Originally Posted by
SP03
The whole point of the SNA under Starwood was to prevent hotels from gaming the upgrade system. It's clear from your description that the hotel is trying to bypass it. I would be pretty upset if this happened to me, but frankly I'm not surprised after reading about St Aspen charging $1000 for someone arriving a day later due to a flight delay.
I would try to reach out to Marriott before your stay and ask them to confirm that you are in a suite since you got the email notification. I feel it would be better to have Marriott advocate on your behalf, since you are using a Marriott SNA . Once you get to the hotel, you really don't have any leverage anymore.
Marriott advocate for a customer? That would be extremely unlikely, especially at this property.
Did the "OP" get an email saying that the SNA request was confirmed or does the "OP" just see a different room category indicated when looking at the online reservation?
"OP" should print multiple hard copies of the confirmation to bring to the hotel and be prepared to fight. It would also be wise to make sure that the hotel doesn't intend to charge the "OP" lots of additional money for the suite upgrade, if it happens.