I only recently realized that Marriott also has a Points Advance feature. It lets you reserve an award room even if you do not have enough points yet, as long as you have sufficient points by the time of your stay.
The old terms were very generous: you could lock in a room up to one year out, then have 1 year to earn the points needed for the booking, or transfer them in from another program. Now the rules are stricter. You need to earn enough points within 60 days after making the reservation to keep that room locked in; otherwise, it will be released automatically. For point transfers, this is usually not a big issue, since 60 days is enough. But if you are just trying to hold a room speculatively, you may need to keep canceling and rebooking.
That said, this feature is still very useful. It can help you avoid the awkward situation where you transfer points in and then find that the room is no longer available. It can also let you lock in a lower-category hotel before a future category increase raises the number of points required.
