Credit for Master Billing? Not so...
 

Hi,

I've just been informed by - curiously enough - a Marriott Reservations Supervisor with a Ritz Carlton email address that I cannot receive 'stay' or 'nights' credits for rooms occupied by others that are charged to my credit card.

I'm attempting to setup a Master charge account so that I pay for all room charges (there are 5 rooms for 4 nights each) on my own credit card with the aim of capturing more Marriott Points for dollars spent as well as the 'stays' on my reward number.

I had done this last year for a stay at a Marriott London hotel but am being told 'not possible' for an upcoming stay at the Scottsdale Arizona @ McDowell Mtn.

Am i misinformed?

Thanks in advance!
LAR

You should be able to get points for the room you are staying in and 2 of the other rooms. And you should receive night credit for only one room. Of course accidents happen and once in a while we will see posts from someone who received night credits on more than one room, but in general that won't happen.

If you are not staying in any of the rooms, then I do believe that technically you shouldn't be receiving night credit as those are supposed to be for the people staying there.

clarify please
 

I understand the rule on Night Credits but am unclear on your comments about the points...

One earns points by spending dollars during the stay. I dont know another way to earn points. so are you saying that I only get points from the dollars spent on my room plus two other rooms? I had hoped to have all 5 rooms charged to my Marriott credit card in order to score tons of points!

clearly I'm no expert on the hotel affinity programs :-)

Thanks
LAR

Yes, that is exactly what hhoope01 is saying.

See this link: http://marriott.com/rewards/terms/earning.mi

Clear as day under #1 in the Point Earning section.

Just to give you an example. In January, I am taking a large group of teenagers to a youth event. We will be staying in 15 rooms at a Courtyard. I will be paying for all of them, but I will put my MR number in for 3 of the rooms, my wife's number for 3 other rooms, somebody else's number....
You get the idea.

If my number were associated with all 15 rooms, I would still only get night credit for 1 room and points for 3 of the rooms. This way, I make sure we don't lose out on any points.

Well One Slight Exception
 

In the case of the 15 room nights, the one alternative would be to present yourself as a "Meeting Plannner" when setting up the reservation with the hotel (assume you spoke with the sales manager). You then get (double check this...) 3 additional points per dollar spent in room revenue. (Whoever has there numbers on the rooms STILL gets the normal points.

Don't think a 5 person group qualifys as a meeting, but I have done that on the 15.

YMMV

I wasn't aware that others STILL get the regular points for the room stays. That's great.

Meeting is considered 10 rooms or more, but you do have to sign a contract guaranteeing a minimum number of rooms (at least 10), and if you cancel you lose a lot. More than a 30 days out you lose 70%, 4-30 days out 80% and under 4 days 100%. I don't know if that is standard, but that is what my terms are for a thing next Spring. BTW, my thing is not rooms but an event.

I'll definitely ask about the points. And I have been talking with a "Senior Sales Manager" and they have a contract for me to fax in to them. But I have been having a tuff time trying to get the guy to call me back and the contract he sent me didn't completely match what we talked about on the phone. So I went ahead and made my own reservations directly for 15 rooms. But those can be cancelled with no penalty up to 6:00pm day of arrival.

But thanks for the heads up on the extra points for the meeting planner. I didn't know about that either.

ALSO, make sure the contract specifically states that you receive 3 points per dollar spent. Mine did not, and I called the Plat desk before signing and they said that the contract needed to have point earning specified in the contract. The following was added to the contract that I then signed (with appropriate edits):

"Aaupgrade will be credited 3 points for every catering dollar spent at this function with a maximum of 50,000 points. The Marriott Rewards number to be credited for this event is 999-999-999."

I will definitely make sure that everything stated over the phone is listed on the contract before I sign and fax it back to them. And I will find out what points can/will be earned and by whom.

Thanks for the heads up.

You're welcome and good luck in getting everything ironed out.

https://marriott.com/meeting/rewards/default.mi

Thought I would document the link. In my application, I host events where I block several hundred rooms. I sign the contract, which gives me the 3 points per dollar of room or catering revenue. (Double on value dates). Now, when all my team reserve there rooms, they put there numbers on it. When checking in they present there own credit cards per room.

Now, when I have family events or church events, I do the same thing.

However, if they combine all of the rooms onto a master bill, the regular points fall off and you only get the meeting planner points. So be clear that you want individual bills for each rooms.

YMMV

How does it work with cancellation, or not meeting your minimum number of rooms, in the case when rooms are individually billed?

Typically its not an issue, as our contact always indicate that a credit card will reserve the rooms by a acertain point, otherwise they release the block. Cancellations are not an option.

I just got off the phone with the meeting sales rep. It seems I can either earn the normal points on up to 3 rooms for the stay or earn 3 points spent by everyone in the party (and Marriott will help me figure out which one will allow me to get the most points.)

So it looks like Marriott doesn't let you "double dip" for both the "planner" points and the stay points. :( But he did say that if I stayed there, I could get "night" credits no matter which way I decided to earn points. So at least I'll get a couple of nights for the stay plus probably the "planner" points. :)