One great thing about using Marriott Rewards points to book a reservation is that you do not need the points in your account to book award nights. You can kind of do this with Starwood as well…..
If you do not have enough points in your SPG account to book your award reservation, call up SPG. When you call, you must have a plan in place as to how you are going to get the points into your account. For example, will you be transferring them in from American Express, transferring them in from the account of someone in your household, or just getting a big influx of points when your American Express SPG credit card account statement period closes?
The SPG representative has the ability to “tent” the reservation for 7 days while you wait for the points to appear in your account. If you need more time, you can call back and as long as the reservation is still available, they will cancel the existing reservation, make a new one, and “retent” that one. Then, your 7 day period starts again.
Out of all of the hotel representatives that I call, I find the Starwood ones to be the most helpful. To me, it seems as if they are really rooting for you to book that award reservation and work to find ways to help you do that.