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[Updated 6/2]

DP: Thanks to reader tao wang and WJ for their successful DPs. Both checked out on 5/28, and the SNP posted on 5/30. Also thanks to reader Michael for another successful DP.

If your stay has not been charged yet, don’t panic, and I also do not recommend calling the hotel. Wait two or three days after CO and it should post on its own. In rare cases, if there is no charge and no Stay, there is no harm in booking it again. If you were charged but did not get the Stay, then contact Marriott customer service via Facebook or Twitter and ask the hotel for an eFolio. Based on my own experience and readers’ DPs, this property’s eFolio does not show No Show, so at that point you can contact Marriott and confidently request missing stay credit. Be patient.

TD wishes everyone success with the platinum challenge!

5/20:

Hi everyone, this is TD. Today I’m bringing you an unconventional review of Fairfield Inn & Suites Villahermosa Tabasco. This hotel is located in the city of Villahermosa in southeastern Mexico:

According to the official website, the hotel is a 15-minute drive from Villahermosa Airport. There is also a mall nearby, so dining and entertainment are easy. Here is what the hotel looks like:

These are all photos from the hotel’s official website. I don’t have any photos of my own, not because I was too lazy to take them, but because........

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I never actually went there.

But as long as my Marriott account shows that I did, that’s enough:

Here’s the situation: from June of this year through next year, TD has quite a few upcoming Starwood stays that are actually needed, so I wanted to complete a Marriott platinum challenge before then. But during the challenge period, I did not have enough real stays and was still short a few stays. What should I do?

  • Do a mattress run? Even the cheapest Marriott in the U.S. is at least $60, and that does not even include gas or the time involved. The cost is too high.
  • Buy stays through 3798? If I have to fly back to prove it, identity theft involving Chinese ID cards is already a serious issue, and using all kinds of different corporate or contract rates would make it even uglier if everything got uncovered later.
  • OXD student rate? I do not have plans to return to China anytime soon, so that would not help. And paying 400 RMB for one stay is not a great deal either.

After thinking it over, I decided it would be better to find a reliable hotel and do a few ghost stays to complete the platinum challenge.

If you want to ghost stay, go to 3798. After browsing the Marriott section of the 3798 forum, I found that the popular ghost-stay option at the Renaissance Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt often ran into problems. The folio (eFolio) was hard to obtain, and it could even be marked No Show. I also really wanted to avoid using a Photoshopped folio to request missing stay credit, since my linked SPG account had nearly 200K points and I did not want an audit to wipe everything out. Then I came across this post by zhaojian1984, which listed several Mexican hotels where ghost stays posted automatically. That seemed much more reliable to me. After mobile Checkin and Checkout, the stay would post automatically, and there would be no need to ask customer service for a folio to request missing stay credit. This Fairfield Inn was also the cheapest one on the list at $34-$35 per night before tax, so TD booked a few nights here to complete the platinum challenge. As it turned out, within two days after app CO, the SNP posted automatically, the folio looked completely normal, and if you ever did need to request missing stay credit later, you could hardly be in a better position to do so. Truly a must-have for home and travel.

In any case, the hotel earned revenue at essentially zero cost, I got my SNP without leaving home, and Marriott gained customer loyalty. A three-way win.

Actually, the Marriott platinum challenge is best combined with a promotion, but TD wanted to finish it before June, so this round of ghost stays went in without any promo attached. However, if you also need a few stays to complete the Marriott platinum challenge, combining it with Marriott’s Q2 promotion (starting with the second stay, each stay earns 2,000 bonus points) is still a very good option. In fact, you could even say that Marriott’s Q2 promotion was practically tailor-made for low-cost ghost stays. If you received a targeted stay four, get two free offer, the return is even better.

If you want to start from zero and complete the platinum challenge with the Q2 promotion, try the following guide.

Detailed steps to complete the Marriott platinum challenge from scratch at low cost

Step 1. Register for Marriott and SPG memberships

Step 2. Several ways to get Marriott Gold status

To qualify for the Marriott platinum challenge, you first need to be Marriott Gold. Besides earning it by staying 50 nights per year at Marriott hotels, here are some shortcuts:

  • Apply for the AMEX Platinum charge card: this is how I got my Marriott Gold, and it is by far the easiest and most convenient method. After approval, link your SPG membership number and you can be upgraded to SPG Gold, which will also upgrade your linked Marriott account to Gold. This card also comes with Hilton Gold status and FHR, both of which TD uses often.
  • Apply for the Chase Ritz-Carlton credit card: often nicknamed the Ritz card. In the first year, it comes with Ritz Gold status, which is also Marriott Gold. Starting in the second year, you can keep Ritz Gold with $10,000 in annual spending.
  • Apply for the AMEX SPG credit card: this legendary card is probably in everyone’s wallet already. Spend $30,000 in a year to get SPG Gold, which can then be linked to Marriott Gold.
  • Asia-Pacific instant Gold after one night: If your registered address is in the Asia-Pacific region (including China) and you have a Master World card or Master World Elite card, you can register for the instant Gold after one night offer through this link. Stay one night at an SPG property in Asia Pacific and you can get SPG Gold, which can then be linked to Marriott Gold.

Step 3. Register for the Marriott Platinum Challenge and the Q2 promotion

Marriott Gold benefits are already quite solid: lounge access, plus afternoon tea, breakfast, and dinner. But SPG Platinum members also get the following perks:

  • Guaranteed room upgrades. Outside the U.S., suite upgrades are very likely; within the U.S., suite upgrades depend on luck.
  • Match to China Eastern Silver (SkyTeam elite, with an extra checked bag on SkyTeam flights and access to China Eastern lounges), and Marriott Platinum can be matched to UA Silver (Star Alliance Silver, with an extra checked bag on Star Alliance flights, Economy Plus selection on UA flights, and Silver status can also help protect you from being involuntarily bumped).
  • SPG Gold members must transfer at least 1500 SPG points when converting SPG points to miles, while Platinum members can transfer as little as 1 SPG point. This is very useful when balances like AS, AA, BA, or UA are about to expire: transferring just 1–2 SPG points can reset the clock. Also, if you are a few hundred miles short for an award ticket and do not want to use your UR/MR/TYP points inefficiently since many programs require transfers in 1000-point increments, SPG points are very convenient for topping off.
  • After linking your Delta account, you may be eligible for complimentary upgrades on Delta flights (though your priority will definitely be below Delta’s own higher-tier elites), plus perks like group 1 boarding and a free first checked bag.

So TD still decided to complete the Marriott Platinum Challenge (note that status obtained through the SPG Platinum challenge cannot be buy back, which is also an important reason TD chose the Marriott Platinum Challenge):

  • Register for the Marriott Platinum Challenge: call Marriott North America customer service at 8004504442 or 8014684000, or email [email protected] to apply. You will get 3–4 months, and during that period you need 9 paid stays (award stays and C+P stays do not count) to earn Marriott Platinum status, valid through February 2019.
  • Register for the Marriott Q2 promotion: During the promo period (stays from 5/27-9/4/2017), starting with your second stay, each stay earns 2000 bonus points. Similar to SPG’s MegaBonus-style promotion, each time you stay at a new Marriott brand (starting with the second stay), you also get an extra 2000 points. For example, if your first hotel stay is at a Courtyard and your second stay is at a JW Marriott, you would receive 2000 points for the second stay plus another 2000 points for staying at a new brand.。

Step 4. Book hotels

It has to be said that, considering both price and convenience, Fairfield Inn & Suites Villahermosa Tabasco is uniquely well suited for mattress runs. Here are the prices after May 27:

Another option is Courtyard Ciudad del Carmen, which is also very reasonably priced (though I have not personally tried mattress running this one, so take your own risk):

  • When booking, select "Flexible Dates" to see prices for the surrounding three weeks.
  • When booking, do not reserve two consecutive nights at the same hotel. Even if you book them separately, they will still be counted as one stay, which hurts the value significantly. For example, if you book a stay at Fairfield Inn for the night of May 28, do not also book the same hotel for the night of May 29. Instead, book every other day, such as May 30.
  • Also, do not try to credit two different hotels on the same night; that is also easy to get flagged.
  • Do not forget to use TopCashback. Members can get 4% cash back when booking Marriott hotels.
  • Be sure to pay with a credit card that has no Foreign Transaction Fee.

Step 5. “Check in” to the hotel

The “check-in” process is simple: just use the Marriott app to Checkin and Checkout:

I usually set the Checkin time for around 7 or 8 p.m. The next day, remember to Checkout before 12 noon, just like a real stay.

Afterward, do not forget to leave a good review for such a generous hotel.

Step 6. Wait at home for the SNP to post

Here is an extreme example: if you used the new member stay two, get one free offer and mattress ran all 9 nights at Fairfield Inn & Suites Villahermosa Tabasco, assuming an average pre-tax rate of $38 per night, that becomes $44 after tax. The total cost would be $44*9=$396, and you would earn 38*9*12.5+2,000*8=20,275 Marriott points + 1 Cat 1-5 free night certificate (worth at least $100), plus TopCashback cash back of $38*9*0.04=$14. The 20,275 Marriott points would be worth about $162 at 0.8cpp. So your net cost would be $396-$100-$162-$14=$120 for Marriott and SPG Platinum status valid for a year and a half. That does not even include credit card rewards or the additional 10,000 points from stacking a referral signup.

And again, this is the extreme case of forcing 9 stays with no real lodging need. If you do have genuine hotel stays coming up, then by combining them with the extra 2000-point bonus for each stay at a different brand, you can reduce the cost even further. Everyone can design a Platinum challenge strategy based on their own situation.

Once your Marriott Platinum posts, do not forget to link your UA account to get UA Silver, and also link your China Eastern account to get China Eastern Silver. There are plenty of tutorials online for those, so I will not repeat them here.