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OK, that’s a bit of click-baity topic. But basically I’ve been told by Marriott that I should not attribute overlapping stays to my Marriott account in future. Here’s what happened…
I was booked in for 11 nights in the Courtyard Marriott at NASA/Clearlake in Texas for some work travel. Since I was over in the US my customer also asked me if I could spend a couple of days in Baton Rouge for meetings. So I booked 2 more nights at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown Baton Rouge. Note, I didn’t change my original booking. Mainly for simplicity. I could just drive over whenever I liked on Sunday and check-in, spend 2 nights in BR, then drive back after the meetings arriving late knowing that I still had the same room, the room key in my pocket etc. It also meant I could leave a bunch of stuff I didn’t need in my room in TX, some bits in the fridge etc.
When I returned home to Blighty, I saw the 2 nights for BR showing in my “stays” area in the Marriott app but the NASA/Clearlake stays never showed up. I gave it a while to post but nothing… so I emailed customer services.
They told me that I couldn’t claim double points for overlapping stays.
I said I didn’t want double points, that is an understandable and clear rule, I just wanted points for 11 nights. (Also I found it strange that the TX stay wasn’t even showing at all.) A maddening cycle of emails followed…
Me> “I’ve paid for 13 nights stay, I’m only asking for credit for 11, if I’d booked 2 nights with a competitor in BR there’d be no discussion about this you’d be crediting me the 11 nights I paid for in TX, you’re effectively penalising me for staying loyal to the Marriott brand”
Them> “You cannot claim credit for overlapping stays”
Me> “Which one is overlapping which?”
etc.After much repeated to-and-fro’ing I said, “Just cancel off the BR stay and credit the TX one”.. which finally they’ve done. As a one time favour.
“Please note, the accommodation of your recent request was made as a one-time exception. Going forward, we advise you to attach your membership number to the more advantageous reservation. This practice will help avoid any overlapping stays and ensure that all your stays are eligible for the benefits and credits associated with your membership.”
So no status benefits on overlapping stays then. It makes more sense to book overlapping stays with a competitor and get credit on their loyalty scheme. Seems like madness.
As that short stay posted before your long one it stopped the system automatically posting the 11 night stay due to overlapping dates. But it’s not a one time exception and the Twitter team or Flyertalk Lurkers are much better at sorting this if you do run into a stubborn/clueless/computer says no robot CS agent, don’t forget most of them work off scripts.
If you asked them to delete the two nights and credit the 11 in your first first email then that’s what they should have done but the advice is probably good one even if it would get the CS agent in trouble with Marriott.
Even stays for multiple rooms at the same hotel must have the exact same check in and check out dates so keep that in mind if it’s ever important.
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