Marriott Suite Night Awards: Everything You Need to Know [2022]

The suite life is glorious and anytime you can upgrade to a suite, it’s worthwhile.

Marriott Suite Night Awards can make the suite life more achievable with confirmable upgrades within five days before check-in.

However, each Marriott brand and property comes with limitations that seem a little bit vague.

In this article, I explain Marriott’s vagueness with Suite Night Awards. I go over how to earn, use, and point out the brands and properties that participate in the Suite Night Awards program.

What are Marriott Suite Night Awards?

Marriott Suite Night Awards can be chosen as an Annual Choice Benefit when you reach 50 nights and 75 nights in a calendar year.

Suite Night Awards (SNAs) are used to upgrade to a suite or premium room at a hotel or resort. Each SNA is worth one night. So, if you are given five SNAs, you can use them over five nights (not five stays).

Keep reading how to earn and use your SNAs while learning the limitations SNAs have.

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How to get Marriott Suite Night Awards

To get Suite Night Awards (SNAs) all you have to do is stay enough nights at Marriott properties to be eligible for the Annual Choice Benefit.

Marriott’s Annual Choice Benefit is simply a milestone for people that reach 50 nights and 75 nights at Marriott properties in a calendar year.

The first milestone Annual Choice Benefit milestone is given at 50 nights in one calendar year at any Marriott Bonvoy participating property, which is the number of nights you need for Platinum Elite.

For the 50 nights Annual Choice Benefit milestone, you can choose one of the following:

• Five Suite Night Awards
• 40% off bed
• $100 Charity Donation
• The gift of Silver Elite status for a friend or family member
• Five Elite Night Credits

The second milestone Annual Choice Benefit is given at 75 nights in one calendar year at any Marriott Bonvoy participating property, which is the number of nights you need for Titanium Elite. For the 75 nights Annual Choice Benefit milestone, you can choose one the following:

• Five Suite Night Awards
• 40% off bed
• $100 Charity Donation
• The gift of Gold Elite status for a friend or family member
• Five Elite Night Credits
• One free night award (valid up to 40,000 points)

Here is what it looks like when choosing the 50 nights annual choice benefit:

After you earn an Annual Choice Benefit, you have until January 7 of the next year to choose your benefit. If you do not make a decision then by default you will be given the Five Suite Night Awards.

How many Suite Night Awards can I earn in a year?

You can earn up to 10 SNAs a year from reaching both of the Annual Choice Benefit milestones.

Unfortunately, you cannot earn more than 10 a year as you will have no more opportunities to hit milestones after reaching the 75 nights Annual Choice Benefit milestone.

I do think Marriott should add another milestone after 100 nights to give guests an incentive to keep staying at Marriott, but that will be a dream.

Limitations and how Marriott Suite Night Awards work

Using Marriott Suite Night Awards (SNAs) are as simple as making a reservation at a participating SNA property and brand.

Participating and excluded Suite Night Awards brands and properties

Out of the 31 Marriott brands, there are 19 brands that participate in the Suite Night Award (SNA) program:

• The Luxury Collection
• St. Regis
• W
• JW Marriott
• Marriott
• Sheraton
• Delta
• Westin
• Le Meridien
• Renaissance
• Autograph Collection
• Tribute Portfolio
• Gaylord
• Courtyard 
• Four Points
• Fairfield
• AC
• Residence Inn
• Moxy

SNAs are not redeemable at the following brands:

• Ritz-Carlton
• Ritz-Carlton Reserve
• EDITION
• Protea Hotels
• Aloft
• Element
• Design Hotels
• Towneplace Suites
• Springhill Suites
• Marriott Executive Apartments
• Marriott Vacation Club
• Home & Villas

The following type of properties will also be excluded from the SNA program, even if the brand isn’t excluded:

• ExecuStay
• Marriott Grand Residence Club properties
• Vistana properties
• All-Suite properties

However, there is one huge caveat to the SNA program written in Marriott Bonvoy’s terms and conditions, “not all participating properties participate in Suite Night Awards.”

“Not all participating properties participate in Suite Night Awards” basically means, properties don’t have to participate in the SNA and can pull out of the SNA program at any time.

Very vague, right? Yes, the terms and conditions make it very vague so properties don’t have to participate when they don’t want to.

Now, that doesn’t say properties don’t participate. In reality, many properties participate.

The rule of thumb would be the brands and properties that are premium or luxury will typically participate in the SNA program, but fewer select brands will participate in the SNA program.

Cancellation policy for Suite Night Award bookings and requests

Suite Night Award (SNA) requests can be canceled and modified for unconfirmed upgrades up to 2pm property time one day before check-in.

Anytime before 2pm the day before check-in is changeable and SNAs can be given back to you.

However, for confirmed SNAs, you cannot get back your SNAs unless you cancel your whole reservation before 2pm property time the day before check-in.

If you cancel your reservation after 2pm the day before check-in, you will forfeit all SNAs used on the reservation.

And be sure you check the hotel’s cancellation policy because canceling this soon before check-in could result in a cancellation fee.

Expiration of Suite Night Awards

To determine the expiration of your Suite Night Awards (SNAs), you will need to go under the activity tab of your Bonvoy account. It’s the same tab that is used to check your recent points earning and deductions.

The expiration date that your SNAs are given depends on when you reached your Annual Choice Benefit milestone.

Once you reached your Annual Choice Benefit milestone, your SNAs will expire at the end of the following calendar year of when you reached your Annual Choice Benefit.

An example would be, selecting my 2022 Annual Choice Benefit in 2022 or 2023 would only make them valid until the end of the calendar year of 2023.

Yes, it doesn’t matter when you selected your Annual Choice Benefit, it only matters when you reached the Annual Choice Benefit milestone.

What rates can you use Suite Night Awards on?

Suite Night Awards can be used on Marriott-Bonvoy-eligible reservations including paid stays as well as Free Night Award stays and Cash & Points stays.

Advance Purchase rates are not eligible for Suite Night Awards.

However, once the free cancellation window is passed, you will have to call Marriott customer service or your Ambassador liaison to apply SNAs. 

For example, if I book a rate and the free cancellation is only for one day after booking I could apply the SNA request online within the free cancellation window of the first day, but after the cancellation window closes, I have to contact Marriott customer support to apply, modify, or cancel an SNA request.

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Using them for other people

Suite Night Awards cannot be transferred or given as a gift.

However, Marriott will allow you to use the Suite Night Awards for additional single-room reservations on your stay. The catch is that you must be present for the stay and the other rooms must be under your name.

So if you made a reservation for two standard rooms and then applied Suite Night Awards to both of those rooms, that would be doable as long as you are there.

How Suite Night Awards work

Suite Night Awards (SNAs) are simply you requesting an upgrade to a premium room or a suite.

A premium room could be a larger room and a suite could be any suite offered. Each property defines what suites are offered in the SNA upgradable pool making it vary between each property.

Requests are only confirmed up to five days before check-in.

Requests don’t have to be honored and can be declined anytime, but requests confirmed will be honored.

However, requests can be denied anytime by properties making it somewhat inconsistent and a little bit vague if you will get an upgrade or not.

Within five days before check-in until 2pm the day before check-in is the only time SNAs can be confirmed. 

Good properties will honor SNA requests weeks or months out and the upgrade request will reflect on your reservation with a new room type. Sometimes the property won’t even take your SNAs.

So, it varies at each property and the good ones stand out over others.

Guide on how to apply Marriott Suite Night Awards to a reservation

Once you have made a reservation at a participating brand, you will be able to request a Suite Night Award (SNA) upgrade.

Access your reservation on either the desktop site for Marriott Bonvoy or via the Bonvoy app. In this example, I will be using the desktop website, but using the Bonvoy will involve the same steps.

You will notice two upgrade options.

One is using your SNAs and the other is a paid upgrade option. Ignore the paid upgrade option and select “start upgrade request” for using your SNA(s).

Remember, each SNA is for one night. So, for this reservation, my booking was for one night and only needed one SNA. If it was for two nights, it would need two SNAs. 

Also, the number of Suite Night Awards used must match the entire length of stay. So if you have a five night reservation you can’t use these for only three nights — it has to be five.

On the upgrade request page, it will give you rooms you can select to use your SNA(s) towards.

As a reminder, the room you select for an SNA upgrade isn’t guaranteed. Refer to the section above named “how suite night awards work”.

When you have selected the rooms/suites you want to request an upgrade to, you will just need to select “submit upgrade request” at the bottom of the page.

Once you have submitted an upgrade request, you will be directed back to the reservation confirmation page. The top of the page will notify you that you have submitted your SNA(s) for an upgrade. On the Bonvoy app, it will be gray and show as a banner on the top of the app.

At the same time, you will also get an email from Marriott notifying you how you used SNA(s).

The upgrade section will also reflect that you’re using your SNA(s) on that reservation.

Occasionally, once you hit that five day window you might get an email telling you that Marriott is working on your upgrade.

At that point, it is just a waiting game until check in to see what happens.

But when you get closer to check in you should receive confirmation whether or not it was granted. For example, I received the upgrade confirmation email below on the day before check-in.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes these Suite Night Awards can get lost in the system.

For example, I’ve received confirmation about an upgrade and then come to find out it never reflects on my online reservation.

So a lot of times I think it’s a good idea to follow up over the telephone or email with the hotel to verify that your upgrade has successfully gone through.

Guide to modifying or canceling my Suite Night Awards on a reservation

Sometimes you might want to modify your Suite Night Awards (SNAs). For example, you might want to select other rooms to upgrade to or cancel the SNA upgrade request altogether.

Either way, it’s easy to make changes up to one day before your check-in date.

Once it’s within one day of your check-in date, you cannot cancel or modify your SNA(s). Refer to the section above named “cancellation policy for suite night awards” to read more about the restrictions. 

Simply go back to the reservation page and click on “modify/cancel request”.

Once directed to the “modify or cancel upgrade request” SNA page, you will be able to select rooms/suites you want to be upgraded to. After selecting or deselecting rooms/suites you want to upgrade to, select “submit modified request”.

If you wish to cancel, just scroll all the way to the bottom and select “cancel request”.

Any changes you made will reflect immediately. If you canceled your SNA request, you will receive your SNA(s) in your account immediately.

Suite Night Awards FAQ

Final word

I truly love using SNAs at certain properties when there are worthy rooms to upgrade to. It can be inconsistent for SNAs requests being denied and accepted, but it is still a better upgrade process than without using SNAs.

This article was originally published by Steve Smith.