When Marriott Bonvoy members stay 50 nights or more in a year, they can select a benefit of their choice, and then again when they reach 75 nights. The most popular choice, by far, is “suite night awards.”
75% of Marriott’s most frequent guests select the ability to request priority for upgrades to suites. They can choose the nights where they want their upgrades to be ahead of other guests checking in. Beginning 5 days prior to arrival, Marriott will search available room inventory to process their upgrades. However actually using these ‘Suite Night Awards’ is a huge pain point for frequent guests.
- If members spread out their upgrade requests evenly across the year and across all hotels, they would probably all be confirmed!
- But very few people want to upgrade at a Sheraton in Albuquerque. They want to upgrade at a Westin on Maui, during peak season.
- In other words, they want to upgrade when hotels are full and selling all their best rooms for cash. And Marriott doesn’t even make all available standard suites available with these upgrade awards – just standard suites they do not expect to sell.
Suite at Las Alcobas, Mexico City
Marriott Bonvoy will be changing how these upgrades work for 2024, according to internal communications reviewed by View From The Wing and conversations with executives familiar with the matter.
- Hotels will get paid more by Marriott when members successfully redeem Suite Night Awards. Currently hotels don’t get paid anything to upgrade members using a Suite Night Award unless the hotel is more than 85% full. Starting next year hotels will receive reimbursement based on the hotel’s revenue per available room on a given night. It’s still not much compensation, but Marriott explains to hotels that reimbursement is “designed to help offset estimated incremental housekeeping costs associated with these upgrades.”
- More room options will be available. Currently Marriott offers members the ability to confirm upgrades up to a hotel’s ‘standard suite’. However they also at some properties offer other, lesser, room types as well like higher floors or better views. This is going to be expanded.
- More brands will participate. Suite Night awards will become eligible for use at Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, Protea, Aloft, and Element hotels next year. Most Aloft and Element properties really don’t have much in terms of upgrades to offer, however.
- Selling more upgrades for cash. Marriott is “exploring options for members to be able to purchase a confirmed upgrade before arrival through new digital upsell placements and merchandising across the Marriott Bonvoy app and website.” Competitor Hilton has started selling upgrades to elites that, in theory, they should be entitled to free. Marriott won’t be left out of the chase for monetization.
- Potentially changing the 5 day window for clearing upgrades. Marriott will continue to confirm suite night awards from a hotel’s published inventory “that is not forecasted to sell – either through distribution channels or front-desk upsell initiatives.” They’re considering changing the current window to fulfill upgrades which currently starts 5 days prior to arrival and continues until a day prior to check-in. That decision will be made later this year.
Suite Living Room, Sheraton Denver Tech Center
The ‘Suite Night Award’ benefit will be rebranded with a new name for next year. Suite Night Awards is a holdover from the Starwood program, and just like Marriott lit over a hundred million dollars on fire inventing the ‘Bonvoy’ name and giving their credit cards names that all start with B, they’re investing in a rebrand of this benefit as well. Perhaps that will better align expectations, with more non-suite upgrade types available to confirm upgrades into, and won’t have the name Suite as part of the benefit. The new name will be announced in the third quarter of this year.
Members will continue to be entitled to upgrades based on rooms available for their entire stay at the time of check-in, but how upgrades are processed in advance will be changing.
Westin Napa Verasa Suite Living Room
This could mean more upgrades for more members when they express a desire to be upgraded most – but it will still leave Marriott benefits lagging Hyatt (which allows top elites to confirm suites out of all revenue inventory at time of booking several times a year) and IHG (which allows members who stay a minimum of 20 nights to confirm suites out of all revenue inventory starting 14 days prior to arrival). Marriott will continue its superiority over Hilton, which allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests.
How about fixing the breakfast benefit and adding some tangible benefits to ambassador that are over and above platinum or titanium?
At the end of the day, hotels can opt-out of accepting a suite night award. That’s just absurd. You’re either in the chain’s loyalty program or are you aren’t in the chain’s loyalty program.
There’s one hotel that I frequent all the time. They only accept the current suite night award certificates for club lounge room king rooms. They have suites — four two-room suites. But those suites are only bookable directly through the hotel. So not only can’t you use a suite night award, but you aren’t eligible for a complimentary upgrade at check-in because the suites are never part of the available inventory. Of course, I’m a regular and the GM always upgrades me to the suite — sometimes a month before my stay.
@ Gary — “Marriott will continue its superiority over Hilton, which allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests”. LOL.
While the above is true, I still think there is a better chance of receiving an upgrade to an open suite as a Hilton Diamond than as a Marriott Platinum. Marriott will just deny you because they can, while Hilton wil generally do the opposite. Bottom line is that Marriott should be avoided.
In theory some of these changes sound like positive changes but my trust of Marriott and hotels gaming the system will keep me skeptical until I see some results. For me the best part of the details above is the inclusion of brands like RC and Edition but I expect far and few suite upgrades to actually clear at those brands.
How is this exclusive? Didn’t DoC post the same news last night?
More Marriott PR blogger hype isn’t going to fix this.
Call them what they are. “Not so sweet night awards”
Rarely usable and an absolute waste to what in many cases are nothing but standard rooms with a marketing name.
I have had better upgrades before this program started and rarely have them used these days.
Still Marriotts tier benefits are mostly worthless. These have the most value of the worthless.
Hotels have already added non-suites to the upgrade pool. In fact, in certain properties (I’m looking at you Renaissance New York Midtown) does not offer suites at all while using SNA – only higher floor “deluxe” rooms.
Good news on the brand expansions, although most Editions and RC do not have the same number of suites as former SPG properties to support complimentary suite upgrades. Also, some Alofts have fantastic suites – Aloft Brooklyn is one of them.
@FNT Delta Diamond – this is the biggest misunderstanding of the upgrade system under Marriott. Not all suites are eligible suites in the upgrade pool.
I think the real news here is that:
1. Marriott is going to begin selling upgrades on the website for all categories of rooms.
2. Hotels will be able to include all their non-suite inventory in what is now just a general “upgrade award” pool.
3. Upgrades will mostly likely be sold continuously from time of booking up to the day of arrival, but upgrade awards will still clear in a limited window, so chances of elites securing an upgrade will go down in general.
From an IT perspective my guess is that they are adding a general “room upgrade” monetization feature and that in addition to outright paying for the upgrade (and getting a confirmed upgrade at the time of payment) you can apply an “upgrade award” and take your chances that it will clear.
The real question is whether SNAs will still be able to be applied to specific room types or if they will just clear into the best available.
With these IT changes in place, it will also be possible for Marriott to make “upgrade awards” category specific and possibly require multiple awards to move up multiple categories. They may wait awhile to do that but the writing is on the wall as they will have the technical capability to do so.
Overall this is very bad news for all elites not just those using SNAs. Kudos to the Marriott PR team for somehow getting these changes spun as positive.
Too late for this lifetime plat. After not getting any SNA clear for years, along with the rest of Marriott’s shenanigans, means I no longer use Marriott if practical. No more 50 night years. Bonvoyed once too often!
Suites are meaningless. Just more space I won’t use.
100+ nights on the road in a given year. Give me a good bed, good internet, a desk, a dark and quiet room, and breakfast.
I’ll redeem points for suites if I want to on the one or two leisure trips I take.
Only Donald Trump on his “Truth Social” rivals this site in repeating demonstrably bogus claims in the hope of swaying weaker minds…like his own. Known as the “paradox of propaganda”, it holds that when one sets out to brainwash others, one ends up brainwashing oneself. It’s the only explanation for this site’s constant gaslighting
Self-anointed “thought leader in travel” <belatedly “discovers” a feature that Hilton has had for years and Marriott for at least 4 years, latches onto it as if it were news, and keeps regurgitating it even after made aware of his mistaken “discovery”.
Here again is how the claim was previously debunked in this very space:
_________________________________________________________________
DCS says:
October 17, 2022 at 4:32 pm
As I indicated above, and others have indicated about Marriott, Hilton has always offered members the opportunity to purchase room upgrades, up to suites, immediately after they made a booking. Here’s a concrete example:
As you can see, there is even a name for it: eStandby Upgrade® Program, which has been around for as long as I can remember and is why I asked above what was the novelty in this post.
What elite members who know how to play the game do is to ignore the offer to pay for an upgrade, as I did last year when I stayed at this same all-inclusive/all-suites property where I even scored an upgrade at check-in! Moreover, the eStandby Upgrade® offer can be used to one’s advantage if one requests and is denied a suite upgrade at check-in. Just ask politely: if no suites are available for upgrades, then why I am being offered an eStandby Upgrade® ?!
___________________________________________________________
Any questions, ey, @Gary? Can you at long last stop the constant gaslighting?
My years of Platinum status have taught me that the odds of a multi-night suite night award at an aspirational property are about the same as spotting Bigfoot or a UFO encounter.
Call me cynical, but I doubt that this rebranding effort will change that: Owners tend to view redemptions as a pain in the rump and a money loser. Marriott status does have some advantages over other chain depending on one’s needs, but suite upgrades are not one of them.
Got a source for the bolded part of your claim, because I seem to recall that you were unable to provide a source for that it about a couple of weeks ago when you were challenged to produce it?
In the meantime, this is how Marriott “requires” properties to offer suite upgrades to frequent guests:
In fact, I will give $1,000 to anyone who can produce evidence that a loyalty program out there “requires” participating hotels to offer suite upgrades to frequent guests. Guaranteed.
The only reason this site keeps repeating such easily debunked claims is that it repeated them for so long without being challenged that it fell for its own fabrications so that it is now simply unable stop gaslighting.
The ‘paradox of propaganda’ , of which Josef Goebbels is the most prominent manifestation, holds that when one sets out to brainwash others, one ends up brainwashing oneself. In short, our “thought leader” actually believes his own bogus claims, which is why he keeps repeating them no matter how often they debunked.
I don’t get it. All the complaining and dart throwing. I’ve never NOT had a SNA request that wasn’t honored. Not sure what the rest of you are doing but it clearly isn’t working. I’ve also stood in line behind numerous Elites who stomped their feet and demanded one thing or another. Maybe that’s it? Who knows, but a little humility and kindness goes a long way.
As a lifetime Titanium, I’m not a fan of the changes made to Bonvoy over the last few years. Marriott has gutted the program and makes the inflation in the US look minuscule when compared to inflation of redemption rates. It’s truly pathetic.
I’ve shifted most of my travel as a result.
I do have to say, that I had tremendous success using SNA over the years and received great rooms that would’ve been significantly more expensive in cash on a nightly basis. Maybe I just got lucky, but I loved the rooms I got.
-Solaz – Los Cabos – upgraded to 2nd best suite available
-Vespara, Pismo Beach, CA – upgraded multiple times to massive junior suite with amazing ocean view.
-Westin Maui – standard suite for 10 day trip
Again, maybe I got lucky, but no complaints about SNA system
Please excuse the cliche, but these changes are moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.
@Gene: You realize that you contradicted yourself, right? If @Gary’s claim is true, then BonVoy is to be recommended rather than be avoided!
Given your sound rationale for recommending that BonVoy be avoided, the logical conclusion must be that @Gary’s claim that “Marriott will continue its superiority over Hilton, which allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests” is bogus, as I just showed for the Nth time above…
When you say, “Marriott will continue its superiority over Hilton….” while that might be true on paper, in reality, I’ve had much better luck with Hilton upgrading me to a suite upon check in rather than using an actual instrument of upgrade provided by Marriott.
What’s on paper doesn’t matter if they don’t put “their money where their mouth is”
I lost my SNAs for the last 2 years… not asking for them anymore.
True sometimes I have requested a suite at a premium location, but other times it was just at a Westin in an airport… They should change something and if they are not accepted then the clock resets for the expiration.
I quit chasing status at hotels. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze. Now a free agent and book based on location and price. Liberating!!!
Slow week?
> inventing the ‘Bonvoy’ name and giving their credit cards names that all start with B
Perhaps you’re familiar with “Bon Voyage”. There’s no invention there.
Also AmEx cards start with A. A is better than B, right? (If not, Chase and Citi have C).
Seriously, is this the stupidest attempt to somehow rationalize Mariott doing NOTHING USEFUL except [word for deriere goes here] [word for ducking goes here] its “members” and providing even less of a reward.
[Resume goes here] and so I know that of which I speak. Mariott can go [duck] themselves, and after this week of fru-fru stories, I think it’s time we broke up. Bye Gary/Felicia.
@Ehud Gabron – Bevy, Brilliant, Bountiful, Bold etc
@ DCS — You are correct. I meant to say “Bottom line is that Hilton should be avoided.” Happy now?
@ptahcha – I had to live in the Aloft Brooklyn for 6 months for a project. The suites were the only way I stayed sane in those otherwise tiny rooms
@Gene — Then you’d still be contradicting yourself because the conclusion to your comment would be inconsistent with the rest 😉
However, I do not care one way or the other, as long as you are consistent…
BOTTOM LINE
Based on the majority of comments above, it would seem that the “thought leader’s” fantastical gaslighting ran smack against an immovable object known as reality.
Bolding above is mine for emphasis to illustrate this site’s constant gaslighting, defined as “an intentional distortion of reality to make someone think that something they know for sure to be real isn’t real”.
The claim that “[unlike SPG, Hyatt, Marriott and, recently, IHG], Hilton “ allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests”, is not even true on paper. I have challenged @Gary to provide the source for the claim , which he has been making for years, but he is unable to provide one because the claim is a total fabrication.
He simply made it up years ago and has repeated for so long that he’s brainwashed himself into believing it to be true. It is really quite freakish because it is unclear what anyone can tell him to snap him out of it. I even offered $1,000 to anyone who can produce evidence that there is a loyalty program out there that “requires” participating hotels to offer suite upgrades to frequent guests. If such evidence existed, I am sure that @Gary himself would have been a taker.
So, for once and for all, this site’s claim that “[unlike SPG, Hyatt, Marriott and, recently, IHG], Hilton “ allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests”, is utterly bogus and will remain so no matter how often it is repeated.
@ Gary Leff
“Marriott will continue its superiority over Hilton, which allows but does not require hotels to offer suites to frequent guests…”
That seems a strange perspective indeed.
Firstly, the article above and the one linked from 4 January 2021 both highlight the weaknesses of the Marriott SNA system – just one of those weaknesses, which you cite, is that upgrades are based on some algorithm which calculates whether a better room may or may not be sold – thereby, inventory can go unassigned for SNAs even when available on the night(s) because those rooms did not sell as predicted. The problem is that the model is probabilistic. Yes?
IIRC within the Hilton Honors process an available suite will be assigned if available to the Diamond / LTD member and not left unused.
Secondly, it depends on the lived experience, not just the T&Cs. You will no doubt find those who have triumphed with SNAs and others left frustrated just as with upgrade experiences with other loyalty programs in real life scenarios.
Thirdly, you continue to fail to address the elephant in the room, namely the effort required to access the benefit. SNAs are accrued at 50 / 75 nights of loyalty. If you are determined to make comparisons, at least attempt to make them rationally, if only to avoid the obvious allegation of self delusion.
Does anyone is the thread work for Marriott or have a clear understanding of how Revenue Management works in regard to hotels? I’m curious how many hotels you think Marriott owns.
Curious if you actually know how SNA’s are processed. Curious how many of elite Marriotts members stay at select service hotels for travel, at a discount compared to luxury hotels, and then demand the world when they book luxury hotels and resorts during peak season!
I can guarantee that all the voices in this thread and those that share the same sentiment have berated entry-level associates because their status doesn’t grant them free stuff.
Would love to hear anyone’s justification for such entitlement. “I stay with Marriott exclusively!” Great! I pay my mortgage exclusively to the lender and don’t receive free things. I thinks it’s pretty generous that a company provides as many ways to build points balances as Marriott does. Free nights when booking 4 or more on points or even trying a SNA program shows a commitment to finding innovate ways to show appreciation. But as is typical, folks aren’t satisfied nor understanding.
Guess how many Bonvoy members there are? The number would floor you!
Being Ambassador doesn’t make you special, treating a team with respect, offering constructive feedback, and displaying patience and understanding makes you special. You’ll be rewarded in the long run. Granted, you put up a stink and it might get you something. But enjoy the fact that you were merely pacified and effectively told to piss off. The equivalents of a grumpy, petulant toddler getting the binky just so they’d shut up and go away.
Great point that someone like @Gary, who is obsessed with calling winners and losers based on his self-serving and extremely biased “standards of excellence”, won’t touch with the proverbial 10-foot pole because doing so would show just how misguided or delusional he is.
Can you imagine what the realization that the benefits of the WoH Globalist status, which requires accruing 100,000 base points or spending $20K per year to earn, are no better than those of the HH Diamond status, which can be earned for just $450/year through the incomparable AMEX Aspire card, would do to @Gary’s belief system? It would obliterate it, hence, the denialism that makes him delusional…
DCS – get some therapy for your TDS.. and your blind spots for Hilton.
your schtick is old and tired
@John L – LOL. Therapy for TDS? You are obviously a MAGA ignoramus, who still worships his false prophet and cult leader, despite clear evidence that the man is a psycho and a crook. Can’t wait to see him fitted with an orange jumpsuit and frog-walked.
My ‘schtick’ is old and tired but the constantly recycled bogus claims that so-called ‘schtick’ has been addressing for a decade is ‘fresh’? Yup, a MAGA ignoramus.
@ John L
” your blind spots for Hilton.”
Open your own eyes, dude, and listen to what is being said:
COST /BENEFIT
Hmmm…Gary (and others herein) refuse to consider the comparative effort required to access the benefits under discussion when making statements comparing and ranking the oft cited hotel loyalty programs.
It took me one night to qualify for Hilton Diamond this year – a “cost” of about USD150: I’ve already had 5 nights of suite upgrade worth USD1000s at an LXR property on Hilton redemption.
Others in the USA achieve the same result by onboarding one credit card (Aspire).
To access SNAs in Marriott you need to stay 50 and 75 nights.
To become Hyatt Globalist you need 60 nights or 100,000 base points earned at 5 per USD (i.e. USD20,000 spend): you can dodge that by spending USD140,000 on your Hyatt credit card.
COMPARATIVE POINT VALUES
I continue to come across people herein and commenting on other bogs who utterly believe that Hyatt points are the most valuable because they think it takes fewer points to redeem a room of similar cash value to other programs.
That is true – but only when looking at redemption values. If you refuse to factor in the earn rate to get those points in the first place, you have no idea how to assess the value of your loyalty to a given program.
Hint – if Hyatt points are 3 times harder to earn than say HH points, but you need 3 x less for the equivalent redemption than HH points, you are no better off in Hyatt or Hilton. You end up with the same result.
Gary continues to publish misleading point valuations, which in turn lead to misleading estimates of net return.
CLAIMED POINT VALUATIONS
Cited point valuations on this and other websites are utterly bogus for a number of reasons and have the potential to be utterly misleading. They do not take into account earn rates. They fail as a benchmark for buy / redeem points because they falsely reject data points.
4TH / 5TH NIGHT FREE
Blog point valuations also do not necessarily account for 4th / 5th night free benefits. When you adjust Gary’s calculations for net value returns (per another recent article) the ranking for net returns according to Gary’s own figures shifts and Hyatt tumbles down the list.
Gary continually sweeps these benefits under the carpet (hint – they do not elevate Hyatt).
STATUS / EGO
These loyalty programs are designed to suck you in. Most herein are clearly running on emotion and not reason. You need to do the math to unshackle your conditioning. Talk about blind spots!
EVIDENCE
The only rational and objective approach to compare hotel loyalty programs is to invoke an evidence based method:
1. T&Cs
2. Process adopted by program
3. Individual property compliance with process.
4. Lived experience of us all as program members
and…drumroll….
5. An objective calculation of the value derived (benefits actually delivered for the “cost”, i.e. cash spent within that loyalty program).
People are then free to overlay their personal preferences.
Gary offers no overall structure to assess and debate the benefits of hotel loyalty programs in a way that we can make useful or substantive comparisons. His website – his choice.
Clue – it’s not about Hyatt being the best or Hilton being the best, or Marriott being the best, rather how we can access the differential strengths of each program.
Be well. Travel safe. MAGBA (Make America Great Britain Again).
Just talking for me about my experiences. I am retired and travel a lot. I am Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hyatt Globalist and Hilton Diamond (through the credit card, which I absolutely and truly believe is the most lucrative and beneficial premium card for the price).
1. Hyatt will give me a confirmed suite for up to seven nights at booking five times a year (I normally shoot for 70 nights). No one else will do that. To me, arguments that upgrades are on a space available basis are ludicrous because I only book my airfare and hotel if I know I am getting the Hyatt suite. If the suite is not available on the dates I want, I change to different dates, but I do this before I book airfare. I generally tend to book Hyatt suites 11 months in advance or as soon as the airfare booking window opens up.
2. Marriott will often upgrade me to junior suites or suites, especially outside the USA. Normally, if I am booked in a resort view room, I will get moved to at least ocean view or ocean front. I cannot depend on it, but it frequently happens for junior suites or suites and virtually every time for ocean facing resorts..
3. I lost 10 SNAs last year, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Yes, I’ve had SNAs clear, but rarely. Plus, Marriott hotels really play games with SNAs by offering SNAs for things like corner rooms which are the same size as regular rooms, or higher floors. I have had my SNAs rejected and then get upgraded to a suite at check in. The SNA system is broken. It is just not worth it to get to 50 nights at Marriott (25 with a premium credit card). There is absolutely no incentive to do so for those who have Lifetime Titanium (or Platinum) status.
4. I have stayed at beautiful Hilton hotels and resorts worldwide and some of my most amazing and memorable breakfasts have been at overseas Hiltons. I like many aspects of Honors, including the free night awards that can be used for their top hotels and resorts and the fact that I can earn Diamond pretty much for free because the benefits of Aspire even without Diamond status exceed the cost of the credit card. Also, 5th night free is great for both Hilton and Marriott. But, while Hilton upgrades to suites have occurred for me, they’ve been rare. In my experience, suite upgrades are more rare for Hilton than Marriott overseas. Domestically, for me, suite upgrades for both are virtually non-existent, especially post-pandemic.
5. At some point soon–probably in a year or two, I’ll stop trying for Hyatt Globalist because I will have stayed at virtually all of the Hyatts I want to visit. The footprint is just too small, and the requirement for at least 60 nights (including with Hyatt credit card spend, which is awkward because I can earn 50% more Hyatt points by charging everyday expenses to Freedom Unlimited and 100% more Hyatt points by charging up to $5,000 per month of everyday expenses on the first of each month on Bilt) is too difficult. I don’t need Globalist to stay at SLH hotels because Globalist is meaningless there. At that point, it will either be Marriott or Hilton. Marriott is giving me no incentive to get to 50 nights since the SNA program is so broken. If I have a choice of Marriott or Hilton, Marriott should want that choice to break for Marriott. Without a real SNA benefit (or some other real benefit for additional nights), it doesn’t matter whether I stay at a Marriott or a Hilton. That’s not how Bonvoy should work.
@ DSK
Thanks, dude, it’s great to learn from a perspective gleaned from real life experience…;)