Does Marriott have soft landing program
 

Some programs offer a soft landing approch to there elite members. That is to say if I am Platinum, which I am, and then stay only 35 mights this year will I be a gold next year or will they drop me all the way to silver?
I will only make 50-60 nights this year and since I will not be Platinum any way if Marriott has the soft landing approch I thought I might stay at a few Hiltons to compare.

i dont know if there is an official program or not,

A few years ago a coworker was misplaced due to her home being damaged in a storm. Her insurance company put her up at the local residence inn for 2 months. That stay earned her gold status.

Despite not staying over 50 marriott nights over the next 3 years, she was given Gold status each of those years until this year.

your mileage may (and probably will) vary

Rewards_Guy answered this question here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...8&postcount=14

If you wanted to stay Platinum, you could always see where you are in December, and if you have 60 nights, then you could go ahead and get the Marriott Visa card which gives you an additional 15 nights.

Just a thought.

Marriott has been known to make exceptions to their official policy of dropping people one level per year. I knew one guy who received platinum for a year after he failed to requalify. As always YMMV.

Did 100 nights in 05'(first time over 74 nights) but only 60 in 06'. Received a shiny new PLT card in Jan of this year good thru 2/08. Didn't ask for it, I'd call that a soft landing.

I was told by Marriott that if I was ever short my stays, I could use 50,000 points to buy back Platinum. That might be an option for you.

In addition to the soft landings mentioned above, I have also found they bump you back up to your old status quickly as well.

I was plat in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In 2003 I only stayed probably 20 nights, and they kept me at Platnium for 2004. In 2004 I only stayed probably 10 nights, and in 2005 they dropped me to Gold.

In 2005, after I stayed 25 nights they bumped me back up to Platnium (in June). So even though I'd only stayed around 45 nights in two and a half years, they bumped me up to my old level.

i just hit my gold status (on the revolving year) a month or so ago. i am currently at 48 stays for the calendar year. I got my new gold card a week ago and Marriott was nice enough to give me gold until Feb 2009 even tho i hadn't hit the mark (yet)...i think they appear to like their clients esp with the soft landing thing...woo hoo...

Thanks for the info. I was platinum in 05 and 06 and left Marriott after all properties went non-smoking. I've requalified for plat at starwood this year and was thinking of going back to marriott as a back-up plan (share the love, so to speak). I've quit smoking and I'm not too fond of hilton properties.

Id say you never hit the ground ^

Ha!

I didn't quite smoking or Marriott. In fact, when I stay at my friendly local Fairfield Inn, they usually put me close to an exit so I can dash out for a quick one. No, I don't "cheat" in the room.

It's actually helped me keep the smoking to a tolerable (to me) level.

Back OT: I was plat with 125+ nights on '04 and '05 - in '06 I dropped down to just about 50, even with the Visa card. They gave me plat anyhow. Right now I'll be at 50 by the end of August (with the card) and I have the rest of the year for the next 25, so I should be OK.

That new property in Paris is a powerful draw! :)

In my experience the difference between Gold and Platinum is not enough to shell out 50000 points unless I would know I had 100+ stays in FS properties to recoup my points 500 at a time for my Platinum amenity gift.

Keep your points and enjoy being gold.

Marriott has been very nice to me in that regard. I was platinum from 1994 through 2001 each year. Then my business travel nearly stopped, but I have been kept at Gold level on 10 to 15 nights a year since then. I appreciate that consideration and accordingly use Marriott whenever I can on my much more limited travel.

Soft landed to Gold when I logged in tonight. To be fair I was pretty close on stays this year. Thanks Marriott! ^