Mr. Kipper will be staying at a Fairfield Inn for roughly the next month, and currently has no status with Marriott. If he checks out after his 10th night and checks back in immediately, will it trigger the nights posting so he hits Silver? He's not concerned with most of the benefits, or it counting as two stays, but just the nights, since that would give him 20% additional points for the additional 20+ nights. Thanks!

That can be done. Marriott bases status solely on nights stayed. I would recommend that your husband pick up a Marriott Premier Visa. That will give him 15 nights elite credit each year, a category 1-4 standard free night (category 1-5 upon each anniversary), 25,000 bonus points, and a 2-for-1 golf certificate. This card would probably put him close enough for gold after checkout, which will get him lounge access/free continental breakfast (at FS properties lacking a lounge, excluding resort properties), free local calls and 15 pages/day of outgoing domestic faxes (at mid-service properties), and the EEO available to gold/platinum members (buy one get one free on weekend nights at select properties (mostly US but a few nice overseas ones) and buy one get one free dinner (almost all US properties with some notable exclusions).

The EEOs are given out 3 times a year. You can use one copy that is mailed and print another copy online to use for each available offer.

EEO's? What exactly are those?

For stays over a week, Marriott can bill your credit card on file every week. Technically each billing period counts as a stay (check out immediate check in), and any points acquired for that past week would post in a few days, as well as earned status.

The EEO's are exclusive elite offers available to gold and platinum members. They are the buy one get one free offers for weekend nights and dinner at FS properties.

too bad I never find any offers I can use on my vacations.

It really depends where you travel. If you are going overseas, EEOs have limited use. I have used the coupons for free rooms about 5 times in the past 3 years. I will probably use another 2-3 in the next month before the current set expires on June 8.

This is good news. Does this also mean that since I referred him, we'll both get extra points for each stay?

How sad is this? I've been a member for ages, and have no real clue about the program--I joined ages ago, but don't stay there but on a very rare occasion.

For Marriott, one stay is counted as when you check in and checkout. This means that a 30 day stay at one property is counted as one stay. Yes, it does mean that you will get 1,000 points for the stay along with your husband.

I second the vote on the Marriott Visa card. He'll immediately be Silver and get the bonus, and you can put all the stays on the Visa card and rack up some mad points....

http://joinmarriottrewards.com/BA/BAG1/

You will get instant Gold Status for one year when signing up for Marriott Rewards through the link above.

However if they process the bill every week, it would end up counting as 4 stays.

Not necessarily because it is done to bill the guest on a weekly basis. Many RIs do this, but for reward purposes it counts as one stay because the guest never checked out.

Can Mr.Kipper switch hotels every week?

If so you can maximize the number of stays and get any stay based points.

Have you looked into the Marriott gift cards with 10% discount and delta skymiles?

Sweet! Thanks!

Mr. Kipper can't switch hotels every week--he's with DoD, and they have actual travel orders that contain where they're staying, etc.