I stay frequently at a Courtyard in the Detroit metro area,and am gold. When I first started going there, I was never upgraded. I then had a discussion with the manager,and complained. The manager flat out told me that they would never upgrade to a suite. Further,they would not upgrade to a spa room when the regular rooms were sold out or almost sold out because they could make an extra $20 to $30 per room by selling the spas to customers who needed a room, any room. Her attitude was that maybe I would get an upgrade when staying at a large Marriott, but not at a Courtyard. By the way, since this confrontation with the manager, I have been regularly upgraded to a spa. Clearly, despite what Marriott says in its upgrade policy for golds, it has not required that its Courtyard managers give out the upgrades, but has left it largely to their discretion. For some Courtyard managers, this means they just don't give them out. Finally, rather than being treated as a welcome guest with Marriott, you are faced with accepting a clearly unfair situation that flies in the face of Marriott's policy, or having an unpleasant confrontation with a manager or desk clerk.