Earning points and elite night credit for multiple hotel rooms

What’s great about hotel loyalty programs is that unlike airlines, they allow you to earn points for other people’s bookings. Whether your friends or family members are tagging along with you or heading off on their own trips, you can often earn points by booking their hotel stays under your own rewards account. They get access to your elite benefits while you get to maintain those benefits.

Many hotel loyalty programs allow members to earn points and elite night credit for multiple rooms during a single stay. But how many rooms can you earn points and elite night credit for? It varies by program:

Club Carlson

Club Carlson members can earn points for up to three rooms per reservation. Members must be registered guests for the duration of the stay in order to earn points. Elite night credit is awarded one just one room per stay.

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors members can earn base points for up to two rooms per stay. All room charges must be on a single folio and paid together. The Hilton Honors terms seem to contradict themselves when it comes to how elite tier bonuses are awarded on multiple room bookings:

“Bonuses issued on Base Point credit or total folio charges, including elite tier bonuses and quarterly promotions, will apply to the total Base Point credit earned or folio charges incurred for both rooms….You will earn only one stay credit (including credit toward Hilton Honors elite tier qualification) and only one mileage credit.”

From what I recall, any time I’ve booked multiple rooms at Hilton hotels, I’ve only received elite night credit for one. Ultimately, earning elite night credit with Hilton is irrelevant since you can pretty easily earn top-tier elite status via credit card spending.

World of Hyatt

Hyatt members can earn points for up to three rooms per night at the same Hyatt or M life hotel. Members must occupy one of the rooms, although in my experience that’s never been enforced. I’ve had hotel stays where I booked multiple rooms, sent in an authorization form, and had someone else check in. The points were still awarded. Elite night credit is awarded on only one room per stay.

IHG Rewards Club

IHG Rewards Club is the most generous hotel rewards program when it comes to earning points on multiple rooms. Members earn points on up to nine rooms and elite night credit on just one room per stay.

It’s important to note that IHG points are not awarded retroactively. You must be a member at the time of your stay to earn both redeemable points and elite qualifying nights. 

Marriott/Ritz Carlton Rewards

Marriott members can earn points for up to three rooms per stay. Meanwhile, elite night credit is limited to one room per stay.

Starwood Preferred Guest

SPG members earn points for up to three rooms per stay. Starwood is pretty generous and unique in that it awards elite night credit for up to three rooms per stay. So if you book three rooms for a 5-night family vacation, you’ll earn 15 elite-qualifying nights!

This is really great for mattress running. Especially if you have limited time to complete their elite qualification. It makes it possible to complete elite night qualifications faster by booking multiple rooms rather than longer stays.

Pretty much every rewards program allows members to earn points on multiple rooms, while limiting elite night credit to one room. While they all require the member earning points to be present and staying at the hotel, in my experience that’s hardly ever enforced.

I’ve booked plenty of hotels for other people and while I did in fact end up paying for these rooms via credit card authorization forms, I still received points and elite night credit despite not being present. 

Hopefully this information is useful for the next time you’re tasked with booking travel for a large group and you want to earn the most rewards possible for your effort.

If you’ve ever booked multiple rooms with one of these chains and received points and/or elite night credit exceeding policy, please share in the comment section.