Two hotels for the same night?
 

I've never done this, but I wonder if anyone else has. Here's the hypothesis: You badly need 1 more night in the X Hotel chain which supposedly often comes up in the Y PriceLine zone cheaply to get to a status tier. So you bid a low price, and get the Z chain!

Has anyone ever, in that situation, booked a nearby hotel in the X chain as well and then checked into and out of both of them?

Wouldn't work if X is one of those chains that doesn't give any stay credit for PriceLine stays (read "Starwood"), but should otherwise.

I've rented two hotels for the same night. One in Cozumel and one at Cancun at the same time. I wanted to fly over to Cancun for 24 hours, but was too lazy to pack all my stuff for just a one day visit.

Back in my consulting days, I flew from EWR to DFW on a 7 AM Monday flight for the week (company HQ was nearby). Checked into the hotel, dropped off most of my stuff, went to work. That night my boss and I left for Birmingham, AL on an 8 PM flight for a client meeting the next day. Of course I had one of the worst colds in my life that day and shouldn't have been on an airplane at all. But I was checked into hotels in Texas and Alabama on the same night.

I am wondering if anyone has been checked into two different hotels that are part of the same chain on the same night and received miles/credit for both stays.

Now and again I have done this. It is not that unusual for me. I live in Denver, but have an office in Chicago, and clients in several other cities. Usually, if I have to go to another city, I check out of the Chicago hotel, fly elesewhere (Hartford, LA, wherever) and check in there.

Sometimes, however, the need to visit another city occurs with very little notice. Sometimes, then, I do not check out of my hotel, but leave most of my stuff and fly wherever and check in to a second hotel. SOmetimes, this has been the same hotel chain (recent example: Sheraton Chicago NW and Westin Century Plaza; have done so with Hiltons, too). In each case, I absolutely got point credit for each stay, even if they overlapped.

Its not something I like to make a habit of doing, as it is a bit wasteful, but sometimes it couldn't be helped.

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AA EXP 1MM, DL Silver, HH Diamond, Marriott GLD, Starwood PLT, Hyatt PLT

I thought of this but didn't have the nerve to ask, since I can't possibly imagine it would work. Would be amazed if anyone has a story where it did!

The basic question I am curious about is not whether, as part of a long stay, you might have occasionally kept one hotel while staying in another for a nght. The question is whether you ever did it for status reasons (i.e., got an unexpected hotel on PL and really needed one more night on the other chain).

I have but it was a couple of years ago.

I did on several occasions.

It was also a couple years ago for me - I was checked into a Residence Inn for a month but flew out on one-night trips to visit clients in other cities. We would stay in a Marriott and get night/point credit.

It really wasn't wasteful for us because that particular Residence Inn was giving us sweet rates for the one-month stay. If we had checked out more frequently, we wouldn't have gotten that same rate.

Why would you use Priceline if you want hotel status?

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"It's as easy as 1, 2, C" -- Kelly, Married With Children

Works with Hyatt!!

Hmmm, that's interesting. Why do they do that?

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"It's as easy as 1, 2, C" -- Kelly, Married With Children

If you are down to a few nights with a month left to go, why would you risk getting the "wrong" hotel on Priceline? They've gone Grinch right before Christmas anyway. The two chains I am fortunate enough to have status with are running holiday specials right now at many (mostly airport) locations that are much lower than normal weekend rates, were not restricted to weekends at least over Thanksgiving, and are just a bit more than what I had been paying with Priceline. Tomorrow at the airport for $49 before a very early flight that still had seats, and Sunday night for $59. Booked some similar rates before Chanukah and Christmas this afternoon.

[This message has been edited by jayer (edited Nov 29, 2003).]

On one trip to Vegas last year, I had 4 hotel rooms the first night and 3 the second night at different hotels. They were all free (comped) rooms but I had to be a registered guest to take advantange of some great casino promotions... no hotel points involved, but it was very confusing trying to keep room numbers straight.

Hyatt CSR once told me it wouldn't work... but maybe she was wrong.

geoffco, I think that's a record. I have had two hotel rooms for the same night once in my life (long stay rate at one, one nighter at the other, a reason also given by others) -- but 4 rooms for the same night, wow!!!

I own a company. I have frequently rented 2 or 3 rooms in the hotel for the same time frame. I have my name on the room, and I pay for the room. The front desk is notified as to whom the guest will in fact be.

I have always gotten days and stays for these rentals. Whether legal or not, the computers do not seem to notice the difference.

Slawecki, that's not quite what I meant. Most hotel loyalty programs will let you get credit for a number (like up to 6 or so) of simultaneous rooms to encourage hosting small meetings. This is generally specifically included in their rules.

I was curious about the apparently unnecessary situation where one was, in reality, trying to get elite stay credit in two or more programs simultaneously.

During the last three years I have been doing two week stints at a Hilton Garden Inn. Several times, on the weekend I was checked into the hotel, I would take a side trip elsewhere and check into another Hilton (the Waldorf=Astoria once) or other hotel chain while retaining my Garden Inn room. I never had any problems getting credit for both rooms, even when they were both Hiltons. I also never had any problems having two Avis cars rented at the sametime in different cities during some of these trips.