"My wife and I stayed in May along with another couple for one night. I’m a member of Marriott Bonvoy program since 1993. I’m a lifetime platinum members and currently a Titanium member. We also have a long standing relationship with Marriott owning several time shares. We had our room booked months in advance of our stay and our friends decided to join us so they also booked the same exact room as us. I requested a room upgrade using one of my Nighty upgrade rewards, formerly known as suite upgrades. As most probably already are aware Titanium status alone would entitle you to a suite upgrade. The nightly rewards upgrade offer you a better chance and are rewards you can pick for your loyalty after 50 nights in a year. So my upgrade on that request was denied. When checking in I asked if there are any upgrades available and didn’t think much of it when the woman who checked us in asked me if I booked on points, which I did. So are friends are gold members and again they booked the same room as us and they were upgraded to a one bedroom suite and they didn’t even ask for it. As most know gold members are entitled to upgrades, just not suite upgrades. So it wasn’t for the lack of suites being available, because obviously there were because they received one. If we weren’t traveling with friends and seen what happened first hand we probably never would have know. I noted it in the survey and the hotel responded but never addressed the concern I had even after I sent another email. I sent an email to Marriott Customer service and after 18 days they finally got back to me with several excuses that the hotel provided, none made sense since the both rooms booked were the same type and basically the hotel jumped over us and just happened to get caught. I believe we were penalized because we used our points. Let me be clear I’m not one to complain and I’m not a person who feels entitled but if Marriott has a set of rules they should be followed. If you promote status one who is loyal to a brand should receive what the rules state. The upgrade should have been provided on status alone and I shouldn’t have had to request one using the nightly upgrades. The status is earned by being loyal to Marriott, so much for loyalty. There were times I spent more money to stay in a Marriott hotel rather than another brand thinking it would help me to build a relationship. I’m just letting people know my experience so that they can be aware that the same thing doesn’t happen to them. Again if we weren’t traveling with friends and seen it first hand we would be none the wiser. It just makes you wonder how many other times this happened without us knowing. Many times I don’t even request an upgrade and just take the room that I booked. I don’t feel special or entitled because of my status I just feel let down because the way everything was handled.
Formerly a loyal member"
