Did you have to call to use the certificate or were you able to redeem it online?
Nice.. thanks MBSS! 
I paid for a night because I didn't know how to use the certificate. 
Shameful!
I paid for a night because I didn't know how to use the certificate. Shameful!
@Kenny wrote:
Nice.. thanks MBSS!
Almost the same for me last year....but since I could not afford to pay the room rate at the Courtyard in Düsseldorf I needed to try to use that certificate online. To my big surprise it was really easy and even though the rate jacked up to 439€ during the exhibition the free nights were not blocked. This was my best deal ever 😉
@lg8302ch wrote:
@Kenny wrote:
Nice.. thanks MBSS!Almost the same for me last year....but since I could not afford to pay the room rate at the Courtyard in Düsseldorf I needed to try to use that certificate online. To my big surprise it was really easy and even though the rate jacked up to 439€ during the exhibition the free nights were not blocked. This was my best deal ever 😉
xD
Certificate loads up to your marriott rewards account. You can see your available certificates under "Account Activity"
To book a room using your certificates you would do "find and reserve" and look for a room the way you normally would, but you click on "use rewards points"
You can even narrow the search for rooms by selecting the category of the hotel on the right hand side, last option "Hotel rewards category." This way you don't see hotels you can't use your certificate at.
If you have 1 free night certificate, and you want to book a room for 1 night, you would simply find your hotel and book as normal, on the final booking page you should see something that says "You have an e-certificate that matches this reservation." You can either choose to use it, or to use points regularly and save the e-certificate.
If you have LESS e-certificates than nights you are staying, you either need to call up the marriott reservations line
OR
book it as a cash and points stay. Select how many nights you want to use points for (how many e-certificates you have) and how many nights you want to use cash for (the remainder of your trip not being covered by e-certificates)
Play around with the options here, because some nights the cost will be more than others. Obviously, use the free nights on the nights the hotel is most expensive, and pay cash when it is cheapest.
If you use "Cash and Points" you are not elligible for any other discount (like AAA rate)
If you call up the reservations line to do this, you can use your free nights, AND they will allow you to use the AAA rate (or military, government, whatever rate you qualify for) for the nights you're paying cash.
Hope this helps!