Many people think that elite hotel status is only for those who travel for business and spend more time in a hotel room than at home (Did anyone see the movie, "Up in the air?"). While you're not going to earn the highest level of elite status at a hotel chain without a serious commitment, you can obtain lower status levels with minimum effort, sometimes as little as four nights. Alternatively, certain credit cards can reduce your minimums and help you earn your privileges and rewards a bit faster. That’s not to say that “Pricelining” hotels is a bad strategy, but rather that you should consider how valuable the benefits of hotel elite status could be to you. Each hotel program has a slightly different threshold for attaining elite loyalty status; which program is best for you depends largely on your travel patterns and preferences. So to keep this post simple, let’s talk a bit about top tier status at the five major hotel chains:
Ben Schlappig, a travel expert I previously met, analyzed the big 5 hotel status programs: Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport, Holiday Inn Priority Club and Intercontinental Ambassador, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. and gives his recommendations, along with a summary of the pros and cons.
In order to earn Hilton Diamond status you need to make 28 stays or spend 60 nights per year at Hilton properties. Alternatively, you can earn Diamond status for $40,000 of annual spend on a Hilton Surpass American Express credit card.
As far as the on-property benefits go, you get free Internet access for the duration of your stay, and also get access to the club lounge. Beyond that, you typically get a room upgrade to a room with a better view, on a higher floor, etc. At Hilton’s other brands, like Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn, the benefits are marginal, since breakfast is included. Instead you get a points amenity (250 points at Hampton Inn hotels, 1,000 points at Embassy Suites hotels, etc.) or your choice of “snacks.” Typically it’s a pretty awful selection, consisting of either two soft drinks OR two candy bars.
Overall, given the high requirements for attaining top tier status, the benefits are minimal.
In order to earn Hyatt Diamond status you need to make 25 stays or spend 50 nights per year at Hyatt properties.
Hyatt has pretty good on-property benefits. As a Diamond member you get free Internet access for the duration of your stay, and access to the club lounge. If for whatever reason the club lounge is closed and you aren’t granted access, you get restaurant breakfast plus 2,500 bonus points as compensation. While the bonus points only apply if the hotel actually has a club lounge (and it’s closed), you get the free restaurant breakfast even if the hotel doesn’t have a club lounge.
Furthermore, you get a Diamond amenity at every property worldwide. Within the United States you get to choose between 1,000 Gold Passport points and a food and beverage amenity, at full service Hyatt hotels. At international properties, you don’t have a choice – you get a food and beverage amenity, which ranges anywhere from three apples to a nice bottle of wine and box of gourmet chocolates.
Hyatt is also the only chain to issue their top tier elite members four confirmed suite upgrades annually. You can apply them to any paid stay of up to seven nights at the time of booking, assuming a standard suite is available. If you decide not to use a suite upgrade, you automatically get upgraded to the best available non-suite room.
Given the reasonable requirements to qualify for top tier status with Hyatt and the excellent benefits, Ben feels this is the all around best value program. I have not had a lot of experience with Hyatt so it is hard for me to evaluate this program.
In order to earn Marriott Platinum status you need to stay 75 nights per year at Marriott properties. You can’t earn top tier status based on stays, so Marriott has the highest top tier elite qualification tier of any program. That being said, for every $3,000 you spend on the Marriott Rewards Visa, you get one night elite qualification. In other words, to earn top tier just from credit card spend, you would need to spend $225,000 per year on the card...WOW
Marriott offers free Internet at hotels for Platinum members worldwide. As a Platinum member you get an upgrade to the best available non-suite room, much like at Hyatt. Furthermore, you are guaranteed access to the club lounge if it is open at the hotel (with the exception of Ritz Carlton properties, as they have their own rewards program). If the club lounge is closed or the hotel doesn’t have a club lounge, you get complimentary continental breakfast at participating hotels. If for whatever reason you don’t get that benefit during your stay, Marriott will reimburse you $100.
As a Platinum member you also get a welcome gift of either bonus points or a welcome gift, typically consisting of a food and beverage amenity.
Marriott’s elite benefits are quite similar to those of Hilton, though they have by far the highest elite qualification requirements. So this definitely isn’t the chain for someone looking to make top tier status out of pocket, though if you have to stay at Marriott hotels anyway, the benefits are solid.
Priority Club/InterContinental
Priority Club and InterContinental probably have the most complicated elite tier structure. While InterContinental hotels are part of Priority Club, they have a separate elite recognition program.
For simplicity, let’s start with the Priority Club program. The top tier status level, Platinum, requires 50 nights or 60,000 points annually. The 60,000 points might sound like a lot, though points add up quickly with Priority Club. If you sign up for the Priority Club Visa with a 60,000 point sign-up bonus, you basically get instant Platinum status.
The only other real benefit of Priority Club Platinum is room upgrades “upon availability.” This is very loosely enforced, though, and some hotels just don’t have very many premium rooms (like Holiday Inn Express properties, some Holiday Inns, etc.).
Intercontinental Amassador status is one of the few statuses that can be bought. It costs $200. For $200 you will receive: guaranteed room upgrades, 4pm late check out, a free weekend night (this is worth the $200 alone), fresh fruit and mineral water, and the single rate for double occupancy.
Believe it or not I actually spent money to obtain this status. I had a planned trip to the Tahitian islands and was going to stay at three separate Intercontinental properties and I definitely wanted the guaranteed room upgrades.
You usually get a pretty nice welcome gift, much nicer than with any other hotel chain, typically consisting of a fruit plate, a couple of bottles of water, some sort of food amenity, and often a local gift that you can take home.
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) |
| Bora Bora Intercontinental welcome gift (fresh fruit skewers) |
In order to earn Starwood Platinum status you need to make 25 stays or spend 50 nights per year at Starwood properties. If you have the Starwood American Express credit card you automatically get five free nights and two free stays towards elite qualification annually.
As far as on-property benefits go, Starwood offers free Internet at all their properties worldwide. Furthermore, you get access to the club lounge at those properties that have lounges (though I find Starwood hotels to proportionally have far fewer lounges than the other chains). The main draw for people to the Starwood program seems to be the lure of free suite upgrades. They offer Platinum members the best room available, including standard suites. Lastly, you earn a welcome gift, typically giving you the choice between points or a food and beverage amenity.
People seem to either love or hate Starwood. If you plan your stays carefully you may get frequent suite upgrades, though there are some Platinum members that seem to get suite upgrades only every five or so stays. The issue is that there’s very little to fall back on, since most Starwood properties don’t have lounges (and you don’t get free breakfast if there’s not a club lounge). So you might end up having a great stay, with a huge suite and access to a club lounge, or you may end up in a standard room without so much as free breakfast.
There you have it, that’s the run down.
It is important to follow blogs like this one because that is how I learned last year I could get Hilton gold status just by registering a Signature Visa credit card. I got the gold status without ever spending a night at the Hilton. My gold status really worked out at the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Kona, Hawaii. Instead of the garden view room I was upgraded to an ocean view room with free breakfast and free Internet.
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| Ocean Front Rooms at the Hilton |
So is status (with all the freebies) or lower cost (Priceline) better? You decide.
Similar to the airline programs, make sure you sign up for all the hotel benefit programs because points equal free stays. And, you already know you can earn points without ever setting foot in a hotel.
Tomorrow I am flying to Oregon for my annual family vacation. I will try an keep up the blog on week days but if you don't receive your daily email just figure I am out having fun and some how earning traveling points and/or miles in the process.
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