Last November, Marriott announced changes were coming to their Suite Night Awards and these changes are now official with a phased system update this week. Suite Night Awards have now become Nightly Upgrade Awards and with this change they can be used at more hotel brands and the window for confirmation upgrade requests has been shortened. Marriott is requesting that member update the app in order to see the changes.
Nightly Upgrade Award
The Suite Night Award (SNA) is now known as the Nightly Upgrade Award (NUA). The new name is better suited to describe the award as not all upgrades are to a Suite but can be for preferred rooms. With the change Marriott has stated there will be be nearly 20% more premium rooms and suites available for upgrades across all participating brands with features like oceanfront rooms, balconies, and extra space.
More hotels to use the awards at
The NUAs can now be used at Aloft, EDITION, Element, Protea Hotels, and The Ritz-Carlton in addition to all the hotel brands that you have been able to use SNAs at. The following are exceptions for NUAs:
Nightly Upgrade Awards will not be redeemable at the following Brands/brand extensions: All-Inclusive Resorts, Bulgari, Design Hotels™, Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy®, Marriott Executive Apartments®, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club®, The Ritz-Carlton Club®, Ritz-Carlton Reserve®, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Sheraton Vacation Club, The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale, and Westin Vacation Club.
Shorter Confirmation Window
The 5 day before arrival confirmation window for SNAs has been shortened to 3 days for the NUAs.
Wrapping it up
Both good and not so good news in regards to these changes. The good news is having more hotel brands and room options to use the awards at, the not so good is the shortened confirmation window. Three days prior to arrival almost seems to have been done on purpose to discourage members trying to shift or cancel stays to another location where they may have better luck getting the upgrade – well, at least for those locations that have 72 hour cancellation rules.