BonVoy Suite night award question

[Bill4728]

We have two "free night awards" from our credit card both good for 35K points So I thought they would work for cat 5 hotels But when I tried to reserve at a cat 5 the website said I needed 75K pts (37.5K/nt) Having never seen a room cost 37.5K I checked what a single night would cost and it was 40K and at a nearby cat 4 hotel it was 30K a night (But 55K for 2 nights)
I don't ever remember getting a discount on multiple nights and I thought a Cat 4 was 25K/night and a cat 5 was 35K/night.

What is going on?

 

[jabberwocky]

You're probably running into "peak" pricing. Bonvoy now has a dynamic point cost structure for rewards based on demand. The standard Cat 5 is 35,000. Peak pricing is 40k and off-peak you can get for as little as 30k.

Most likely one of your nights is peak and the other is standard. (Cat 4 would be 30k peak and 25k standard = 55k)

https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/pointsGridPopUp.mi

 

[jtp1947]

Click on flexible dates and the month you want. Chances are you will see different point redemption's for different nights.

 

[ljmiii]

We have two "free night awards" from our credit card both good for 35K points So I thought they would work for cat 5 hotels But when I tried to reserve at a cat 5 the website said I needed 75K pts (37.5K/nt) Having never seen a room cost 37.5K I checked what a single night would cost and it was 40K and at a nearby cat 4 hotel it was 30K a night (But 55K for 2 nights)
I don't ever remember getting a discount on multiple nights and I thought a Cat 4 was 25K/night and a cat 5 was 35K/night.

What is going on?

Theoretically the peak and off-peak pricing doesn't apply to the Bonvoy card "free" night rewards (35K or 50K) so what the website lists as the cost of the actual night shouldn't matter. Or did you actually try to book the night and have it denied?

 

[Pamplemousse]

We have two "free night awards" from our credit card both good for 35K points So I thought they would work for cat 5 hotels But when I tried to reserve at a cat 5 the website said I needed 75K pts (37.5K/nt) Having never seen a room cost 37.5K I checked what a single night would cost and it was 40K and at a nearby cat 4 hotel it was 30K a night (But 55K for 2 nights)
I don't ever remember getting a discount on multiple nights and I thought a Cat 4 was 25K/night and a cat 5 was 35K/night.
What is going on?

I’m confused-What does this have to do with suite night awards?

I recently used my anniversary free night stay certificate.
I searched for a reservation using points and if the the reservation was possible with my free night certificate it noted that as an alternative to using the points.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I have five Suite Night awards. Supposedly, if I book a standard Marriott (or affiliate) room and they have a higher class room available, I can use the award to upgrade.

So, I went on the Marriott.com site and looked in then Washington DC area (Tyson, Va. to be specific) and I could see a plethora of category 2, 3, and 4 hotels. But I wasn't obvious how I would be able to determine which ones offered two different levels of room (so that I could apply the suite night upgrade). On the Marriott site I looked at three different hotels and I couldn't determine if there were upgradeable rooms.

Has anyone figured an easy way to find a Marriott hotel that could be upgraded?

 

[Pamplemousse]

I have five Suite Night awards. Supposedly, if I book a standard Marriott (or affiliate) room and they have a higher class room available, I can use the award to upgrade.

So, I went on the Marriott.com site and looked in then Washington DC area (Tyson, Va. to be specific) and I could see a plethora of category 2, 3, and 4 hotels. But I wasn't obvious how I would be able to determine which ones offered two different levels of room (so that I could apply the suite night upgrade). On the Marriott site I looked at three different hotels and I couldn't determine if there were upgradeable rooms.

Has anyone figured an easy way to find a Marriott hotel that could be upgraded?

As I recall I was logged into my Marriott account when I searched the dates I needed and looked at the available rooms there it said suite night request was available and told what could be requested. If you have 5 suite nights you need to be looking at 5 or less nights. You have to actually start the booking- it’s not a general thing. Hope that helps.

 

[ljmiii]

I have five Suite Night awards....Has anyone figured an easy way to find a Marriott hotel that could be upgraded?

The 'real' answer was provided by Pamplemousse. But as an intermediate step you can look at each hotel's individual website and see what rooms exist. Most hotels in the Marriott family have either suites or club level rooms or some such.

That said, to find out if your hotel will allow a suite night upgrade certificate to be attached to your particular room on your dates you need to go through the booking process.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Just about every hotel has suite night award capability except exempt ones like Ritz and VC, although some are very minor “upgrades” and certainly not “suites”. It doesn’t mean you will get upgraded though even if they have those rooms available.

One of the better “space” values I have seen is upgrading to a 2BR at residence inn.

Using 5 suite night awards to upgrade a 5 night points reservation can be tough. Not sure if the evil tactic of reserving the desired upgrade room and then canceling it within 5 days if it has say, a 2 or 3 days out cancellation ability will work. The hotel has discretion so they may notice it and just deny it.