The Secret Way Marriott Prioritizes Room Upgrades: Interesting Insights

In theory, Marriott Bonvoy has a really generous upgrade policy for elite member, whereby Bonvoy Platinum members and above receive space available suite upgrades. However, as any frequent Marriott guest can attest to, suite upgrades are often few and far between.

While some hotels play games with upgrading guests, in many cases the lack of upgrades is simply due to the sheer number of elite members Bonvoy has, which makes it hard to deliver on those benefits. Along those lines, here are some interesting insights into how Marriott priorities upgrades.

How Marriott Bonvoy prioritizes room upgrades

View from the Wing flags a Reddit post from a Marriott employee, explaining how front desk agents go about assigning room types and prioritizing upgrades. Publicly, Marriott doesn’t really acknowledge how it prioritizes upgrades, with all elite members eligible for upgrades having the same priority, in theory.

Therefore many people may wonder if upgrades are just at the discretion of the front desk, if it’s based on the time that you check-in, or if there’s some algorithm. Here’s what one Marriott employee explains:

The algorithm in GXP (Guest Experiences platform) arranges all guests arriving for each particular day and gives us insights about them one of which is an upgrade dashboard. The dashboard arranges guests arriving that day on an internal points system as to who are the most “valuable” guests to upgrade. Associates at the FD typically just run down that list after NUAs are awarded until upgrades are gone.

So to be clear, Nightly Upgrade Awards are prioritized first (since they clear in advance), and then there’s some sort of internal points system that’s used to rank the priority for upgrades on the day of arrival.

The person was then asked some follow-up questions regarding to what extent this is controlled by the property vs. centrally, and if check-in time matters. Here’s the answer to that:

Yes the upgrade score is wholly outside of the property’s control. The algorithm is complex and proprietary but it’s comprised of spend, status, # of nights etc. GXP gives us a ranked list every day of guests checking in and it’s a great tool to objectively assign upgrades and take the guesswork out of it.

Generally speaking most properties of moderate size and up have a designated person (e.g. Rooms Controller) who reviews all these insights each morning and balances inventory with upgrades. It would be highly unusual for an associate at the FD to then go in and override or “take someone else’s upgrade.” I always get a chuckle when I see others post their grievances about upgrades.

Arrival time usually only plays a factor in smaller properties. For limited room types like suites the Rooms Controller might put in the upgrade by changing the room type but not assigning a room, however if you arrive to early and a suite is not ready it could be given to someone else if you need to check in early.

Lack of transparency with upgrades frustrates people

Based on the above, it seems clear that Bonvoy Ambassador members clear upgrades first, followed by Bonvoy Titanium members, followed by Bonvoy Platinum members. However, beyond that, it’s a bit of a mystery:

• How does Bonvoy lifetime elite status factor into this? Does a lifetime Platinum clear ahead of a non-lifetime Platinum, or does a lifetime Platinum member earning Ambassador status clear before a non-lifetime member earning Ambassador status?
• To what extent does elite nights earned in a particular year factor into upgrade priority?
• For luxury properties, presumably a Marriott STARS booking (or other booking through a program offering an upgrade) would clear ahead of an equivalent booking not booked that way, right?

I think what causes frustration among so many elite members is the complete lack of transparency when it comes to how upgrades are processed. For example, at US airlines, elite members are generally eligible for complimentary upgrades. The upgrade list is really transparent, showing where on the list you are, how many seats are available, etc.

Admittedly I understand why that level of transparency isn’t practical for hotels, since there’s so much more at play, and many factors to consider. However, Marriott doesn’t even publicly acknowledge that a higher tier elite members gets higher upgrade priority than a lower tier elite member.

We’ve seen a trend whereby an increasing number of hotels have started posting signs with how many elite members are checking in on a particular day. While many people find that to be tacky, I at least appreciate that this offers a little bit of transparency into the process. Like, if half of the rooms are occupied with members who have Bonvoy Platinum status and above, it’s not surprising that upgrades may be limited.

Bottom line

Marriott isn’t very transparent about how elite upgrades are prioritized, so it’s interesting to get some insights from someone working the front desk at a hotel. Marriott reportedly has an internal system that automatically ranks upgrade priority for guests checking in on a particular day.

Hotels apparently generally follow this as they work their way through assigning rooms. This also explains why you might check into a hotel and still see lots of suites for sale, but not be assigned such an upgrade. With how inflated elite ranks are, it’s rare for there to be more available suites than elite members eligible for upgrades.

What do you make of how Marriott reportedly prioritizes upgrades?