There is no such entity as a normal Titanium upgrade pool. There is a standard suite pool from which Platinum, Titanium, and Ambassador guests regularly may be eligible for upgrades based on availability—even as some mere Golds have even received those same upgrades when availability has allowed. At Ritz-Carlton, the standard suite pool is eligible only to Titanium and Ambassador guests, and they seem to almost never allow that to lower tiers.

In cases for both Titanium and Ambassador guests, sometimes a hotel upgrades us to beyond that standard suite pool. im sure that happens to Ambassador guests more than Titanium guests.

Upgrades don’t happen in a vacuum! MANY factors, chief among them availability and hotel occupancy, play a massive role. Your stays could be a hotels when they are at much higher occupancy or during special weekday event periods when more customers are more likely to spend more for the better suites. It’s impossible to evaluate and make direct comparisons as you’re trying to do. Most of my suite upgrade stays came over weekends when I am not competing with other business travelers who are more likely to pay for suites. When are your stays?

You already were booked in a suite and still you believe you’re entitled to more. That is the issue. If you’ve already booked a suite and expect a bump to a higher suite, then you’re already diminishing your argument. There always are going to be VERY few suites above the standard pool of suites. Expecting upgrades beyond those suites is an issue of entitlement and not of the suite upgrade process!

Please kindly note that I was booked already in a suite at the RC Georgetown on my first stay and also didn’t get any further upgrade. You’re complaining about it while I assumed that was to be expected and is normal par for the course. What’s different here is not the suite upgrade treatment but my more honest and realistic expectations.

I did book an Executive Suite at the RC Chicago and got upgraded further to the Gold Coast Suite—but it also was a weekend stay when fewer business and corporate travelers would be paying for higher level suites. So I lucked out with good circumstances. (Except that I was actually quite disappointed with the suite, anyway!)

Perhaps the RC at which you stayed had less availability at those times. Perhaps the RC at which you stayed had fewer suites proportionally than other RC properties. Those details matter.

Depending on availability and occupancy, I certainly hope you get a nice upgrade. But it isn’t guaranteed if the hotel is at higher occupancy or many other guests went ahead and paid for a suite themselves. In Asia, suites are less expensive than in N America in less expensive cities like that. Makes it a lot easier for people to actually pay to get the suites they want—which makes it harder to get the upgrade for those like you.

Same loyalty program. Just we are considering different hotels in very different markets, likely with very different average occupancy levels at the time of booking and our stays. And perhaps my inimitable charm, as you saw firsthand at the StR SF!

We can assume that hotels have all types of data on each Guest, —Years Elite, Lifetime nights, Lifetime spend, Lifetime points, Ancillary spend, Length of stays, Social Influence, Loyalty etc. that they use to calculate a proprietary Guest Score. These algorithms calculate a guest’s value based upon various attributes. We know that Guest Analytics exists and that brands are increasingly utilizing it to build customer loyalty and increase revenue.

Do you typically spend money at the hotel on room service, spa, restaurant, bar etc. ? Are you a recent or frequent guest? Which brands do you typically stay at?

Marriott knows. And you can bet they are collecting and analyzing this data.

I don’t think it’s a mystery that certain guests consistently receive better upgrades.

A Guest Value system was rumored at SPG 15 years ago. And I remember reading an old post from a Hilton member who was denied an upgrade when the hotel showed him he was only a “two star” guest. The technology has only gotten more sophisticated. I believe we are being naive if we don’t expect hotels to use it.

i wonder if the information carried forward from SPG system if we merged into the Marriott number. Even if we merged into the SPG number, it was a new number assigned. Some hotels have their own backend system. I found out a while back because I stayed at this hotel way way back in the day and my old old old email and telephone number showed up on the registration form when I checked in after a decade.

I have never organized a meeting in my life yet I receive similar treatment to BHR. There is something going on. At my recent stay at the StR NYC I made a comment to someone at the desk: “ I love this hotel!” He studied his screen and then gave me a knowing smile. “And I can see the hotel loves you back!”

Was he just looking at our upgraded room type or ??

Luxury hotels should have guest history maintained on their own system.

Is BHR really a *key* meeting organizer? He seems to book smallish groups for mostly one night stays at mid-level hotels without much associated F&B (or other) spend and it's seasonal.

With the CCPA passing in January 1st, it will be interesting if companies like Marriott will have to disclose this information.

The CCPA is complicated but I am not sure it applies:

 Internal-use loyalty clubs are those clubs that “pay customers for their personal information, but keep that information inside the business. These internal-use clubs say to customers: ‘If you join our loyalty program, we will give you a discount, we will track your shopping with us, and we will use your behavior with us to send you targeted ads – but, we will not give data about your shopping with us to anyone else.’ While privacy advocates have concerns about such pay-for-privacy programs, these concerns are partly mitigated by the non-dissemination of the personal information. The CCPA does not apply to such internal-use loyalty clubs, because the CCPA generally does not limit a business’ collection and use of consumer personal information.

I think the key, and for a lawyer to comment, is whether Marriott sharing the information with their numerous franchisees would be considered internal or not. This differs from an airplane loyalty program or a store loyalty program where the information would be kept internally.

Sharing the data with a third party, the franchisees, seems to be a gray area and it’s also worth noting the law is still undergoing several revisions.