Toukolou

In all fairness, if a 1 tier upgrade room is showing as available on the Marriott website as I'm checking in, it ought to be offered to me. Full stop. Talk of "upgrade pool" seems to give any and all properties the opportunity to entirely opt out of upgrades if they choose to. Which goes against, if not the explicit terms of the t&c, certainly the spirit of the program.

kaizen7

WillBarrett_68

I don't think one incident with a presidential suite is a good anecdote to base a theory on. Presidential suites are almost certainly unbooked for long stretches on average and are almost never booked at the last minute. Normal suites have a much different dynamic.

geminidreams

The elite that has stayed there 50 times over the past 2 years and is checking in 2 hrs later may have a different perspective. Its a business and they will operate the business to maximise profit. You may think you are important but there maybe others who are more important. In some hotels you may be one of their better clients. As a Plat I have achieved suites about 70% of the time in hotels that have them. Only once have I ever complained about not getting a suite and they moved me on the second night of a 5 night stay. As a gold with SPG I had 3 upgrades to suites so I have been very satisfied with my outcomes.

EuropeanPete

MSPeconomist

Toukolou

It's got nothing to do with my sense of self-importance and everything to do with the stated perks in the membership t&c. Seems pretty clear to me. Room is available to book for the length of my stay, it should be offered as upgrade.

Again all of these conditions you're all quoting might be true, but they clearly go against the spirit of the program. Arbitrarily deciding there are no upgrades available, when the booking site clearly says there are, regardless of the "reality" of the situation, is a misuse of their discretion.

geminidreams

Its been discussed many times before. Not all suites are part of the upgrade pool, not all suites under a description are part of the upgrade pool, hotels will sell inventory that may not be available and they will manage that depending on their in house criteria. Unless you can look at their inventory you do not know what is available and you dont know if the upgrades have already been allocated to other elites. What shows on the website is not useful what is the actual situation. If you need a suite book it. If you dont need it what is your complaint? You do not and never will be in a position to know the true inventory position. You can argue at the desk all you like but what are you arguing about, that the Marriott website says something and they dont agree? Its a marketing tool not an inventory management tool, dont pretend it means anything! I have been well looked after, especially the hotels that I have stayed in regularly. I know one hotel that has a renowned reluctance to upgrade but I like the hotel and even if I dont get a suite I always get a good room with a view.

MSPeconomist

kaizen7

It hard to check upgrade availability based on Bonvoy apps availability due various reasons mentioned earlier.

While I personally wish the hotel to be more transparent about inventory, unfortunately due to business reason it will be next to impossible.

I agree that hotels should do their best to accommodate upgrades for the elites as per t&c after all elites have shown loyalty to the chain by manage to reach the said tiers with set amount of spend as well (Ambassadors)

Unfortunately not all hotels do this. Some manage to accommodate elites even on their busy period, and some manage to disappoint elites during their quiet period.

Honestly speaking, I prefer Marriott reduce their promise (upgrade to the best available room including suites etc etc) and provide elites with guarantee 1 or 2 category upgrades (tier dependent)and hotel need to compensate members if they failed to fulfill the guarantee (similar to IHG Ambassador I believe)
It will be easier to manage by forcing the non compliant hotels to provide monetary compensation and also reduce the elites expectation on check in.

kaizen7

Problem is ... hotel inventory is not transparent to the member through the apps.
Non compliant hotel will claim that the online inventory is not updated real time and or other excuses.

I can say I experience this myself, check the apps and show that junior suites and all room categories were available for the duration of my stay and yet only to have no upgrade on check in.
Asked on check in about upgrades and receive the usual our hotel is fully booked answer.

EuropeanPete

damon88

You misunderstood my post. I was not basing my conclusion on one stay. I just found Suiran's comment extremely interesting.

My conclusion is based upon many many 5+ night stays that were upgraded to Suites. These are just the SNA ones:

SUITE NIGHT AWARDS

2014 St Regis Florence 5

2015 St Regis Aspen 5

2016 Sheraton Maui 5

2016 Suiran ( pending SNAs “failed” but hotel upgraded us to Presidential Suite for 8 nights)

2017 Park Tower Knightsbridge 5

2018 St Regis NYC 5

2019 Hotel Alfonso XIII 5


That is six 5 night SNA reservations that upgraded to Suites. I have 2 more pending (Las Alcobas & St Regis Hong Kong) plus 2 more I plan to apply as soon as I can (Gritti Palace & St Regis Venice) In my experience longer stays have not negatively impacted my SNA redemptions.

chipmaster

1. I find the entitlement thinking of elites a bit overboard. I stay a lot ( 119 nights YTD ) and when available love an upgrade as a perk as anyone. I expect the hotels chains and local service to acknowledge both their regular as well as the brand elites equally, but in reality I have always experience better treatment, extra service and better upgrades when I become a regular then when I first showed up as an elite.

I think those that see a certain class room available at time of check-in yet don't get the upgrade assume too much. 1) is it available the whole duration of the stay? 2) is there another elite with prioritized ahead of you, 3) perhaps the allocate for upgrades is limited? They do state " subject to availability" What matters isn't that a room is available, it comes down to whether "they" have availability.

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