Assume one is not a road warrior ,and not 100% loyal to one brand.
Also assume one has the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) and/or Amex Platinum.
Do I really care about hotel status?
Some thoughts:
1. With FHR or The Edit, many of the status benefits are duplicated, such check-in/check-out, breakfast, etc.
2. From a recent post I learned that people holding typical status are not necessarily higher up the food chain than others. For example, travel agents.
3. CSR and Platinum give some decent statuses (Hilton, IHG, Marriott) and elevated status with additional spend (IHG, possibly Hyatt upcoming).
4. Are free night certificates that valuable or essentially another coupon to try to use?
5. Are hotel lounges, executive floors that beneficial of a perk? Meaning, unlike an airport, I have a room (possibly a suite), a shower, and the hotel has a lobby, business center, and bar/restaurant (perhaps several). Note, I have stayed on a fair number of these floors without status.
As a disclosure, I frequently look at hotel credit cards, but when I analyze the value I can't justify the fee. I understand I am mixing status and another card here to a certain extent.
Do I Really Care About Hotel Status?
byu/someonestolemycord inCreditCards
Posted by someonestolemycord
3 Comments
Free night certificates vary by brand. Hilton’s are generally the most valuable- they can be used at any property with ‘standard award’ rooms available. So you can get $500-$1500 out of one.
Hilton Gold also still get your free breakfast at full service properties outside the USA. We got like $720 of comped breakfasts for our Iceland (Reykjavik) and London trip last year.
I don’t have high expectations of suite upgrades of anything but find that even minor status keeps me away from the dumpster view rooms. We’ll do 40-50 nights a year and I’ve managed to end up with minor status in Hyatt (organic) Marriott (organic), IHG (credit card), Hilton (credit card) and Accor (discount program thing) for this year.
Also status tends to mean more outside the USA when not everyone has a credit card that gives status. Free breakfast for Hilton Golds and Diamonds is one of those areas.
I love my Hyatt status. That late checkout is amazing and the points redemption value I get is amazing
If you’re mainly staying at FHR/edit properties, status is mostly useless since perks overlap and hotels seem to prioritize FHR upgrades over status upgrades. I will say status (Hilton Gold, Marriott Platinum) has been beneficial for Amex THC bookings since those don’t always come with breakfast. The other thing to consider is that there’s still a good amount of 4-4.5 star Marriott/Hilton properties that aren’t part of FHR/edit/travel agency programs where status has been helpful in getting free breakfast, late checkout, etc