Marriott reset member expectations a year ago about how upgrades work, changing the name so that an upgrade isn’t necessarily to a suite and giving out upgrades only closer to check-in.
- Suite Night Awards are now Nightly Upgrade Awards
- Those have cleared starting 3 days prior to arrival, rather than the previous 5 days in advance
- But they can now be used at more brands, with the inclusion of Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, Aloft, Element and Protea hotels.
Well, they’re changing upgrades again! As caught by Loyalty Lobby, Marriott has updated its terms and conditions and now says that at most brands, upgrade awards beginning clearing 5 days in advance again. It’s still 3 days for EDITION, Ritz-Carlton, and St. Regis.
Nightly Upgrade Award use is based upon availability of the requested suite or Premium Room. Checking for availability begins as early as five (5) days before arrival (effective December 2024, for all brands except for EDITION, the Ritz-Carlton, and the St. Regis where fulfillment will begin at three (3) days prior to arrival). Availability is checked each day before arrival up until around 2 p.m. local time of the Participating Property one (1) day prior to arrival.
Suite at Las Alcobas, Mexico City
Suite Living Room, Sheraton Denver Tech Center
These awards are choice benefits that members can select after 50 and 75 nights each year, to gain priority for upgrades into a selected room type for a limited number of trips. With the push towards upgrades to more room types, the drive is both to clear more upgrades and to clear them into lower room types. At Marriott, upgrades aren’t necessarily to suites.
Marriott Bonvoy is a huge program. They mint Platinums just by obtaining their premium credit card, and members can earn 40 elite nights out of 50 for platinum (that qualifies for a choice benefit of these upgrades) with two credit cards. And – unlike Hyatt and IHG – Marriott capacity controls their upgrades.
- Just because a room is available to book, doesn’t mean Marriott makes them available for upgrade through this program.
- In fact it’s only the rooms that a hotel doesn’t expect to sell, including through buy ups at check-in, that get allocated.
- As a result customers who want suites with ‘suite night awards’ are frequently disappointed.
- Hence the attempt to shift expectations for what an upgrade is.
IHG offers confirmed upgrades into suites out of revenue inventory starting within 14 days of check-in. Hyatt offers this at time of booking. Marriott is improving its upgrades, moving most brands back to what they were a year ago, but still substantially behind what competitors do – even for their Ambassador elites which requires not just 100 nights but also $23,000 in spend.
While I’m still on a burn strategy with Marriott and have switched allegiance to Hyatt, it never ceases to amaze me how much Marriott managed to trash the SPG program and completely switch from being guest-centric to hotel owner centric
For me the issue is a hotel is not required to put all of its rooms and suites into inventory directly bookable through Marriott. There are several properties that I’ve stayed at with suites but the suites are only bookable directly through the hotel sales office. So that eliminates any possibility of using an upgrade certificate. It also pretty much forecloses on the possibility of a complimentary upgrade because that suite is technically unavailable at the time of check-in. Likewise, there are certain properties that were caught putting suites on Airbnb. That’s another apparent way.
And, let’s be clear, Marriott changing this policy with the carve out for Ritz-Carlton, Edition and St Regis is a reflection of two things:
1) Ritz-Carlton and Edition have long had limited elite benefits. They really don’t want to provide anything of value at those brands. Ironically, Marriott directly manages about 99.9% of all Ritz-Carlton and Edition properties. So you have corporate actively trying to evade providing anything of value to corporate’s “product” (the guests) that they sell to their “customers” (the hotel owners).
2) The inclusion of St Regis. I wonder if we will see the breakfast benefit disappear at St Regis.
@ Gary — Marriott doesn’t exist in my world. I would prefer most any hotel over a Marriott hotel.
I never used the suite upgrade. But almost always gotten room upgrades. Sometimes wish they hadn’t.
I’d have to leave bigger tips for room service.
I got an email from Marriott yesterday telling me my upgrade did not clear at a hotel in Milan, Italy. I stayed there without the upgrade in September 2023. Glad they notify you but 15 months after the fact seems excessive.
For one of Marriott’s top brands, Ritz-Carlton always seems to skimp on benefits, like the lack of complimentary breakfast for Platinum and above. For this reason, I tend to prefer St. Regis over Ritz-Carlton, but then again, one can only be so lucky to have such choices at a given destination.
@Rob: I got one of those emails yesterday or the day before for a November 2023 stay. The upgrade certificates were never returned to my account after that stay. It seems like Marriott internally must have caught this and is returning everyone’s unused certificates.
I was just notified via email that I had earned points for a CC promotion that ended in July 2024. The points had been posted as they were earned.
Just late sending email and it wasn’t even necessary.
Sadly guests that actually earn status by nights in Marriott hotels are basically suckers
ever since Marriott prostituted Platinum status with a credit card