Rate discrimination?

I’ve been a PLT for about a year now and travel extensively in the US, some 75 nights in the last 6 months alone. I often stay a full week at certain repeating properties amongst shorter stays at others.

I’ve only been upgraded to a Jr. Suite or a great view once in all this time. I also often arrive Sunday nights to a dead hotel but rarely receive a pleasant surprise than a concierge floor upgrade and often that takes asking for.

I’m wondering if my corporately negotiated rate has anything to do with it. It can take a “normally” $289+/night room rate and knock it down to $139 or lower.

Would this be a factor in determining if an upgrade is given? I’m not the loud, demanding and expecting type at the desk but always wonder how these selections are made. More often than not, it seems like the room number is “pre-blocked” already well before I arrive and it becomes an effort to change it.

Thanks for any insight.

Could be numerous factors...

1- uninformed/unknowledgeable staff
2- no upgraded room types available, whether due to sell out or just lack of actual inventory
3- more PLT's than upgrades available (happens more often than one would thing, at which point the upgrades become based on rate)
4- corporate travel agency fails to add your number to the reservation (happens EXTREMELY often)

Upgrades get assigned the night before arrival. If you login to Marriott the morning of your arrival, you can look at your reservation and see if you have gotten an upgrade. I usually place a note in the comment box for an upgrade if I am not a frequent guest. At two hotels in Northern Virginia, I am considered a frequent guest, and there is a note in my file for me to always get an upgrade if it is available.

I pay for my own travel, business and personal. Most of the time I get an upgrade, and my success rate does not depend on the rate I pay. The majority of my stays are on weekend rates, with the rest being in major cities that often have a publicly available discount code. The times I do not get an upgrade are usually when every room is sold out, or when I make a last minute reservation.

Having said that, most of my stays are at two properties in Northern Virginia and several other properties in the United States that have good reputations for treating gold and platinum members well. Once, I checked into the Philadelphia Marriott West with a reservation for 2 double beds (I was on a concierge floor) and asked for an upgrade to a room with a king bed after my plans had changed at the last minute. The guy at the front desk gave me a corner room with extra space and a great view, but he let me know that it was not on the concierge level. I was fine with that, and I did not make a fuss in asking for a change of rooms.

Your lack of upgrades may be due to the fact that you have some stays lasting a week, at least in regard to getting upgrades beyond the concierge level. It is usually harder to get suite or view upgrades for long stays because hotels often want to hold those rooms for people who might pay extra for them. If you are staying at a few properties frequently, I would suggest asking the front desk to put you in a concierge level room on a regular basis.

Its has nothing to do with the rate, with few exceptions it most likely have to do with availability. Just because the hotel is dead on the day your arrive, it does not mean its going to be dead the rest of the week. Hotels will only upgrade you if the upgrade is available throughout the length of your whole stay.

Not sure how this plays in the upgrades but I have noticed that I get rooms at the end of the hall when I am using substantially discounted rates. When I am at the regular rates, I get rooms closer to the elevator.

As an ex desk agent for a CY here's my input.

As one above poster said just because Sunday is dead, if you are staying for more than one night it's possible that they do not have the upgrade available for the rest of your stay.

At the two properties I worked at we did not upgrade the day before - we did it the morning of arrival. Chances are, even if it's not right, because of your negotiated rate your one of the last platinums to get upgraded.

I know that we always upgraded the 1-2 night PLT stays FIRST (not those staying a week or more because we may be able to sell those in that time). THEN we worked down the list from PLTs paying the highest rate to the lowest. So the PLT paying $269 was upgraded before the PLT paying $189, $169, $149 etc.

Not saying that's the right away - just trying to give you some insight into what might be going on.

Makes sense that those paying the highest rates get the best rooms. At Marriott, I don't see that much of a difference in rooms anyway.

Thank you for the responses, especially Mr. MISPLACEDPEBBLES.

You confirm exactly what I am thinking.

Case in point. I've stayed at the Altanta Waverly REN 10 times in the past 3 months. A convention/meeting type hotel that is always pretty full and those not in the know (meeting rate or local company rate) can expect to pay $269+.

I have a $142 rate and am PLT. Dispite putting into the comments "club floor or upgrade please" and a profile request for "high floor", my room is always pre blocked for just a normal room on a lower level. Once the clerk even shared that there was an internal comment attached to my record "do not move".

There is never a problem getting the top 14th club floor but I have to specifically ask for the change at check-in.

Plus this hotel has 13 floors x 4 "corner kings" rooms that are pretty special according to collegues who has gotten them. And a bunch of specially "named" suites. I've never been upgraded. And they don't seem to just be handing them out to the rank & file conventioneers that travel once per year.

Either I'm on some sort of blacklist here and/or just at the bottom of the PLT rate listing.

I often arrive here after midnight, exhusted and in no mood to try and wheel/deal and hate pointing out that my requests were ignored. Any ideas on how to break this logjam?

Thats not been my experience as a PLT. I'm almost always upgraded and my rate is always government rate. I can't think of a time I've never been on C-Level or had lounge access at a Marriott or a Ren. And for the most part I'm given a room on the C-Level. I also had a weekend stay using points at the Downtown Chicago Ren and was given the larger corner rooms, even with using points. So I think your situations are property specific.