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My experience using Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards

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With hotel companies rolling over elite status for one or two years during the pandemic, as well as reducing their elite status requirements in 2021, I have found myself with top tier status in virtually every major hotel scheme this year.

One benefit I got to experience in 2022 was using suite upgrade awards with both Accor Live Limitless and Marriott Bonvoy. I thought it was worth using two articles this week to run over how I found them.

This article looks at what I learned about Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards. My earlier article on Accor Live Limitless Suite Night Upgrades is here.

My experience using Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards

How do you get Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards?

Suite Night Awards are one of the ‘Marriott Annual Choice Benefits’ for reaching 50 and 75 nights in a year.

Frankly, it isn’t possible for me to do 50 elite nights at any single hotel chain in a year. I got lucky with Marriott Bonvoy, however, over the last two years.

I get 15 elite night credits from having the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card – this is a benefit all cardholders receive each year.

I also got additional nights over the pandemic via covid compensation measures and double elite night credit promotions. Couple this with extensions of existing Suite Night Awards and I started 2022 with 15 upgrades to spend.

What are Marriott Bonvoy Annual Choice Benefits?

On top of your usual elite status tiers Marriott Bonvoy offers two additional benefits for people who hit 50 and 75 elite nights in a calendar year.

Marriott does not provide a lot of information about these benefits. The best page you can find is this one.

You should be able to select your preferred benefit online within a few days of hitting the threshold. If you don’t make a choice by end of the first week of the following year, you are given 5 x Suite Night Awards by default.

This HfP article looks at the different options you can choose. For most people the five Suite Night Awards are the best option.

How do Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards work?

Each award is good for a one night upgrade into a premium room. Whilst they are called ‘Suite Night Awards’, they will often book into higher category standard rooms or lower level standard suites. You can get lucky and do a lot better, however.

Upgrades are not confirmed until at least five days before arrival so you can’t lock them in when booking. Once you have booked a room, you can use the ‘manage my booking’ process to see which room types are offered for SNA certificates. You can select which categories would be acceptable to you.

In my experience, the ranges of rooms varies widely. Some properties will offer you five potential upgrades including their top suite. Others only offer smaller suites or even just premium rooms.

Here is an example of what I saw at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport for a stay I was planning earlier this year. The ticks show the options I was willing to accept. In the end, it cleared into the Club Suite, the best option.

My experience using Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards

You need to upgrade your entire stay – you can’t use five awards to upgrade part of a 7-night holiday.

Hotels are not obliged to accept your SNA upgrade request just because they have a suitable suite or premium room available.

They expire on 31st December in the following year. Note that if you wait until 1st January in the following year to choose them, you only get them for that year. Marriott is onto that little trick!

The following brands do NOT allow Suite Night Awards to be used: The Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, Protea, Aloft, Element, Design Hotels and the long-stay brands.

Suite Night Awards have a bad reputation – which I disagree with

If you use Google to find articles from US travel sites on Marriott Suite Night Awards, you will generally find a lot of grumbling.

There are two reasons for this:

  • one is location specific – the US has a lot more elite Marriott members and you are more likely to be competing against someone else on the same night for the same suite when at a US hotel
  • with Platinum members getting no more than five per year and Titanium members getting no more than 10, people tend to hoard them for their ‘best’ stays – this means that a disproportionate number of people try to use them at the same handful of resorts and big city hotels

I got around these issues.

Whilst I have finished 2022 with 51 Marriott Bonvoy nights, 15 of these were from the American Express card and, roughly, 15 from the ‘double nights’ promotion. This means I only did around 20 actual nights.

I started the year with 15 Suite Night Awards to burn, due to rollovers, and used 13 of them.

With a couple of exceptions due to HfP review requirements, whenever I was able to apply a Suite Night Award, I did. Many would have been at hotels which rarely see any SNA vouchers used, yet alone on the nights I was there.

I am also guessing that the lack of US travellers in Europe during H1 2022 meant that there were fewer people with SNAs in my vicinity.

How did my Suite Night Awards work out?

I learnt a trick this year. In a city with multiple decent Marriott properties, you could book rooms at more than one hotel and apply a Suite Night Award to all of them if you have enough. They should clear at five days out, giving you time to cancel the room with the weakest or non-existant upgrade. I did this in Hamburg …..

Here are some example of what happened:

Courtyard London Gatwick Airport

I used two SNA certificates here on two separate stays. Both cleared into a Junior Suite (below). This would probably be seen as a ‘waste’ of a SNA but as I had so many to burn ….

I reviewed Courtyard London Gatwick Airport here.

Courtyard London Gatwick Airport junior suite

The University Arms, Cambridge

I had three SNAs clear here across two separate stays – it seems that if you book two rooms you can upgrade both. The results were OUTSTANDING.

On one occasion we got a rooftop suite with a huge terrace and a bathroom in the ‘turret’ on the roof (below) and on another I got the Stephen Hawking Suite which is the biggest in the hotel.

University Arms Cambridge bathroom

Le Meridien, Hamburg

I reviewed my Le Meridien Hamburg stay here so I won’t repeat myself. I got a Prestige Lake Suite which is as good as it gets.

Le Meridien Hamburg Lake Suite

The St Regis, New York

This was an example of a hotel which doesn’t make much available via the SNA route. The best I was offered despite booking well in advance was a larger standard room, which I took and which cleared.

On check-in, I was upgraded to a full suite as a Titanium Elite member of Marriott Bonvoy. It was actually smaller than the suites I had been given on my two previous stays at the same hotel where I hadn’t used an SNA. Did the SNA even make a difference?

The St Regis, Venice

I can’t remember what I was offered here when I picked the upgrades I was willing to accept. I ended up in a ‘Venetian Suite’ which was selling for €1,700 per night vs the €1,000 standard room which I’d actually booked on points.

I didn’t like the room or indeed the hotel as my St Regis Venice review shows, but the upgrade did clear.

St Regis Venice Venetian Suite

Sheraton Frankfurt Airport

As I mentioned earlier, my SNA cleared into a huge Club Suite which I reviewed here. Again, I had issues with the hotel but the upgrade worked out OK.

Sheraton Frankfurt Airport club suite

Le Meridien Paris Etoile

This is a hotel that I would never have chosen if it wasn’t for the fact that I had a Marriott Bonvoy free night voucher to use, but only up to 40,000 points of value. This was my only Paris option at that level.

I reviewed Le Meridien Paris Etoile here. My SNA cleared into a full suite, albeit this was actually two bedrooms which had been merged together. This meant two bathrooms, two wardrobes etc and a generally odd feel to the space. Look at the picture below – there is a headboard above the sofa!

Le Meridien Paris Etoile

I didn’t use a Suite Night Award on the following stays:

  • Al Maha Desert Resort, Dubai (does not accept them, and the tents are all similar) – a short review of Al Maha will appear in my ‘review of the year’ on 27th December

Importantly, I had a 100% success rate in getting my Suite Night Awards to clear even at premium hotels like The St Regis Venice.

Conclusion

Despite the bad reputation they have, I got excellent value from my Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards during 2022.

2023 will be trickier of course. I will only have five of them, so I may end up being ‘that person’ who saves them for a high profile hotel and then finds they don’t clear because so many others are trying to use them too. Let’s see.

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How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2025)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (42)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Tariq says:
    22 Dec22 December 05:03

    To my surprise, my SNA cleared into the St Paul’s Duplex at Westin London City last week. Second stay there and SNA didn’t clear last time. Think it was the top option available in the SNA choices. I tend to only select the top option and take the risk that I get nothing.

    I seem to recall in the past that my SNA has been declined pre-stay but then been upgraded anyway into the same/similar room – can’t remember which hotel this was at though.

  • Jmac says:
    22 Dec22 December 06:06

    Only once have they been useful for me, at Westin Langkawi where we got an Oceanfront suite for 5 nights. All attempts to use them in New York, Washington and Boston have been denied. I end up ‘using’ them at the Moxy Stratford on work trips so have opted for the extra nights to trip me over 75 nights this year and the 40k free night cert as the second gift

  • riku says:
    22 Dec22 December 06:14

    You don’t point out that with high status you might be upgraded to a suite anyway and as a titanium member I’ve had suite night awards rejected 5 days out but still upgraded when I checked in. It’s almost impossible to know if you would have been upgraded anyway if you did not use the voucher and in those cases you have basically wasted the voucher for an upgrade that you would have got even if you did not use the voucher.

    • krys_k says:
      22 Dec22 December 06:58

      I’ve completed around 100 nights as Titanium this year (over and above the 75 needed to achieve) and I’ve never used the suite nights. I tend to call up the hotel and ask if I’ll get upgrade to suite and I’ve always been told yes. Returning to same hotel I don’t even call up, am given a suite by default. We’re not talking NYC though. Central and Eastern Europe (and Birmingham, where Aloft and AC don’t have suites).

      • riku says:
        22 Dec22 December 07:17

        When I stay at my favourite Le Meridien in Asia, I email the hotel a few days before and ask if they can allocate my favourite room number. This is on the club floor and I normally book the cheapest room they have. I have been upgraded every time without using suite night awards. Last time I had to make two back-back bookings at different rates and once I arrived and they merged the bookings together and asked if it was ok to reduce the rate on the second booking to the lower rate of the first booking (room stayed the same for the whole stay).

  • Phillip says:
    22 Dec22 December 06:47

    I have been in the same boat as Rob, with 15 SNAs and I’m finishing the year with 8 having applied them to more than 30 nights across the board. Although I’ve had mixed results, overall I have been disappointed. My worst experience was at Le Meridien Munich where I secured 2 suite upgrades (2 rooms x 2 nights) only to arrive and find out that one was back to the original room type and no one even bothered to acknowledge it at check in until I actually got to the room. Returning to reception I was told there were no other suites… a bit of searching and one was found, but they recommended refunding the two SNAs. I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle so I just went for that. Needless to say I then had to chase for SNAs to be refunded.

    The easiest place to secure an upgrade was the Renaissance at Heathrow. It’s a hotel that gives out upgrades quite freely, I find. I have been upgraded to suites without even using SNAs while other times when I’ve applied one just for a runway view room (given that I was running out of stays to use them for) they cleared (reception acknowledged the upgrade as one that they gave me themselves, so to speak for being Titanium) but said upgrade could be purchased for £20-30. So nothing too exciting!

    I guess my biggest success came at the Romanos in Greece. My SNAs did not clear for 3 nights but at check in it was acknowledged that I applied them unsuccessfully and was told that a room did become available and they upgraded me to it anyway.

    All in all, a mixed bag, but I feel it shouldn’t be so hard to use them. Marriott quietly rolled over the 5 SNAs I had expiring last June by another 6 months but that was no use in the end anyway!

    • Harry T says:
      22 Dec22 December 08:12

      Also, it’s worth noting that legacy SPG hotels are generally generous with upgrades anyway, particularly Sheratons and Westins. Courtyards also always give me a suite if they have them. So that limits the usefulness of SNAs further.

      To summarise, Marriott Bonvoy could improve the SNA experience massively by forcing all hotel brands to participate, and stipulating a minimum standard of room in the SNA pool, including a junior suite and entry level full suite.

  • The Streets says:
    22 Dec22 December 06:48

    Just landed from 10 days in Mauritius where I used 5 suite nights at the Le Meridien and 5 suite nights at the Westin. The latter was upgraded to the junior suite in a perfect location. Being Titanium they really look after you at the Westin! Never had so many complimentary food and drinks given to us.. this included a bottle of wine in the room, plate of fruit, sarong for the lady and T-shirt for the man (made me look like the massage guy), next a knock at the door with a plate of fresh samosas, then for our last night a three course meal and bottle of wine for the family and as we were leaving a bottle of local rum. Really was impressed!

    • krys_k says:
      22 Dec22 December 07:02

      The welcome gift for Titanium at the Sheraton Grande in Krakow was half a litre bottle of vodka. For one night!

    • Dev says:
      22 Dec22 December 10:06

      Interesting… I’ve just hit Platinum and will be heading to Mauritius in April with the family (wife and 2 kids – 1 and 5 yrs) … I’m swaying towards the LM. Any advice on which to go for?

  • David says:
    22 Dec22 December 07:14

    Annoyingly I’ve lost four this year…two carried over from last year which had to be used by June, which had cleared for a stay in June, but we’re lost when I had to cancel the trip after getting Covid, and two lost at the end of the year when although requested, the hotel either didn’t clear them or ignored the request. All in Europe, so very frustrating!

  • MT says:
    22 Dec22 December 08:02

    I have to say I am not fully convinced by this article. I have had and always have had very mixed success with SNA’s. I agree they can be useful, but the manner in how the program works is infuriating and certainly not how Marriott would have you believe.

    The hotels you list, Courtyard London Gatwick, LeMerdien Hamburg, Sheraton Frankfurt Airport are not exactly the aspirational properties people will choose SNA’s to use them on. The University Arms Cambridge & LeMerdien Paris Etoile are only slightly higher, but again I doubt its a reason anyone picks the SNA options.

    St. Regis NYC certainly would be and as you say yourself you can’t pick a Suite, just a slightly larger room, something you would expect status to give you a decent shot at anyway.

    St. Regis Venice I fully agree is a great option for them, but wasn’t it literally just after covid regulations lifted you went and at that point hotel occupancy in Venice and Italy still very low, thus SNA’s much ore likely to clear than in a normal situation?

    I personally don’t see them clearing at any property because I am using them for the sake of it as good value.

    What is most infuriating however is the fact hotels love to claim they have no control of SNA’s and how they clear, to the point where they email Elites offering the option to pay a discounted rate for the upgrade as “we have no control of the SNA’s clearing” when actually for a while now they have full control.

  • Harry T says:
    22 Dec22 December 08:10

    Respectfully, Rob, I think you have slightly underplayed some of the issues with SNAs, and this is partly due to the geography of your travel.

    For background, I am Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador with over 300 nights over the last three years. I have stayed fairly extensively in Europe, the Middle East and the USA. I have used all my SNAs, often for very impressive suites, such as the giant suite I secured for five nights at W Abu Dhabi for the Grand Prix weekend of 2021. But there are real issues with the SNAs.

    Put simply, the core of the issue is that the good hotels who value elites will upgrade you anyway, and many of the bad hotels will either block SNAs completely or restrict the pool to rooms that are one square metre bigger than the base room, with no actual suites in the pool. The latter behaviour is far far more common in the US than anywhere else, due to a combination of a toxic transactional “service” culture and the volume of elites in the US, including those with credit card status.

    Essentially, I have sometimes used SNAs at hotels where I believe I would have gotten a suite or large upgraded room anyway, based on past experience or reliable anecdotes. I have often found that the hotels where the SNAs would be most useful have blocked all suites from the pool. This is true in the USA to the extent that I was shocked to be able to use my SNAs on a suite in the Palace Hotel in San Fran (they did clear for four nights and it was a pleasant stay, booked via Emyr).

    A related issue is that many brands or individual hotels can just opt out of SNAs, like EDITION or RC. These are some of the more desirable hotels in the Bonvoy portfolio and are sometimes hostile to comp upgrades (although I’ve personally done well). This limits your pool of opportunities to only some brands, many of which will put crap rooms in the SNA pool anyway.

    The other issue is the utter randomness of whether they clear. This does not appear to be related to the inventory for sale, which is often bad but occasionally excellent. I don’t think people enjoy the randomness.

    I generally limit my SNA use to occasions at hotels that have actual suites in the pool, where a very busy environment means I may not be able to get a suite as comp upgrade. Sometimes I use them if the suites look very nice and I don’t have any experience at the hotel.

    • Harry T says:
      22 Dec22 December 08:12

      Also, it’s worth noting that legacy SPG hotels are generally generous with upgrades anyway, particularly Sheratons and Westins. Courtyards also always give me a suite if they have them. So that limits the usefulness of SNAs further.

      To summarise, Marriott Bonvoy could improve the SNA experience massively by forcing all hotel brands to participate, and stipulating a minimum standard of room in the SNA pool, including a junior suite and entry level full suite.

      • Harry T says:
        22 Dec22 December 08:16

        One more recent issue – many hotels are now downgrading people with confirmed SNAs either before they stay or on arrival at the hotel. The hotels have gotten arrogant in the face of current demand and are now pushing the limits and treating elites badly. I’ve had this happen to me and I had to rain down absolute wrath to get it fixed. It’s happened to multiple people at the Renaissance St Pancras this year, who have now taken the step to take the junior suite they offered out of the SNA pool, presumably to save them the inconvenience of violating the programme terms and downgrading people. Hotels play these games and Marriott don’t reprimand or punish them – even the Ambassador team were useless in my case.

        • Magic Mike says:
          22 Dec22 December 08:57

          Yep, I’ve had a confirmed SNA declined at the Ren StP this year. They really didn’t give a hoot, and then I had to go chase Marriott repeatedly to refund the SNA.

        • MT says:
          22 Dec22 December 08:58

          You sum things up pretty well, the overall reason for this is that Marriott see the hotels as their customers and the ones to keep happy. The “guests” staying at the hotels, even the ones with top status are a side issue with Marriott, hence hotels have the ability to shut down any complaint knowing that Marriott wont do much if anything about it.
          It leaves a situation where good hotels will always treat you well because they are well run, but other hotels can do whatever they please and they know it because Marriott will not hold them to account. A complaints process where a hotel simply has to say we have looked at it and its resolved means Marriott closes the case says it all, the hotel doesn’t actually have to do anything other than says its resolved it, even if that resolution is to give you 500 Bonvoy points!!

          • Harry T says:
            22 Dec22 December 12:35

            Agreed, Marriott is run for the hotels. Even the heavily marketed ambassador team won’t argue with hotels. I’ve had to fix all customer service/hotel issues myself. It’s one of the reasons I deliberately haven’t requalified for amb.

            The guaranteed room type terms don’t apply to SNA confirmed rooms, AFAIK. I just insist the hotel honours my suite upgrade and refunds the SNAs, and don’t back down.

        • Will says:
          22 Dec22 December 09:53

          As far as the terms go, where do you stand once you have a confirmed SNA applied if the hotel later downgrade it?

          • Magic Mike says:
            22 Dec22 December 11:58

            If Plat/Tit you could try asking for the “Guaranteed Room Type” compensation ($100).

            I forgot about this at the Ren St Pancras, doh…

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