Till early 2024, Marriott Bonvoy members might choose Suite Night time Awards as Annual Selection Advantages. After I chosen my Marriott Selection Advantages on Jan. 2, I chosen 5 Suite Night time Awards as my 50-night Selection Profit.
Nevertheless, I knew Marriott would convert Suite Night time Awards to Nightly Improve Awards in early 2024. So, I wasn’t shocked when the Marriott Suite Night time Award adjustments went reside round Jan. 11. This is what it’s essential to know in regards to the new Nightly Improve Awards, together with what they’re and how one can use them.
What’s a Nightly Improve Award (previously Suite Night time Award)?
Nightly Improve Awards — previously often called Suite Night time Awards — allow you to affirm an improve earlier than your keep to an ordinary suite or premium room at most Marriott Bonvoy inns and resorts. The room varieties you’ll be able to receive with Nightly Improve Awards are designated by every collaborating resort or resort however might embrace suites or premium rooms with higher views, balconies, patios or additional house.
You could apply one Nightly Improve Award per night time of your keep. So, if in case you have a five-night keep, you should use 5 Nightly Improve Awards. Nevertheless, it is necessary to know that Nightly Improve Awards can solely be utilized to present reservations for which you have paid an eligible Marriott Bonvoy price or redeemed Marriott factors (together with Marriott points-and-cash charges).
You may request to make use of Nightly Improve Awards till 2 p.m. the day earlier than check-in on your keep. However, even should you submit your Nightly Improve Award request months earlier than your keep, your request will not be thought-about till three days earlier than check-in (Suite Night time Awards used a five-day window for affirmation). And there isn’t any assure that your request might be accredited.
Moreover, the Marriott Bonvoy phrases and circumstances observe you’ll be able to’t use Nightly Improve Awards on the following:
- Ritz-Carlton Reserve, The Ritz-Carlton Membership, The Ritz-Carlton Residences and The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Assortment
- Design Resorts
- Marriott Government Residences
- All-Inclusive Resorts
- Houses & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy
- Marriott Trip Membership, Marriott Grand Residence Membership, Sheraton Trip Membership and Westin Trip Membership
- The Phoenician Residences, a Luxurious Assortment Residence Membership, Scottsdale
- Properties that don’t take part in Marriott Bonvoy
Fortunately, this implies you need to use Nightly Improve Awards at some manufacturers the place you could not use Suite Night time Awards — together with The Ritz-Carlton, Version Resorts, Aloft, Factor and Protea Resorts.
TPG Director of Content material Nick Ewen checked his upcoming stays at a few of these beforehand excluded manufacturers, and he was pleasantly shocked to see all kinds of room selections for his Nightly Improve Rewards. This included the choice to request full suites at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes; Factor Miami Brickell; The New York Version; and Aloft Chicago Magazine Mile. And on the Protea Lodge Fireplace & Ice! Cape City in South Africa, he might request some fascinating bi-level lofts along with his Nightly Improve Awards.
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Associated: Find out how to redeem Marriott factors for upgraded rooms
Find out how to earn Nightly Improve Awards
For exercise inside the 2023 calendar yr, 5 Suite Night time Awards (not Nightly Improve Awards) have been accessible at these milestones. However these Suite Night time Awards have been transformed to Nightly Improve Awards round Jan. 11. So you will now see Nightly Improve Awards in your account should you chosen Suite Night time Awards at any of those milestones primarily based in your account exercise in 2023.
As well as, any earlier requests to make use of Suite Night time Awards previous to the transition to Nightly Improve Awards stay in impact. In that case, Marriott’s assist web page states, “Present Suite Night time Award™ requests will nonetheless be honored and accredited primarily based upon availability.”
Nevertheless, a Marriott spokesperson confirmed to TPG that the brand new, three-day window for confirming these requests will apply.
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Find out how to use Marriott Nightly Improve Awards
You may see what number of Marriott Nightly Improve Awards you could have and once they expire by logging in to your on-line account, clicking in your title within the higher right-hand nook and deciding on “Overview” from the dropdown menu. Doing so will take you to your default account homepage. Scroll to the “Watch your rewards add up” part, and you will see Nightly Improve Awards listed in a field if in case you have any in your account.
Click on “View Awards” beneath your Nightly Improve Awards to verify the expiration dates. Nevertheless, know that Nightly Improve Awards expire Dec. 31 of the yr following the one by which you earned them. So should you select 5 Nightly Improve Awards as a Selection Profit for reaching 50 elite night time credit in 2023, your Nightly Improve Awards will expire Dec. 31, 2024.
Notice that you should use these upgrades for a stick with a checkout date on (or earlier than) the expiration date. So, should you’re trying out from a property on Jan. 1, 2025, you’ll be able to’t use a Nightly Improve Award that expires on Dec. 31, 2024.
Now that you understand how to see what number of Nightly Improve Awards you could have and once they expire, let’s talk about how one can use them. In brief, you’ll be able to apply Nightly Improve Awards to present reservations from inside your Marriott Bonvoy account. Click on on “My Journeys” alongside the highest menu bar whenever you’re logged in to your Marriott Bonvoy account, develop your reservation (if wanted) by clicking “Particulars,” after which click on the “View/Modify” subsequent to the keep for which you wish to use Nightly Improve Awards.
Scroll down and verify whether or not a piece states, “Take an improve. You have earned it.” In that case, click on “Begin Improve Request” to see the room upgrades you might request.
As famous beforehand, the room varieties accessible for Nightly Improve Awards range by property. For an upcoming one-night keep at a Moxy, I solely see one improve possibility that I might request.
To request this Household Sleeper room for an improve, I clicked the verify field subsequent to the room kind after which clicked “Submit Improve Request.” After doing so, a affirmation message appeared, and I acquired an e-mail titled “We Acquired Your Nightly Improve Awards Request.”
You can even accomplish this through the Marriott Bonvoy app. Pull up an present reservation and faucet the bell icon on the high proper. From there, faucet Request Improve, evaluate the room choices, then click on Submit to substantiate the request.
As soon as requested, because the affirmation message and e-mail state, the resort’s system will mechanically begin checking for improve availability three days earlier than your arrival and can proceed checking every day till 2 p.m. sooner or later earlier than check-in. In case your improve is not confirmed by 2 p.m. on the day earlier than check-in, Marriott Bonvoy will cancel your request and return the Nightly Improve Award(s) to your account.
When you change your thoughts or discover a higher use on your Nightly Improve Awards, you’ll be able to cancel your improve request and return unconfirmed Nightly Improve Awards to your account till 2 p.m. on the day earlier than check-in. Nevertheless, you’ll be able to solely cancel confirmed Nightly Improve Awards by canceling your total keep. And you will not get your Nightly Improve Awards again should you cancel your keep later than 2 p.m. on the day earlier than check-in.
To cancel an unconfirmed Nightly Improve Award, head to “My Journeys” in your Marriott Bonvoy account and click on “Modify Request” beneath the observe stating “Your Nightly Improve Award request is pending.”
You may choose totally different room varieties on your improve (if others can be found) or cancel your request on the web page that masses.
I made a decision to cancel my request by clicking “Cancel Request” after which confirmed in a pop-up that I did wish to cancel my improve request.
After canceling my request, I noticed a affirmation of the cancellation on my reservation and acquired a affirmation e-mail.
After I checked my account after canceling my request to make use of a Nightly Improve Award, it had been redeposited instantly.
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My expertise utilizing Marriott improve awards
I’ve traditionally had good luck utilizing Marriott Suite Night time Awards. In 2021 and 2022, my husband and I even used 15 Marriott Suite Night time Awards in 10 months with 100% approval.
Maybe considered one of my favourite Suite Night time Award makes use of was for a two-story suite at The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa in Phuket, Thailand. That property supplied so many several types of rooms by Suite Improve Awards that it appeared unattainable to not have my improve clear.
Nevertheless, the JW Marriott Lodge Bogota in Colombia assigned me a worse room kind after my Suite Night time Award cleared in August 2021. A dialogue with the supervisor at check-in — throughout which I confirmed my Suite Night time Award affirmation e-mail — secured me the suite I might initially been confirmed into.
In the meantime, Marriott Bonvoy emailed me 5 days earlier than check-in to substantiate my Suite Night time Award request for a three-night keep at Italy’s AC Lodge Milano in November 2023. Nevertheless, 45 minutes later I acquired a second e-mail stating Marriott had returned my Suite Night time Awards and a observe they have been “sorry that you simply have been unable to get pleasure from an upgraded room in your latest keep” (regardless of the keep being upcoming). Sadly, this wasn’t a fluke, as the identical occurred to my husband’s Suite Improve Award request for a keep a few month earlier on the Courtyard by Marriott Kuwait Metropolis.
So, though I’ve traditionally had good luck utilizing Marriott improve awards, I do not put a whole lot of worth in them. I nonetheless select Suite Night time Awards — now Nightly Improve Awards — as my 50-night Selection Profit since there isn’t any higher possibility for me. However I go for the up-to-40,000-point free night time award as my 75-night Selection Profit. And I attempt to give myself a number of choices every year to make use of Marriott improve awards at properties that provide a number of room varieties for awards and are not in peak season or excessive demand.
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Ideas for utilizing Marriott improve awards
Listed here are some suggestions for getting good worth out of your Marriott Nightly Improve Awards:
- Shorter stays: There’s extra more likely to be availability on your Nightly Improve Award request to clear on shorter stays of only a night time or two. And particularly since it’s essential to redeem a Nightly Improve Award per keep night time, there isn’t any draw back to utilizing these awards to safe upgraded rooms or suites on brief stays.
- Begin early within the yr: Do not save your Nightly Improve Awards for a keep (or stays) close to the top of the yr, as then you might not have extra good alternatives to make use of them earlier than they expire if they do not clear as you hope or it’s essential to cancel your keep(s).
- Extra room varieties: The extra room varieties you choose on your Nightly Improve Awards, the upper the possibility they will get accredited. Chances are you’ll wish to guide a property that provides many interesting room varieties by Nightly Improve Awards to maximise your improve probabilities.
- Off-peak dates or locations: Touring throughout off-peak dates or to locations with extra resort capability than company could be a good strategy to snag a premium room or suite by Nightly Improve Awards. In fact, there’s at all times the argument that Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite or Titanium Elite standing would probably web you a terrific improve on these stays even with out utilizing Nightly Improve Awards.
Earlier than reserving, you’ll be able to’t see what room varieties are selectable by the Nightly Improve Awards. So, you might be tempted to make a number of freely cancellable stays in the identical vacation spot to find out which affords the most effective Nightly Improve Award choices. In fact, simply because a resort or resort affords interesting Nightly Improve Award choices doesn’t suggest your request will get accredited. So, I often guide inns or resorts primarily based on the charges and high quality of the bottom room kind. Then, I take a look at what is accessible by Marriott improve awards and resolve whether or not to place in a request.
Lastly, since Marriott Nightly Improve Awards are solely confirmed at most three days earlier than check-in, you will not wish to depend on utilizing these awards to safe a bigger room or suite. For stays the place you want an upgraded room, think about reserving the room you want or utilizing a program like World of Hyatt that allows you to use suite improve awards to substantiate an ordinary suite at reserving.
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Backside line
Marriott Bonvoy lately modified Suite Night time Awards into Nightly Improve Awards. Together with the title change, Marriott Bonvoy added extra room varieties and collaborating manufacturers to its improve awards. However though Suite Night time Awards have been confirmed as much as 5 days earlier than check-in, you’ll be able to solely use Nightly Improve Awards to substantiate a premium room or suite as much as three days earlier than check-in.
Nightly Improve Awards are topic to availability, and a few Marriott Bonvoy members have struggled to make use of Marriott improve awards for top worth prior to now. One Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite member I spoke with even stated he by no means used Suite Improve Awards as a result of he believed they would not give him higher upgrades than he’d get at check-in along with his elite standing. However here is hoping Marriott’s shift to Nightly Improve Awards will present a greater expertise for many members.
