As of today, Marriott is automating the process of assigning guest rooms, including elite upgrades. While replacing human tasks with AI doesn’t always sound like a customer centric move, maybe this is actually good news? I first covered this topic several weeks ago, but with this process being implemented as of today, I want to take a closer look as to how it works.
Marriott automates the task of assigning rooms
Several weeks ago, Marriott Chief Technology Officer Naveen Manga participated in the Skift Data and AI Summit, talking about the incremental progress that the company is making with AI.
His most interesting commentary was about how Marriott is deploying an AI tool that automates the task of hotel room assignments for front desk staff. As described by Manga, “essentially, taking hours and hours of manual work — all that heads down work the associates do — and in a fraction of a second, 1.2 million rooms can be assigned.”
Hotels assigning rooms on a daily basis is a big task, both given that it needs to be done daily, and also given the number of considerations that go into this. Front desk staff have to consider things like arrival times, room preferences, occupancy levels, elite status or other upgrade eligibility, etc.
When it comes to upgrades, it’s my understanding that Marriott previously had a system that secretly prioritized guests for room upgrades, based on elite status and other factors. Then it was up to the front desk agents to run down that list, upgrade guests, and assign rooms.
Anyway, this new technology has been implemented as of today, Monday, July 14, 2025, and we also have more details as to how this works.
How Automatic Complimentary Upgrades (ACUs) work
Automatic Complimentary Upgrades (ACUs) is the internal name for Marriott’s new automated way of assigning elite upgrades. Here’s how the company describes the process:
To drive greater operational efficiency and enhance the guest experience, Marriott is launching a technology-driven enhancement that will streamline how upgrades are managed across hotels. ACUs will build on the current complimentary upgrade system to place Marriott Bonvoy Gold and higher-tier Elite members in a higher room category.
So, how does this actually work in practice? Many Bonvoy elite members are probably familiar with Nightly Upgrade Awards (NUAs), which are the elite upgrade certificates that members can select as part of the Choice Benefits program. With that process, starting three to five days before arrival, an automatic system can confirm those upgrades, at 2PM local hotel time.
How does the Automatic Complimentary Upgrade system work? As shared by a Reddit user:
- Starting at 3PM local time the day before arrival, the system will start checking for ACU availability for reservations arriving the next day, using remaining elite upgrade inventory
- If a match is found, an upgrade is granted, and the member receives a notification telling them that an upgrade has been granted
So it’s pretty cool that guests will actually be informed in advance of their upgrade, if available. Keep in mind that even if an upgrade isn’t granted at 3PM the day before arrival, it could still be granted later on. Hotels will continue to be able to designate what rooms are in their elite upgrade inventory, and it remains to be seen to what extent Marriott will intervene for hotels that choose not to follow the rules (probably not much).
Is automation good or bad for hotel guests?
Generally speaking, when we hear of AI in the hotel industry, it’s not good news. The intent is typically for the hotel to cut costs and improve the bottom line, rather than improving the guest experience. However, on the surface, I feel like automating room assignments might actually have some upside, or at worst, be neutral.
After all, a computer can assign room types most fairly based on a variety of factors. Furthermore, for hotels that aren’t great about upgrading, maybe automating the assigning of rooms will actually increase the number of upgrades that are given out.
The challenge continues to be that hotels still have control as to which rooms they designate as being in the elite upgrade inventory. Unfortunately just recently, Marriott updated its upgrade terms & conditions, to give hotels more discretion in terms of the types of rooms members can be upgraded to.
Bottom line
Marriott has officially rolled out its new Automatic Complimentary Upgrades (ACUs) process, whereby a front desk AI tool automatically starts assigning room upgrades at 3PM the day before arrival. While I’m generally skeptical of the extent to which AI improves customer experience, I have more faith in a computer than I do in the average front desk Marriott employee when it comes to assigning upgrades, so I wouldn’t necessarily consider this to be bad news.
To be clear, that’s not a dig at Marriott employees, as they’re typically just doing what they’re told to do. The issue is the hotel owners that want the global distribution power of Marriott (thanks largely to the Bonvoy program), without providing the benefits that make it popular.
With this now being rolled out, I’m curious if we notice any difference with upgrades and room assignments.
What do you make of this new Marriott AI tool for assigning rooms? And if you have any firsthand experiences with the new system please report back!
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