I stayed at the Ft. Lauderdale Marriott North last week as a Marriott Gold member.

I had booked a "standard" room with a request for a room on "high floor with view". The hotel has 3 concierge floor levels on floors 15 through 17.

When I checked in I was given a room on the 6th floor. I asked the front desk agent if I was assigned an "upgraded room" and he said yes. I then thought maybe I had a corner suite or something, since it was not on a high floor as requested. I then asked if I had access to the "concierge lounge" and he checked his computer and said yes, just use your room key to access the lounge on the 15th floor.

The room on the 6th floor did have a balcony and I have seen these rooms with balconies considered "deluxe rooms" at the www.marriott.com web site. It was not much larger than the standard rooms from what I could tell, the only difference seemed to be the balcony. I was only there for 2 nights, so I accepted the room, even though I would have preferred a higher floor. I wondered why when I requested a "high floor with view", I was assigned the 6th floor out of 17 floors. I wondered why I did not get a room on the concierge floor and figured all those rooms must have been taken and that is why I only got upgraded to a balcony room on the 6th floor.

Now I wonder if I got "upgraded" to a room in the next category and as far as the hotel was concerned, I was not "entitled" to being upgraded to a "concierge level" room as I have been in the past at other full service Marriott hotels.

If this is the case, this is a devalution of the previous "upgrade to the best available room" benefit for Gold members as far as I see it. Many hotel have rooms that they consider "deluxe", that are not on the concierge level floors and it may be that those are the only rooms that Gold members may be able to be upgraded to. If the upgrades are now only to the next "category", I can see how this is not a good thing for Gold members.

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