Marriott Bonvoy, the world’s largest hotel loyalty program, proudly walks the tightrope between rewarding loyal customers and keeping hotel owners smiling all the way to the bank. Or at least, that’s the goal.
But let’s be real—us miles and points enthusiasts have had our fair share of Bonvoyed moments, where “enhancements” to the program felt more like a slap than a handshake.
In this post, we’ll explore what Nightly Upgrade Awards are, how they work, and how to make the most of them.
What Are Nightly Upgrade Awards?
A quick refresher: Marriott doesn’t actually own the hotels under its name. Instead, they follow an “asset-light” business model, meaning they manage or franchise properties for hotel owners. This little tidbit is crucial when it comes to one of the program’s big perks for Marriott Bonvoy Elite Members: Nightly Upgrade Awards (formerly known as Suite Night Awards).
These Awards aim to take some of the guesswork out of upgrades, which, let’s face it, are often more of a gamble. Sure, status members are usually in the running for suite upgrades at check-in, but it’s never a sure thing—you’ve got to charm your way through with your best “suite-talking” skills.
And let’s not forget how ambiguous the word “upgrade” can be. I still chuckle about the time a hotel front staff excitedly informed me I’d been “upgraded to the highest floor”—in a building that was only four stories tall.
Thankfully, Nightly Upgrade Awards exist to offer a little more clarity and a much-needed dose of assurance for your next stay, saving you from relying solely on smooth-talking or optimistic interpretations of “upgrades.”
How Do You Earn Nightly Upgrade Awards?
Nightly Upgrade Awards are earned as part of your Marriott Bonvoy elite status. When you reach Platinum Elite status by earning 50 elite qualifying nights per year, you’re invited to select an Annual Choice Benefit.
When it becomes available, you’re able to choose one of the following items:
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- Gift of Silver Elite status to a friend or family member
- $1,000 (USD) off your favourite mattress
- Five Elite Night Credits
- $100 (USD) charity donation
Additionally, if you’re able to achieve Titanium Elite status by earning 75 elite qualifying nights per year, you’re given an additional Annual Choice Benefit with slightly different options:
- Five Nightly Upgrade Awards
- Free Night Award worth up to 40,000 points
- Gift of Gold Elite status to a friend or family member
- $1,000 (USD) off your favourite mattress
- Five Elite Night Credits
- $100 (USD) charity donation
If reaching 50 or 75 nights per year seems daunting, remember that the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card provide 15 elite qualifying nights per year, which is an excellent way to jumpstart your way into status with Marriott.
If you have access to US credit cards, earning elite qualifying nights becomes much easier. With a combination of the
US Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card and the US American Express Bonvoy Business®Card, you can earn up to 40 elite qualifying nights. The Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers 25 nights, while the Bonvoy Business Card provides 15 nights, making this duo a powerful tool for fast-tracking your elite status.
If you have other US-issued personal co-branded credit cards, such as the US Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card, the Chase Bonvoy Bountiful® Card, the Chase Bonvoy Boundless® Card, or the Chase Bonvoy Bold® Card, as well as the Amex US Bonvoy Business Card, then you’ll earn a total of 30 elite qualifying nights (15 from the personal card and 15 from the business card).
It’s worth mentioning the Bonvoy Brilliant Card’s unique advantage: not only does it grant 25 elite qualifying nights, but it also gives you an instant Platinum Elite status. This means those extra nights you earn are mainly useful for acquiring Annual Choice Benefits or working toward lifetime elite status.
That said, if you hold both Canadian and US Bonvoy cards, keep in mind that elite qualifying nights don’t stack across borders. The maximum you can earn remains 40 nights, achieved with the Bonvoy Brilliant and Bonvoy Business Card combo.
We can only hope that, in the future, Canadian Bonvoy cardholders might also benefit from such a setup. It would certainly level the playing field and ensure that during our domestic travels or staycations, we aren’t outshone by Americans cruising to elite status with relative ease.
When you hit Platinum Elite status, choosing the five Nightly Upgrade Awards as your Annual Choice Benefit is usually a no-brainer. However, Marriott’s recent status match with Air Canada, which upgrades Titanium Elite members to Aeroplan 25K status, adds a new layer of value. Therefore, this might make pushing toward Titanium Elite status worthwhile. In such cases, opting for five Elite Qualifying Nights as your Annual Choice Benefit could help you unlock this perk more quickly.
At Titanium Elite status, the decision becomes even more nuanced. The Free Night Award worth 40,000 points is undeniably valuable, but does it outweigh the benefits of five Nightly Upgrade Awards—especially if you’ve chosen five Elite Qualifying Nights as your Platinum Annual Choice Benefit and find yourself without any Nightly Upgrade Awards on hand?
The answer depends entirely on your travel style and priorities. If you’re planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip to destinations like the Maldives or Al Maha, where suite upgrades can elevate your stay to something truly unforgettable, Nightly Upgrade Awards could be the better choice.
On the other hand, if your travel plans lean more toward urban destinations or you’re not particularly focused on chasing luxury suites, the Free Night Award might provide more overall value.
How to Redeem Nightly Upgrade Awards
If you fall into the middle of this very rare Venn diagram, count yourself lucky. 
Here’s how you actually make use of those hard-earned Nightly Upgrade Awards once you’ve earned them:
- Make a reservation: To determine which room types are eligible for Nightly Upgrade Awards at a specific property, you’ll need to have an active reservation. Simply book your potential stay at the property you’re interested in, and then check to see which upgrade options are available for applying your awards.Just be careful in doing so because some hotels have very strict cancellation policies. Triple check the booking terms and make sure you’re selecting a fully refundable rate.
- Find your reservation:
When you log into your Marriott account, click on “My Trips” and find the reservation you want to use your Nightly Upgrade Awards on. Once you find it, click on “View/Modify”.
- Start upgrade request:
If your hotel participates in Nightly Upgrade Awards, you’ll see a banner that says “Take an upgrade. You’ve earned it.” Within the banner, click the button that’s labelled “Start Upgrade Request.”
- Choose your upgrades:
Here, you’ll see the upgrade options available to you. The best and most valuable upgrade option is at the top of the list, with the worst option at the bottom.Something to keep in mind here is that you can choose multiple upgrade options. If you only choose the top option and it turns out to be unavailable, Marriott will not automatically try to process the next-best option unless you specifically check it off.
- Wait to see if your Nightly Upgrade Award request is cleared:
Once you submit your request for an upgrade, you’re done – now to wait to see if the upgrade is processed, which happens within five days of your arrival except for EDITION, Ritz Carlton, and St. Regis, where the system will start checking for availability at three days prior to arrival.
If you change your mind at any time prior to the upgrade being confirmed, you can cancel the request had have your Nightly Upgrade Awards redeposited.
A Key Caveat to Keep in Mind
Each Nightly Upgrade Award is valid for just one night, meaning you’ll need a separate award for every night of your stay. For example, if you’re planning a six-night stay, you’ll need six Nightly Upgrade Awards in your account to apply them to the booking.
Unfortunately, if your stay exceeds the number of awards you have, you won’t be able to apply them to just a portion of your stay. Using the same example, if you’re staying for six nights but only have five Nightly Upgrade Awards, you won’t be able to use any of them.
One possible workaround is to split your stay into back-to-back reservations and apply your awards to the corresponding nights. For instance, if you’re staying for six nights but only have five Nightly Upgrade Awards, you could book a five-night reservation followed by a one-night reservation, then apply the Nightly Upgrade Awards towards the five-night reservation.
When you check in, kindly ask the front desk staff if it’s possible to stay in the same room for the entire stay, explaining that you’d prefer not to relocate for the final night. In my experience, hotels are often generous and will honour the upgraded suite for the full duration of your stay.
That said, this is definitely a “your mileage may vary” situation, so manage your expectations accordingly.
How Do Nightly Upgrade Awards Work?
Once you’ve made a reservation at a hotel, you can apply your Nightly Upgrade Awards to the booking, as outlined earlier. The hotel begins searching for available upgrades five days before your arrival and continues checking daily until your stay begins.
In theory, Nightly Upgrade Awards are a fantastic perk—who wouldn’t want a guaranteed suite upgrade sorted out in advance? When things go smoothly, you’ll receive an email confirming your upgrade up to five days before check-in, leaving no room for uncertainty.
In practice, however, success can be a bit hit-or-miss. Denials can be more common than you might expect, especially if you aim for the hotel’s highest-tier suites.
My strategy?
I typically select the highest-tier suite and the second-highest suite when applying Nightly Upgrade Awards. For lower-tier suites or deluxe rooms, I often leave it to chance and rely on suite-talking strategy.
If your request is denied, you’ll receive an email confirming that you weren’t successful, and the Nightly Upgrade Awards will be automatically deposited back into your account.
The additional challenge around Nightly Upgrade Awards is that there’s a huge variety among hotels in terms of which suites are available for request.
For example, you may see an option to upgrade to one of the higher-level suites, which would undoubtedly be a score if it were to be confirmed. On the other hand, the options may just be for a room with a better view, which doesn’t really seem like a worthwhile use of Nightly Upgrade Awards.
Since you only have a limited number of Nightly Upgrade Awards available each year, the best practice is to be selective about which stays you choose to redeem them on. Your experience is much more likely to be elevated by using them at aspirational hotels, even if competition might be higher.
If you’re denied, have a look at some other upcoming reservations and apply your Nightly Upgrade Awards to a different stay.
Hotels Not Participating in Nightly Upgrade Awards
As if clearing Nightly Upgrade Awards wasn’t enough of a challenge, there’s a list of hotel brands that don’t participate in Nightly Upgrade Award redemptions at all. These hotels brands include:Ritz-Carlton Reserve®
- The Ritz-Carlton Club®
- The Ritz-Carlton Residences®
- The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
- Design Hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy®
- Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy
- MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy
- Marriott Executive Apartments
- All-Inclusive Resorts
- Marriott Vacation Club
- Marriott Grand Residence Club
- Sheraton Vacation Club
- Westin Vacation Club
- Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy®
- The Phoenician Residences, a Luxury Collection Residence Club, Scottsdale
- The Grand New Century Hotel, Hangzhou Boao, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel
- Wonderland Resort, Hangzhou Jiande, a Tribute Portfolio Resort
Hotels Participating, But Not Participating in Nightly Upgrade Awards
There are also times when Nightly Upgrade Awards aren’t available for redemption, even if the hotel brand does normally participate in them. In other words, some hotels can simply choose not to participate in the program.
Every hotel has the ability to designate dates when they believe that suites will be occupied by paying guests. That obviously leaves a lot of wiggle room for hotels to not offer Nightly Upgrade Award redemptions under the auspice that the suites will be occupied, even if they end up not being occupied during your stay.
This is further borne out in the catch-all language in Marriott’s Terms and Conditions:
Not all Participating Properties participate in Nightly Upgrade Awards.
There will be many situations in which you either don’t see Nightly Upgrade Award redemptions available, or they’re simply denied, only to find out later in the app that suites were indeed available during your entire stay. This is obviously quite frustrating and contrary to the original intent of Nightly Upgrade Awards.
Why Don’t Hotels Always Honour Nightly Upgrade Awards?
Why don’t hotel owners honour Nightly Upgrade Awards more consistently? While there’s no definitive answer, here’s an educated guess.
Hotels are compensated by Marriott for each certificate they honour, but the payout is likely minimal. From the perspective of a hotel owner, honouring these awards could mean leaving potential revenue on the table.
If a suite is upgraded for a Nightly Upgrade Award, it becomes unavailable for purchase. Even if there’s only a slim chance—say, 1-in-100—that a high roller guest walks in last minute and pays full price for the suite, it’s still a more lucrative option than what Marriott likely pays out for the award redemption.
And that doesn’t even factor in the higher cost of cleaning and servicing a suite compared to a standard room.
Another disincentive is the nature of Nightly Upgrade Award redemptions. They’re often used at aspirational properties or during vacation stays, where the likelihood of a guest becoming a repeat customer is lower.
For hotel owners, this means less long-term value compared to a business traveler who might return regularly and contribute more consistently to the hotel’s bottom line.
While these upgrades build loyalty to the Marriott Bonvoy brand, they don’t always align with the financial interests of individual properties.
Conclusion
Marriott Bonvoy’s Nightly Upgrade Awards offer elite members a chance at securing suite upgrades with more certainty, but their practical use can sometimes fall short of expectations. From limited suite availability to rigid application rules, they require a strategic approach to unlock their full potential.
If you’re a Platinum Elite member, choosing Nightly Upgrade Awards as your Annual Choice Benefit makes sense if you don’t plan to push for Titanium Elite status or can already reach it without the help of five Elite Qualifying Nights.
For Titanium Elite members, the Free Night Award worth 40,000 points is often the better choice. However, if you have a full five-night stay at an aspirational property on the horizon, opting for Nightly Upgrade Awards could add significant value to your experience.
While Marriott’s efforts to add certainty through this program are commendable, there’s still room for improvement. With some refinements, Nightly Upgrade Awards could become a truly indispensable tool for Bonvoy members in the future.