I don't think its entitlement. I think someone with Titanium or Ambassador expects a nice upgrade, if available. I've had FD Managers tell me that when occupancy levels are really high, upgrades can be tough because they have to make sure everything without status at least got the room type they booked, and there can be much less wiggle room for upgrades (less when there are lots of premium room type guests, more when there's a large in-house group that just booked a bunch of standard rooms and will take whatever the FD gives them at check in).

I appreciate the honesty and move on; its rare I feel these days that any hotel is "holding back."

Not sure how you worked this out...since I hit Titanium I've had suites at my last 3 stays. Plat I never had a suite upgrade.

I won't hit Ambassador but my buddy has been one for almost 2 years now and he is 99% upgraded to suites. He is like those on here that moan it doesn't have good benefits but he ALWAYS gets suites. That's a pretty good benefit imo.

Agree 100%. I had a similar stay at Renaissance Barcelona last year. No upgrade whatsoever and a wall in front of my window in an amazing city like Barcelona! I sent an email to the Guest Relations Mgr who had contacted me before arrival.When I returned from dinner, the Front Office Mgr contacted me and apologized profusely. He said they would use this as a training experience for the front desk staff. Then he offered to move me to a room with a street view. It was already 7:30 pm by that time, so I declined the move. He offered me 15K pts as a goodwill gesture. Nice recovery.

Just because there are no suites available, doesn't mean that your top tier members need to get the worst room in the house. Call me entitled if you wish.

You got the room you booked, yes? And you want them to give the "worst" room to someone who booked a better room? What are we missing here?

I think there are 2 differing points/issues being commented on. The difference stems from the following comment "Now in each case hotel was sold out but I don’t really see that as an excuse to not provide any kind of upgrade."

That can be interpreted as an expectation that a high level elite should expect an upgrade even if that requires the hotel to downgrade someone else who made and received a reservation for a higher level of room. But I'm guessing the OP didn't really mean for it to be interpreted that way. What I think was really meant was that within a level of rooms, there are probably some rooms that might be considered "better" than others (i.e. better view, away from noise, etc.) Higher level elites should be able to expect that if no upgrades are available, then they should at least be able to get a more preferred room within the room category they reserved.

Nobody is suggesting that a guest who booked a higher category room should be downgraded to a lower category room, just so that a Titanium Elite member can be upgraded.

At many hotels, the majority of rooms are the same base category (often called "Deluxe," but essentially just standard rooms). Some of those rooms are clearly more desirable than others. Some rooms might have open views from high floors; other rooms might look onto the side of another building; still other rooms might look directly onto mechanical equipment. Views aren't the only factor. There's also noise, convenience, and room size (especially at older hotels and or hotels in adaptive reuse buildings).

Should the Titanium Elite guest be assigned to a more desirable room within that category, even if there are no upgrades possible to a large corner room or suite? I think so.

Assign the least desirable rooms to Priceline "name your own price" customers. Assign ordinary rooms to ordinary customers. And try to take better care of high-tier Elite members.

It seems some hotels put more effort into room assignments than others.

This is uncalled for and not in the spirit of FT! :td:

IMO, elites get their status because they were loyal to Marriott.
So I believe its normal that Marriott should look after their elites better.
The rest, random people book from 3rd parties website definitely should have lower priority than Bonvoy own elites.

Even if higher category room not available, its not hard to juggling the room assignment for these higher floor / proximity to the lifts preferences to be followed.
To assign a room facing wall and/or didn't follow the preference of the said elites is quite poor form for the hotel.
Those high floors, away/near lifts is indeed not guaranteed but since it was clearly written then hotel should do their best to fulfill those.

The fact remains that when a hotel is sold out, we cannot expect and are not entitled to anything more than that which we booked.

Elite status doesn't obviate the simple fact of a hotel being sold out. Believing otherwise is the very definition of entitlement: the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.

Getting the room category one booked isn't at all inappropriate for anyone, let alone an elite guest in a sold out hotel. Just because we don't love the room or its view doesn't mean that we didn't actually get a better room in that category than we might have otherwise. There is no way for us to know--and the details provided do not indicate otherwise. It's possible that the room assigned was a better room than was booked. It's possible that it wasn't.

We don't have any idea about how the room was booked, how many rooms are in that category, how long the stay duration impacted the room assignment, how many other Titaniums were present paying higher rates who might have higher priority, how many Ambassador elites were present with higher priority, how many Titaniums or Ambassador guests might be repeat guests and therefore have higher priority, etc.

If we are comfortable discussing the possible mistakes a hotel or loyalty program can make, we also should be just as comfortable discussing the possible mistakes a guest can make in assuming things that aren't necessarily true or deserved.

Is there a chance that people are talking at cross purposes here, perhaps slightly in a game of online oneupmanship?

It strikes me that bhrubin is correct that one can't expect an upgrade in a hotel which is sold out (though luckily they're still possible more often than not), but equally what others have been pointing out is that in the inventory of the base category of rooms there are often a handful which stink from the kitchen, are right over the nigthclub and face a wall. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me for hotels to ensure that top level elites avoid those rooms.

Not at all. Until we realize the fairly common scenario that being one of many Titaniums at a hotel doesn't necessarily make one as "top level" as one might presume or prefer. Assuming otherwise is another example of...

it could be the complete opposite....earlier this year i stayed at an airport springhill suites before an early morning flight & the manager told me that i was the first ambassador guest to ever stay there....so one of the many titaniums there would have been at the top before i stayed there....

having said that, i realise the example above is not the norm....but its entirely possible that there would be plats & golds or even non-bonvoy members who could have booked a similar category room that escapefromphl booked....even at a sold out hotel, i wouldn't call it entitlement if escapefromphl expected to get a better room than those with a lower tier who booked the same room type....