Chances of Upgrade in Ritz Carlton Awards
 

Hi,

I am staying at a Ritz Carlton over the July 4 weekend with my MR points. I have two award nights and one paid night. I have to go for the paid night as they did not have any rooms available for awards. The award nights I presume would be standard rooms. I have the paid night in Club/Concierge Level Ocean view at a lot of $$$$ :-( . Would Ritz upgrade the two award nights to the Club/Concierge Level from standard rooms ? If Ritz is not upgrading the two award nights, I plan to change the paid night to a standard room.

I would appreciate if you can share your experience.

Thanks
...mottai

RCs normally don't recognize your Marriott elite status. But it can't hurt to ask when you check-in. Maybe since you are paying for a night with Club access they will let you keep it for your award nights as well. Just don't expect that. Normally, they will offer you a nightly up-charge if you want that type of an upgrade (i.e. $100/night for each award night.) But if they have lots of available inventory for the club level, then maybe you will get lucky.

Yeah, never quite understood why Marriott manages Ritz, but Ritz won't share teh MR program.

As far as rewaqrds, I found that where I needed 40k MR points to get a free ritz room "on an available basis" I found a "last room availablity" reward thru Amex for 35k points, and a suite for 70k points per night that applies at nearly all Ritz Properties.

IME, the upgrade on either MR points redemption, or just plain Marriott Elite status when paying for a room will not happen at a Ritz. Yes, you can ask, but it still won't happen. If you want CL access, expect to pay $100 per day, but you will not get upgraded to the CL floor.

The logic is that wealthy patrons and high level executives do not choose a property based on earning hotel points. So why offer points if it's not part of the hotel selection process?

Which is why Four Seasons has never had a loyalty program.

But not why St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, La Meridien, Conrad, The Waldorf Astoria Collection, and Intercontinental, all of which target the affluent, participate in loyalty programs.

yes it's true all target the affluent however none are truely equal to Raffles, Four Seasons, RZ etc