Marriott promises a lot to members, and frequently doesn’t delivery. Hilton doesn’t promise much, and so it rarely disappoints. Some Marriotts have even figured out a new way to avoid handing out upgrades, and I have to say that it’s really clever.
The Hilton Honors doesn’t promise to upgrade its Diamond members to suites. They just say that if a suite is available, hotels may upgrade Diamonds. They don’t have to. In contrast, Marriott offers two paths into suites for its elite customers.
- Nightly Upgrade Awards allow members to have priority for upgrades (including to suites), confirming those several days prior to check-in. Most of the time they don’t clear because only a limited number of rooms that are still available days ahead are allotted to these upgrades, and because Marriott has so many elite members competing for them.
- Complimentary upgrades at check-in for Platinum members and higher include suites if one is available for the entire length of the guest’s stay. Under the program’s terms, the member is supposed to “receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room” and that “includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors.” Period.
However, some Marriott hotels just won’t upgrade elite members. It’s not even that they think they still might sell the room at 6 p.m. on the day of check-in. Instead,
- They may be afraid that the member uses their late check-out benefit for a room they have sold the next day, making it tough to clean in time to deliver to the next guest. From one Marriott G.M.:
[T]his is why I don’t like upgrading plat and above into suites when it’s booked the next day. We have only one of each kind and if we upgrade you complimentary and then you ask for a 4pm checkout it [creates problems] the next day. I always just say it’s unavailable for an upgrade.
- Or they may be trying to save money on housekeeping since larger rooms take more time to clean. It’s better for them to leave the suite empty for the next paying guest! As one Los Angeles-area hotel general manager put it,
Costs of hskp has increased so much that operators are having to figure out how to make things more efficient, which means not providing complimentary upgrades into suites because the cost to clean has doubled. So we will only upgrade to a higher floor + view.
While some properties just refuse to upgrade, and Marriott seems to do little about it (when you contact Marriott customer service about a problem, they’ll tend to just defer to the hotel or refer you to the hotel), there are some tricks that hotels have figured out to deny upgrades while still staying within program rules.
- When I check into a hotel, I know that a suite is available for upgrade if it’s for sale. If I can book the eligible (‘standard’) suite as a paying guest when I am checking in, for the entire length of my stay, then they should be willing to upgrade me into it for free!
- But the trick is that the suite has to be ‘available’ and that doesn’t just mean not booked by another guest, it also means that the room must be cleaned and inspected.
- So some hotels just don’t clean the suites, unless someone books one!
A reader shared their experience with the St. Regis Washington D.C., a hotel that’s Marriott-managed (so should be better about honoring the terms of the program) and that has plenty of suites.
St. Regis D.C., Credit: Marriott
He’s an Ambassador member and was checking in at a low period for the hotel and for the city. He wasn’t able to confirm an upgrade using Nightly Upgrade Awards despite “select[ing] multiple categories of entry-level and mid-level suites” and despite those rooms all being available for sale. His Ambassador agent tried to get the hotel to confirm a suite on the day of arrival, but was rebuffed.
When the guest arrived at the hotel at 6 p.m., he asked about a suite upgrade at check-in. He was told that “the suites hadn’t been cleaned.” He could book one on the Marriott website, but they weren’t available for upgrade!
St. Regis D.C., Credit: Marriott
This is a hotel that I have a lot of affection for. It’s where I stayed (in a suite!) the night that I asked my wife to marry me. It disappoints me to hear stories about the property treating Ambassador members poorly.
Avoiding suite upgrades into clean rooms is one way to save on housekeeping costs. Not cleaning the suite at all until it’s booked, deferring housekeeping, is another even better way if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish.
The hotel didn’t fail to upgrade the guest into an available suite that as in-service, because the suites were not in service. Clever!
What a shame.
If we’re doing the whole ‘let the free market decide’ thing, then we can fix this if we all (in the aggregate) stop traveling, close the various credit cards, and let the airlines and hotels fail after a while. You know, teach them a lesson for ignoring our loyalty and for their weaseling out of benefits like upgrades, complimentary breakfasts, etc.
Or, because such collective organizing is difficult, we just merely accept this new reality of corporate greed and ‘cheapness’, lower our collective expectations, and recognize that even-so it’s still a privilege to stay at a St. Regis or whatever.
@ Gary — Jusy say NO to Marriott.
I believe they call this being “penny wise and pound foolish”.
Hotels can play all the games they want. The traveling public isn’t stupid. If Marriott no longer shows loyalty to the customer, the customer will no longer show loyalty to the Marriott Brand. It’s really quite simple.
First of all lifetime Titanium here. Marriott is fully within their right to not upgrade you to a suite even if one is available for your entire stay if they feel they will get a booking for it or can have someone pay for an upgrade. There are analytics packages that help project this. If it shows a reasonable chance the room may generate revenue during your stay it is no longer available per the terms of the Bonvoy program.
Sorry but these are businesses not charities and there is NO comprehensive guarantee of an upgrade. Business matters do (and should) prevail
The hotels are getting more and more clever in order to try to have their cake and eat it too with making sure they can sell the available suite at the last minute while denying it’s available at check-in.
They clean the suite, but then they just claim it’s not been cleaned when it really hasn’t been marked as having been inspected as cleaned despite the information already having been relayed to the front desk or sales that the suites are cleaned.
The so-inclined hotels are scamming the elite status customers using any and every excuse under the sun.
AC, it’s not a charity to expect a program to deliver on promises that were made to reward loyalty, then just taking the money and not delivering on the benefits offered for that loyalty. Businesses that are run ethically know that. A lifetime Titanium should also know that.
Too many Marriott plt level business travelers. Afraid of these jr exects messing up the Delano and further bringing down the resorts. Maybe making a no kids under 8 rule. Othereise the Delano is headed into the Circus Circus. RIP to a quiet up scale resort.
I know a bunch of frequent travelers. All have told me they prefer Hilton. Guess now I know why.
Glad I left Marriott when SPG took them over.
All that fearmongering that Marriott would ruin SPG was 100% correct.
Keep getting Bonvoyed, you Plats + Titaniums!
Hotel and airline loyalty ain’t what it used to be and IMO is not worth chasing. I’m Marriott LT Ti Elite. I’ll stay at a Marriott if it is convenient to my destination, not because I’m TE. Most of the Marriott properties I stay at are nothing to write home about. Some are kind of depressing. The last executive lounge I saw at a Marriott I stayed at was just a converted suite (and the beer and wine was $5).
The most useful part of my UA Premier membership is waved baggage fees. The rest of the benefits are too difficult to use to make them worth the trouble.
I’m Lifetime Titanium and I use my IHG Diamond membership 90% of the time. As a longtime SPG person, Marriott is awful.
AC.
You must work for Marriott.
I find that over 30 years they have had ups and downs. But, they are definitlely on the down cycle right now.
And your support for them encourages them to deny, deny , deny!
@AC (and others):
I think the complaint is not “I didn’t get an upgrade that one time” so much as it being painfully obvious that some hotels are systematically denying upgrades that “should” be available. Some of these feel like the hotel equivalent of an airline offering “unlimited complementary upgrades” and then sending out half of F empty while they have 360s/GS/CKs stuck in the back.
I tolerate Marriott because at least they’ll generally make the 4PM checkout stick (and their footprint is substantially larger than Hyatt), but in some ways I’m limping through to LTP with them (I’m qualified on nights but not on years of status). I’ve been /sorely/ tempted to get the business card and basically make it the rest of the way on points/FNAs.
Many properties also categorize their suites as “specialty suites” which are generally unavailable for complimentary upgrade.
As an Ambassador who can count the number of complimentary suite upgrades I’ve received in the last few years on just one hand, I does leave me scratching my head why I keep investing here.
If Hyatt would do a status match, I would jump ship immediately.
Marriott promises a lot to members, and frequently doesn’t delivery…maybe change to “deliver”…
Has everything just gone to hell?
Unbelievable. I worked for Marriott for five years. Tight Mormons. But I did get a twenty cent raise.
In 2017, we stayed at Marriott’s Lexington Hotel in NYC. I asked about a complimentary upgrade at check-in.
It took a while, and Reception then told us that it’d be a bit, because the room had to be opened and cleaned. That made us wonder, but we decided to sit in the Lobby and enjoy the wait.
Well – it was worth it! When the room was ready, we were escorted to the Hemingway Suite. We were thrilled!
Sometimes, an upgrade might simply depend on the discretion of the Front Desk. So, expect nothing and you might be pleasantly surprised.
If it’s in the terms that they must provide an upgrade if available and a manager just decides that they won’t, isn’t that a breach of contract? More curious than anything.
Lifetime Platinum and Hilton Diamond. Hilton has not done much of ever in the 5 years of diamond status. Westin Vancouver BC honored upgrade in end of July for 5 nights and were fantastic. I have also received random upgrades. Wish though they would just get rid of these upgrades. Give me more pts or a free night instead.
I stay with Marriott Bonvoy because the hotels are plenty to choose from. I am pleased as a gold member. They’ve accommodated my needs every stay so far.
If it is a Union property there are limits on what Housekeepers will clean. Suites count more than regular rooms. If they are short Housekeepers for the day, they will not clean Suites but only regular rooms that are more in demand to sell and be more profitable.
Although Hilton Honors tells its Diamond members on its website that “If we have a better room available, it’s yours – up to a 1-bedroom suite“, the below is what self-anointed “thought leader in travel” would like you to believe the program really means:
See the clear fabrication? The blog has been gaslighting its readers so frequently and for so long that it’s no longer able to differentiate its fabrications from reality.
Guess which program’s T&C state the following:
See? The “thought leader” has been attributing to Hilton Honors a clause that is smack in the middle of the WoH T&C, and that, ladies & gents, is what’s called gaslighting. Anyone who wants real and truth information on miles and points won’t find it on this site.
AC there is always someone like you, defending the corporations ripping us off.
You must work for one.
Whole service industry seems to have gone to the dogs to be honest. Mostly since COVID. Hotels and airlines charging more while delivering less service and trying to cut back on every little thing possible. Yes they are businesses but I think since COVID hit them all hard the days of nice extras has past as they try and recoup as much money as possible
All @AC did was to state the reality, whose awareness is a prerequisite for being able manage one’s expectations. Anyone is free to walk around with their head buried in the sand and wish things were different, if they so choose, but that won’t change how things work in the real world.
Put all of the “should” or “is required to” to the side. A property granting an upgrade of an otherwise empty room will delight and surprise a guest. The property creates goodwill with that guest . . . and a reason to stay again. It’s the 13th doughnut in a baker’s dozen . . . with sprinkles. That’s a different kind of doing business. Some properties don’t choose that approach to business. Not that they are bad or evil, but that choice tends not to precipitate repeat business.
If all this is happening, then stop hawking their Credit Cards to us.
I have Lifetime Titanium status. Comments by AC are rediculous. I have tried the upgrade offer for many years without a single upgrade being offered. Marriott should provide what they promise and not screw lifetime supporters. Any attempt at discussing this with “Elite” customer service has been a joke. .
Maybe just fortunate, but I get an upgrade when I use an upgrade certificate at least 90 percent if the time. On a $250 room I once got a room that went for more than $5K for my 2 night stay!
Oh Gary Gary… Where have you been there’s a simple solution that works for me 100% of the times. Usually about 5 minutes before I arrive the airport I called the front desk and ask them if they have any suites available to rent out for two nights or whatever the length of my stay is. They are always eager to say yes if they have one. I’ll ask him if it’s available right now they say yes I will tell them I’ll be right in please hold it and I get their name. Then when I walk in I present my driver’s license and credit card and I meet that same person at the front desk they greet me with open arms and then I remind them that I’m an elite member and I’m upgrading my room to the available suite they just told me they have. Hard for them to say it’s not available now they would be lying. They always give it to me. Don’t tell the rest of your readers about my trick or they might try it too. Remember if they lie and play games they can be liable for $2,500 violation for deceptive business practices. They know it and that’s why they give you the room even if they did not want to in the first place
It’s the elite status illusion and the lions share of iMarriott customers have taken the bait
In one new full service property they have just done away with breakfast for all elites unless you buy it.
The issue here is…this hotel is in the USA!. I have status with Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton. All they sucks! Hyatt sucks less and Hilton sucks more…but I really have very low expectations and try not to waste my points or money at properties in the US. Overseas the story is different and I get a suite with Marriott most of the time.
Reading the flawed logic of AC and DCS for Marriott and Hilton respectively merely serves to validate my loyalty to Hyatt.
I invite them both to continue commenting at every opportunity.
I just slip the FD a Benny and get upgraded to amazing suites all of the time. I did it when I was gold, platinum and titanium. I still do at ambassador. Works like a charm. My $248 per night room on a 5 night stay turns into a $600+ night room for a mere $100.