FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Upgrade using cash on reward night......am I being ripped off?
Old Jan 15, 2018 | 2:16 pm
  #5  
VA1379
10 Countries Visited20 Countries Visited30 Countries Visited20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium (former PP), Hilton Silver, UA Silver, AS Member, Hertz 5*
Posts: 3,906
It doesn’t matter where you earned the points. What matters is how many rooms they have sold that night. If their current occupancy rate for your award night is 70 %, Marriott is not going to compensate them at the higher amount. They will be lucky to get $100 from Marriott for a category 9 award night. Even if I round that up to 100 euros and add 30 euros to what you are proposing to pay extra for the upgrade, I end up with the hotel getting 130 euros for the suite that they are asking for 290 euros. 130 euros is assuming a generous award amount from Marriott with normal occupancy levels. No revenue manager is going to offer to sell their suites at a discount of over 58 % to make a guest seeking an award happy. They would rather keep the suite open to either upgrade a paying guest who is paying 200 euros with a corporate rate, upgrade an elite guest paying closer to the best available rate or upgrade someone who stays often at that hotel (top 10 or top 50 guest by annual nights at hotel). They may also prefer to keep the suite for group bookings where suites are given away for bringing a certain amount of business to the hotel.
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