Marriott Tests An Airline-Style Upgrade Waitlist—Showing Where Your Elite Status Really Puts You

Marriott is testing an airline-style upgrade waitlist in its app. One Titanium member saw themselves second in the queue with zero upgrades available, then watched their position slip to third. More transparency is better. Airlines publish how they rank-order upgrade requests, while hotels are usually more secretive about it and there can be a lot more variance in how upgrades are delivered at the hotel than at an airline gate. Marriott’s ‘Nightly Upgrade Awards’ are processed in advance of the stay, and managed centrally by the chain out of a hotel’s published (limited) upgrade inventory. At check-in all open rooms are supposed to be available, but Marriott no longer requires hotels to upgrade elite members to suites (no longer promises ‘best available room including suites’). And with Marriott there are really two separate challenges. The number of people ahead of you – there’s just a ton of Marriott elite members. Hotels restrict inventory that’s allotted for upgrade (since they hold back anything that they conceivably might sell) and even then – on day of arrival – keep suites out of their upgrade pool by leaving them uncleaned, or not marking them ready, unless someone pays for one. The report comes from a member of the Marriott Bonvoy Insiders Facebook group showing their position in line for an upgrade, and notification a day before arrival if an upgrade clears. The member added several details in the comments: They weren’t using Nightly Upgrade Awards. This was a complimentary upgrade based on status. The feature appeared during mobile check-in, two days before arrival. They had reservations at two different hotels while finalizing plans. The list appeared for SpringHill Suites, but not for the Marriott hotel they were also considering. They have Titanium status, and their position subsequently dropped to third. Other members said they weren’t seeing it. So far, this is a limited beta sighting. Marriott Already Ranks Guests For Upgrades Back in October 2023, a Reddit thread discussed almost exactly this feature: show available suites and an upgrade list in the app. Someone responding from the hotel side explained that Marriott already ranked guests, but properties treated the list as guidance and decided how to handle upgrades themselves. I covered Marriott’s internal upgrade rankings in May 2025. Hotels received an ordered list of arriving guests, with an internal score recommending whom to upgrade. The formula wasn’t public, including how Marriott broke ties between members with the same status. Then came the automated upgrade rollout I covered in July 2025, commonly described as Marriott’s AI upgrade system. The computer could process upgrades before arrival, reducing work for hotel staff. Hotels still controlled which room categories entered the pool and retained control over room assignments. One employee reported that the automated system assigned a Gold member a two-bedroom suite for five nights ahead of arriving Platinums and Titaniums. Another said they’d seen lower-tier members receive higher internal upgrade scores. In the 2025 rollout discussion, an employee described a limit of 50% of the eligible inventory remaining after Nightly Upgrade Awards being used for automated complimentary upgrades, with the rest left for the hotel. The same employee said their 171-room property had just one qualifying room. A Suite For Sale Isn’t Necessarily Available For An Upgrade Nightly Upgrade Awards, formerly Suite Night Awards, only make rooms available Marriott thinks won’t sell. In my June 2023 reporting on internal Marriott communications, the company explained that these upgrades came from inventory: that is not forecasted to sell – either through distribution channels or front-desk upsell initiatives The hotel designates which room types participate, and then Marriott decides how much of that inventory to release, based on what they think the hotel can still sell. A junior suite may be available for cash for your entire stay and still fail to clear with an upgrade award. Under the current rules, award processing starts as early as five days before arrival at most brands, or three days at EDITION, Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis. Unsuccessful requests stop being checked around 2 p.m. hotel time the day before arrival. The internal material I published when automated upgrades launched referred to the system checking remaining Elite Upgrades Inventory. Having an award rejected doesn’t mean you can’t get a complimentary upgrade later. The hotel can make a different decision when they preblock rooms or when you check in. However, Marriott also removed its promise of the best available room in May 2025. Suites are included among possible upgrades for Platinum members and above, subject to availability upon arrival for the whole stay, but they no longer promise the best available option. A hotel can give you a higher floor while keeping a suite unsold and not violating its rules at all. Some Hotels Make Suites Unavailable By Not Cleaning Them I’ve written about why hotels would rather leave a suite empty than put an elite member in it. A larger room costs more to clean. If the guest is paying the same amount either way, upgrading them increases the hotel’s expense. Some properties manage this by not cleaning suites until they’re booked. Others delay marking already-cleaned suites as inspected and ready. An unoccupied room can still be treated as unavailable for immediate assignment. The hotel keeps offering the suite for sale and a paid booking prompts staff to clear it. I covered an Ambassador member’s experience at the St. Regis Washington D.C. where suite requests failed despite multiple categories being for sale. At 6 p.m., the guest was told the suites hadn’t been cleaned. An automated list still depends on what the hotel makes available. Several Facebook commenters welcomed the feature as a way to quiet complaints from entitled elites. I don’t buy the idea that asking a hotel to deliver a promised benefit is unreasonable. Showing guests their position could help them understand a denial, but it also helps to explain the inventory behind it. And seeing where you stand risks revealing to most members just how unspecial they actually are in the Marriott ecosystem. (HT: One Mile at a Time) Topics on this page