Originally Posted by
bhrubin
Thanks for laying it out! But I think you missed two of the biggest factors in getting upgrades:
(1) Occupancy. A sold out or very high occupancy hotel is much less likely to be able to upgrade one to a better room, let alone a suite. The hotel isn't going to upgrade an elite to even a better room category if there are other paying guests who actually booked those better room categories--which is all but certain when hotels are sold out or at near capacity..
Sure. The hotel has less flexibility in assigning rooms when a hotel is fully sold.
But even with high occupancy, the hotel still has to determine which arriving guests will get which rooms. Consider a hypothetical hotel with 300 rooms where guests stay an average of 3 nights. On an average day, 100 rooms check out and 100 rooms check in. Some of those rooms will be much better than others. Of course, arriving guests who reserved higher-priced categories should be assigned to accommodations in those categories (or higher). For "run of the house" rooms, the hotel could assign rooms randomly — or the hotel can make a genuine effort.
I think most of us want the hotel to make an effort.
Originally Posted by
bhrubin
(2) Suite number and proportions. A hotel with few suites proportionally isn't going to be able to upgrade one to a suite as easily as one with more suites proportionally. It's both about the absolute number of suites and the proportion of suites. Booking hotels with more suites as per both tends to allow for better chances for suite upgrades.
This gets back to the physical design of the hotel.
Originally Posted by
bhrubin
Most people ignore these to their own peril.
I've been on FlyerTalk a long time. It's been interesting to me that some folks here claim "never" to get upgraded, while others claim "always" to get upgraded. I think this comes down to the definition of
upgrade. Some folks only consider suites to be upgrades, while others are quite happy to get a desirable room on a high floor on the side of the hotel with the better view.