SanDiego1K

I just booked a suite at the Copenhagen Marriott. I was delighted to find I could assure myself of a suite for 50% over the points level for a standard room. A base room is 40K points per night. I was offered a junior suite at 55K/night and a full suite at 60K/night. We'll be going at a time of year when I expect the hotel to be completely sold out. I don't expect an upgrade so am happy to be able to book the room where I'd like to stay. Is the 50% delta standard for Marriott? Do all full service Marriotts offer suites?

For comparison, Starwood offers suites at 2x the base level points. Hyatt offers suites at 60% over base levels. Hilton doesn't have a consistent delta. I've done it several times and it is quite random, as much as 2x base level. So this redemption at Marriott is better value than I've seen elsewhere.

joshua362

The only thing I've seen consistent in the past is 5,000 upcharge per night per bedroom usually at resorts, timeshares and Residence Inns. Never saw your opportunity or a FS (in the US) offer this online. This is great if it expands. Nice find.

pharmawalk

When we stayed at the JW Marriott in Cancun recently, the suite we reserved was ~45% over base room rate.

Kagehitokiri

might be experimenting as they work on unified loyalty program?

SkiAdcock

Does that mean SPG has different point levels to upgrade standard rooms? If so, maybe. If not, probably not related.

Cheers.

SanDiego1K

Yes, it does. You can't do it online, you have to call. It varies by hotel as to what is offered, but there are sometimes several point steps between a standard room and a suite. What is standard is the fact that a suite costs 2x points of a base room.

pharmawalk

With SPG, I wouldn't use points on an upgrade. Have always been upgraded to something nice with SPG.

For Marriott, i would spend the points on the upgrade when making my reservation. Just my feeling about which loyalty program I trust to honor my status.

Kagehitokiri

SPG is a standardized system, using category 7 as an example >

hhoope01

I don't think this is anything different than Marriott hotels have been doing for years. A junior suite requires a base award (40K/night) plus 3 upgrade certs (3*5K or 15k/night) for a total of 55K/night. An Executive suite requires 4 upgrade certs for a total of 60K/night (which just happens to be 50% more points.) And for completeness, a waterview room costs 1 upgrade cert/night. An executive level waterfront room costs 2 upgrades per night.

So it looks like this nothing new and just a hotel's use of the 5K/night upgrade cert award structure.

SanDiego1K

Thank you. This is great to know. It's a very nice feature of the program to which I haven't paid sufficient attention.

3Cforme

For SPG non-elites, room upgrade premiums can make sense. Premiums can make sense when standard award rooms aren't available. Even for Plats, if there's a need for a specific non-standard award room type, better to reserve it.

hhoope01

As joshua362 mentioned, upgrade certs are seen more often at resorts and suite properties like RIs. But has you have found other hotels do make use of them as well.

And maybe out of the merger with Starwood, we may start seeing them offered at even more hotels.

Kagehitokiri

is upgrade cert standardized, or can hotels set whatever (number) they want?

kkl

Not all properties offer award redemptions into "premium" rooms??

Looked at a few tip marriott eu properties and only base room or premium room with cash component available