We were trying to book a studio award stay at a Fairfield Inn, and thought I'd share our experience.

The studio was not available as an award on Marriott's website. I called Marriott Rewards customer care and they confirmed it was not available and that there was nothing that can be done. I went ahead and booked the regular room award stay, received my confirmation number, and then called the Fairfield to explain my situation. The manager was very nice and gave us a complementary upgrade to the studio!

So- lesson learned... to me, it seems that in nearly all cases the local hotel has the most authority over this type of thing. I guess this is probably obvious now that I think about it.

My question- Even though they are all 'larger rooms', I'm guessing the terms 'studio', 'suite', (& anything else) have special meaning to Marriott in their reservations system, but I haven't quite been able to decipher the technical differences between them, which do and do not qualify for award stays/etc under varying circumstances.

Thoughts?