Sorry ... some of us disagree. This is a published program benefit and there's nothing wrong with the OP raising this issue at the property. OP helps all of us by pushing this issue and I appreciate it. For those of us who spend 100+ nights a year in Marriotts, its nice to reliably have a suite that feel a little more like home, even if its a short work trip.

This is an easy benefit for the property ... they have 9 empty suites that they could -- and should -- use to preupgrade repeat guests or those at Ambassador or PPE levels before arrival. Instead, the housekeeping manager wants to keep them empty unless paid because cleaning a suite messes up housekeeping metrics.

Do you have evidence of this? I highly doubt this is the reason at all why elites are not being upgraded...at least not without pushing. Maybe your comment was tongue-in-cheek.

Besides, Marriott or some properties could easily say, "Hey, we've gone ahead and upgraded you to a suite but would appreciate if you used the Make A Green Choice available to you." That would solve the housekeeping metrics issue right there. But, again, I don't think this is the driver. And many elites would likely push back on this.

-RM

Not tongue-in-cheek.

There are many hotels with empty suites even though they have qualifying elites and repeat guests -- yet like the Schaumberg property, they have made the decision to keep the suites empty rather than treat their best guests even though the program rules provide they should upgrade guests.

I'm open to ideas on why a hotel would make that decision ... fear of missing out on the last minute purchase (which seems pretty unlikely), unempowered or lazy FDA or Rooms Director, or housekeeping metrics.

From my non-FT life, believe it is sometimes housekeeping metrics. I'm not in the hospitality industry but know that in any major hotel, there are regular staff meetings involving those at the director level and housekeeping is very focused on metrics ... number of rooms cleaned by housekeeping/hour or similar metric and those are reported up within different franchisees. That's easy if everyone is in the same size room .... housekeeping doesn't get any different metrics for concierge level or other rooms because they are all basically the same size. Late checkouts and suites mess with the metrics and the housekeeping manager is focused on bonus driven metrics. So, a metrics driven housekeeping director will push the GM who may be more focused on metrics than on keeping guests happy and may not immediately realize it is impacting RevPAR/occupancy rates or guest satisfaction.

I'm open to other ideas as to why some properties chose to ignore the T&C

Ill add that Hyatt sends me surveys on every stay. If Marriott did the same, I'd be happy to kill the Medallia scores for properties that don't comply with the T&C. Many hotel GM's have bonuses tied to Medallia scores but seems like Marriott is the weakest on surveys.

As someone said above, Marriott don't care.

Marriott cancelled the Starwood surveys as being either unnecessary or to costly and never looked back.

Why would these properties care if Marriott shows they don't care either.

Marriott: Stay 75+ nights per year and we'll always give you the best available room at check-in
Me: I stayed 75 nights each of the last 10+ and never get the best available room at check-in, what's the best way to handle that violation of our agreement?
hotelboy: You're a DYKWIA

:rolleyes:

Thanks for the perspective on the property. My room faced the interstate and was next to the ice machine room. I wonder why so many elites go back there? I admit the club lounge was pretty nice in that it had a good spread at breakfast compared to most. But I won't stay there again, beyond the snub it's just a bit of hassle with the long walk to lobby and to get around.

Even if there were 80 guests with platinum, platinum premier or ambassador elite statuses I can't imagine they were all ambassador. An ambassador should get the highest preference for any upgrade. If there are 79 platinums or platinum premiers and 1 ambassador for 9 suites then 1 of the suites should go to the ambassador and the other 8 suites should be upgraded based on the time of check-in. Period.

The fact that the Renaissance property in question admitted its noncompliance is shocking. You should escalate the matter with your ambassador for sure.

Who manages this property? I presume it's a third-party management company.

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Most likely because of what I already mentioned...fantastic corporate rates. My corporate rate is better at the Ren than the Marriott over on Martingale Dr.

The only thing I'd disagree with here is the remaining 8 PPE should be prioritized by recurring stays. The more recurring stays the higher priority for an upgrade. Of course room blocks for duration of stay may be a factor. But it should NOT be based on check-in.

-RM

That's absurd. The terms and conditions state an upgrade is based only on the time of check-in. Period. The whole point of Marriott's soon-to-be renamed Bonvoy program is marketing. Properties shouldn't be operating separate marketing schemes that undercut the loyalty program.

I got an upgrade at the weekend to a superior room but only because they'd given me a room with a queen bed despite a king being reserved (the queens are just standard rooms and indeed the more basic of their hotel rooms)! This seems to happen most times I have reservations in the Edinburgh Marriott and you wonder if anyone actually looks at what was booked before allocating rooms!

I mentioned it in one of the last surveys I got about the wrong room type being allocated and whoever it was replied saying it was a one off... no a one off is actually giving me the room I've booked!

If the T&C state an upgrade is based only on the time of check-in, why do you insist the Ambassador guest should get one of the nine suites and then the other 79 PE and PPE would be assigned based on check-in time?