay cheap and get a foot in the door and then negotiate when you are a familiar face. A stack of folios only proves that you stay at other properties.

However, I just did a quick perusal on Expedia of hotels in Binghamton for random mid-week days in April and May. The Fairfield, as well as the Courtyard, frequently came up as sold out. Perhaps the manager was actually offering you the rack rate as a Platinum benefit.

In your case, the Red Roof or La Quinta will probably be your best choice.

One of the problems with Bonus Bucks is that they are applicable only with "publicly available rates", and there's been a lot of discussion here as to just what "publicly available" means.

If I apply a $50 BB to a $129 rate for two nights, I wind up paying about $210. If I just book the senior/government/AAA rate of $81, I wind up paying $162.

And BB's aren't free, so that they may be considered as "about $25 plus postage plus a bit of hassle" Bonus Bucks.

Not a real long term solution, I'm afraid.

And you're right -- they seem to be sold out a lot.

<shrug> Choice has a lot of preperties in the area. The Red Roof is nice and convenient.

I'll survive.

What if you ask other chains, such as Hilton or Sheraton, to do a status match, and simply move to a different chain, and negotiate the rate from there?

They may not match diamond/platinum to diamond/platinum, but you should at least get gold. That will provide you with a good level of elite benefits.

I've done it, and it's very easy and painless. I have to move to a Marriott property since the Hilton hotel I usually stay at is no longer on our coproate preferred list. I was not happy about the move, but on the bright side, it's good to have a second choice.

I'm with you, man. I'm Platinum Premier and love the perks but my circumstances are different. I send the hotel bill to my company and they punt it over to the client. If I had the choice of paying more and getting the points or pocketing $50/day after tax I'd probably take the cash. Look at it this way...if you've got points here are your options:

1) Take a vacation
2) Use them for room upgrades
3) Use them to purchase overpriced merchandise on their web site

Cash is king. You can use it for anything you want.

Well, perhaps the generally-strong hotel market is working against you. Those are low rates you were able to get from Fairfield in the past. That's great. But now, maybe that FI isn't having a whole lot of trouble getting $70-80/nt.

I feel for you: $110 is a tight per-diem. That's lower than I've ever heard for anyone on a full per-diem (as opposed to just a meals per-diem, with cars & hotels on receipts). That truly does squeeze you down into a Fairfield Inn, and even then it assumes you're eating cheap and not logging many personal auto miles. (Definitely not renting a car!)

Are there any Baymonts in the area? I stayed in one of those once and it was tolerable as roadside motels go. The Sleep Inns that I've seen tend to have a nice, clean look to them, but I've never been inside one.

Whenever I do a motel stay, it's almost always at Hampton Inn. When I start to get tired, I just start looking for the next Hampton sign along the highway, and usually it pops up within a half-hour or so. The catch is that Hampton is rarely priced below Fairfield, so across 100's of nights where the exact room rate is important, it probably won't be a good option for you unless it's a really skeezy Hampton Inn.

Yeah, $110 is a little tight, but then again, Binghamton, NY is not LA.

As far as the tight market goes, my last negotiation took place in November 2005, so it's not that long ago.

No; I checked for Baymonts, and there are none in the area. Plenty of Comfort Inns, Sleep Inns, Quality Inns, etc. All with 'net prices right in my range, too.

What I wound up doing for the time being (I'll show 'em!!) is split my stays up. 2 nights in a dump at $30/night, and 2 nights at the FI in Corning at $60 (gov't rate). My average is then $45/night, and I can keep that up at least until the Megabonus is done (I have use for the points ). Corning is a bit of a haul, but if I want I can get my 75 nights in to retain Platinum and then do the rest of the year in, say, less pretigious accomodations.

There's always a way.