Originally Posted by
ohange
These premiums go in this order: Sales office - for the purpose of rewarding the "chief" of whatever event is going on in the hotel, if any... If no one in sales has blocked them, then they are available for purchase online as premium rooms. If no one books them for the time "you" are staying, they will get passed out to Diamond members, if no Diamond members are in the house, then Gold members.
This isn't correct. GMs and FDMs can pre-block premium suites for frequent guests or others for which they wish to extend the courtesy - exclusive of the "order" claimed above. There are several ES (and other HH) properties at which I stay fairly often, and this courtesy can be extended up to the limit of the HH booking engine, such as for a future conference/convention I will be attending. Additionally, many properties fail to differentiate between Gold and Diamond members, and upgrades are often first-come, first-served.