SFO777

Guess I lucked out. Any idea what suite I did get? It was #2402.

kkl

looks like a st regis suite.

was there kitchenette behind the dining table ?

SFO777

Yes, there was a kitchenette and half bath.
Very nice upgrade indeed.

Kacee

Agreed. The CA suites are on the corner and have windows on two walls in the living room (plus a different bedroom layout).

olindacat

I had that view from a Carline Astor suite. We didn't have a kitchen but saw horses running during a rain once. It was lovely sitting there in our robes. The pool there was nice, and breakfast was super.

Will08

With the policies in place and their track record this was most likely an upgrade for operational reasons but quite ironic in a post discussing the issues with too many plats in Thailand and a plat wrongly advertises their room upgrade as the lowest possible suite category in the building.

As for the repeat guest argument, if a hotel is full due to discounts for locals then it is not possible for them to give you an upgrade to show their appreciation nor can they reserve you a seat in their packed out lounges.

The only hotels where you can avoid this is where locals are still priced out of the market despite the discount as it it limited to 3,000thb a night, for example the aforementioned St Regis which means mentioning it in this thread is completely pointless.

Le Meridien Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, JW Khao Lak excellent repeat custom recognition to name a few but have been terrible in recent times due to the discount for locals where as somewhere like W Koh Samui has not been affected.

Things will be back to normal next year and all will be forgiven or at least that is what the hotels are hoping for

UKTraveller4Fun

This is not just an issue in Thailand, same in Europe and probably everywhere. Several hotels I have stayed at a lot and GM's I know say it is now impossible to satisfy the elite members of Marriott as there are just to many of them. Titanium is an issue as well as Plat, they often don't have enough ability to upgrade ambassador guests let alone anyone else and the properties with lounges they have to cut back on the quality of what's being offered as they don't have room for the number of guests so have to over flow to the bars.

On top of that Marriott market the status as if it means sometime but give it away and leave the hotels having to deal with it and the resulting complaints when the hotel cannot upgrade the guests or there is a queue for breakfast.

Marriott made the mess and essentially ruined it for te actual guests that earned the status, but leave hotels reputations paying the price and hence getting rid of Benifits they don't absolutely have to offer.

PES_B1

In the Chinese form, we describe this phenomenon as "钛金满地走，白金多如狗" “Titanium elites walking everywhere, platinum elites as many as dogs”

dw

The exact same thing is happening with the US airlines due to industry consolidation-- ridiculously long upgrade lists (I think the longest I have seen reported is 90+ elites on a Delta upgrade list) and long lines to enter airline club lounges (seems to primarily impact Delta).

Marriott's overall footprint is huge, but undoubtedly there are individual properties in popular tourist (and previously, and likely in the future once again, business) destinations that are going to get a disproportionally high number of elites.

DallasEsq

There are probably too many Plats given how easy it is to get (i.e. two cards plus stays during double EQNs can get you there with 10 nights, and less if you get EQNs with CC spend). However, if a hotel can't satisfy the ambassador guests, that's a problem because the number of those should be relatively consistent given the spend requirement.

SP03

What's a Taobao platinum?

Kacee

Marriott has waived the spend requirement to requalify the last two years. Im still Ambassador based on 2019 spend.

Radiation Station

So you’ve had no spend requirement at all since 2020? You’ve just had to hit the 100 nights?

Kacee

Status for all was rolled over in both 2020 and 2021. I think I had 97 nights last year, definitely did not hit the spend.

MSPeconomist

Last year the spend requirement was reduced from $20,000 to $14,000.