canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2025-01-05 10:09 am
canyonwalker) wrote2025-01-05 10:09 am
2024 Frequent Flyer Retrospective: Hotel Points & Status
Every year around the start of the year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how we'll I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. Yesterday I posted a wrap-up of my airline miles and status for 2024. Now it's time for the same with hotel points and status.
As I noted with airline miles, hotel points only ever decrease in value over time. That's because airlines and hotels only ever increase the amount needed for redemption. It's a form of inflation, and some of my frequent flyer peers peg it at averaging 10% a year. In an inflationary environment it makes no sense to hold currency. Thus as I inventory my points and status I indicate accumulating too many points as a bad thing and managing to spend down my balances as a good thing.
Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain in 2024 with 13 nights stayed. The majority, 10 nights, were actually paid. That because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. The latter is one of the aspects of points devaluation. The cash price for a hotel is reasonable, or even a minor bargain, while the points rate for that ordinary hotel is up in the stratosphere like top-end properties just a few years ago.
The one night where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. It was a limited-service airport hotel. Over $300/night or 60k points. I opted to pay points. For those of us who've been playing the points-and-miles game for several years this is galling because 60k points used to buy an absolutely top-end property. Hell, 50k used to be the absolute top end. Now you can easily pay that much for roadside accommodations.
Speaking of top-end properties, we did stay at one this year. I used a pair of free-night certificates for our astounding stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos. Now that would be a good use of points! Too bad it's 120k/night.
Status-wise I dropped from Diamond (top tier) elite to Gold (middle tier) this year when I canceled my Hilton Aspire American Express card. I'll probably drop even further, to Silver, in a few months. Over the years Diamond status rarely was worth much. In 2024, though, it did help us with that amazing Waldorf Astoria stay. And with an upgrade to a suite with a walk-out patio our first 2 nights in New Zealand. And with 2 days of a sumptuous breakfast buffet at that hotel. But most of the time it's "Thanks for being a Diamond member, Mr. Walker, here's your ordinary room and a free bottle of water.
Because I spent no points this year while earning from a sozen my balance went up, from 430k a year ago to 477k today. That's the opposite of what I wanted. Thus my goal for 2024 remains the same as last year: Find (worthwhile) awards redemptions for enjoyable stays.
Marriott slipped to being my #2 hotel chain in 2024 as my 13 nights with Hilton edged out my 12 nights with Marriott. Marriott's count rises to 17, though, if we include nights Hawk paid for with points from her account. Of course, these numbers are way down from the 60, 70, or more nights per year I logged with Marriott in my business travel heyday years ago.
The nights we stayed were on a mix of cash and points. And the places where we used points were not aspirational luxury properties but standard roadside level hotels. When I started the points and miles game I had visions of all the fancy places I'd stay for free on points. As the reality of limited time, limited opportunity, and frequent devaluation set in I made peace with redeemding points anywhere, provided it's a good value relative to the cash price. Thus I'm content that I used points for our 5 night stay in Wisconsin for my niece's graduation, and Hawk redeemed points for 5 nights in Boone, NC on our Blue Ridge Mountains trip. I also redeemed points for a Friday Night Halfway trip. These redemptions whittled my points balance down from 243,000 to 160,000.
Elite status-wise, I hold Lifetime Titanium status in Bonvoy, the second highest of five elite levels. It's a benefit of my past years of much heavier travel. Not that it's often much benefit at all. There aren't a lot of upgrades and other elite perks to be had at the basic suburban hotels where I spent many of my Marriott nights. Though we did enjoy breakfast buffets comped at the AC Marriott in Panama City the last week of the year. Nominally that was a $150 benefit. I peg the real value to us at maybe one-quarter that— particularly because 2 out of 4 days we were up and out before breakfast opened.
For 2024 my goal remains the same as the past several years: Spend points and get value from them. My stash of Bonvoy points is smaller now than in years past... so in 2025 I might boost it by another 100k or so with another credit card. But either way, I'll be looking to spend at least as much as I earn, since holding onto points long term doesn't pay.
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, dropped to my #3 hotel chain for 2024. I stayed only 7 nights with them. Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year their prices were just too high much of the time, allowing Hilton and even Marriott to undercut them.
My stays with IHG were a mix of points stays and paid stays. I wanted to make more points stays but the problem, as above, continues to be that points rates are often ridiculously high. A few times I decided to pay cash and hold onto my points in hopes of finding better value for them later. On the whole I whittled down my IHG points from 240k a year ago to 212k today.
Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit card. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Though once again those limited-service properties occasionally come through with small but meaningful upgrades such the "tower suite" upgrade at the airport hotel in Auckland.
For 2025 my goal with IHG remains, Burn, baby, burn! 212k points is not a huge balance at today's devalued rates, but Hawk has a similar balance on her account, too. Together we'd like to redeem for several stay-on-the-way nights to make our one-night or weekend trips easier.
For the past several years Best Western has been down in my "Whatever" category, the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all in 2021-2023. But the chain came back on my radar this year as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW. Plus, they had a summer bonus program going that paid extra points after 3 stays. I hit that bonus with three one-night stays in small towns. Now I have 24k points total... and no plan for where to redeem them. 🤣 I guess I'll have to look up BW every time I consider staying in a small town this year.
↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham,
I have memberships in several other hotel rewards programs. Some still have scraps of points left in them from years past. Others are zeroed out due to expiry. I've barely paid attention to these chains over the past year because I've been busy with the three above, which largely meet my needs— as they control a huge portion of the mid-scale and upper mid-scale hotel market. I'll look at others again if their properties and loyalty programs become compelling... but for the past few years they have not been.
As I noted with airline miles, hotel points only ever decrease in value over time. That's because airlines and hotels only ever increase the amount needed for redemption. It's a form of inflation, and some of my frequent flyer peers peg it at averaging 10% a year. In an inflationary environment it makes no sense to hold currency. Thus as I inventory my points and status I indicate accumulating too many points as a bad thing and managing to spend down my balances as a good thing.
⬆️ Hilton: Too Much Earn, Not Enough Burn
Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain in 2024 with 13 nights stayed. The majority, 10 nights, were actually paid. That because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. The latter is one of the aspects of points devaluation. The cash price for a hotel is reasonable, or even a minor bargain, while the points rate for that ordinary hotel is up in the stratosphere like top-end properties just a few years ago.The one night where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. It was a limited-service airport hotel. Over $300/night or 60k points. I opted to pay points. For those of us who've been playing the points-and-miles game for several years this is galling because 60k points used to buy an absolutely top-end property. Hell, 50k used to be the absolute top end. Now you can easily pay that much for roadside accommodations.
Speaking of top-end properties, we did stay at one this year. I used a pair of free-night certificates for our astounding stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos. Now that would be a good use of points! Too bad it's 120k/night.
Status-wise I dropped from Diamond (top tier) elite to Gold (middle tier) this year when I canceled my Hilton Aspire American Express card. I'll probably drop even further, to Silver, in a few months. Over the years Diamond status rarely was worth much. In 2024, though, it did help us with that amazing Waldorf Astoria stay. And with an upgrade to a suite with a walk-out patio our first 2 nights in New Zealand. And with 2 days of a sumptuous breakfast buffet at that hotel. But most of the time it's "Thanks for being a Diamond member, Mr. Walker, here's your ordinary room and a free bottle of water.
Because I spent no points this year while earning from a sozen my balance went up, from 430k a year ago to 477k today. That's the opposite of what I wanted. Thus my goal for 2024 remains the same as last year: Find (worthwhile) awards redemptions for enjoyable stays.
⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Points!
Marriott slipped to being my #2 hotel chain in 2024 as my 13 nights with Hilton edged out my 12 nights with Marriott. Marriott's count rises to 17, though, if we include nights Hawk paid for with points from her account. Of course, these numbers are way down from the 60, 70, or more nights per year I logged with Marriott in my business travel heyday years ago.The nights we stayed were on a mix of cash and points. And the places where we used points were not aspirational luxury properties but standard roadside level hotels. When I started the points and miles game I had visions of all the fancy places I'd stay for free on points. As the reality of limited time, limited opportunity, and frequent devaluation set in I made peace with redeemding points anywhere, provided it's a good value relative to the cash price. Thus I'm content that I used points for our 5 night stay in Wisconsin for my niece's graduation, and Hawk redeemed points for 5 nights in Boone, NC on our Blue Ridge Mountains trip. I also redeemed points for a Friday Night Halfway trip. These redemptions whittled my points balance down from 243,000 to 160,000.
Elite status-wise, I hold Lifetime Titanium status in Bonvoy, the second highest of five elite levels. It's a benefit of my past years of much heavier travel. Not that it's often much benefit at all. There aren't a lot of upgrades and other elite perks to be had at the basic suburban hotels where I spent many of my Marriott nights. Though we did enjoy breakfast buffets comped at the AC Marriott in Panama City the last week of the year. Nominally that was a $150 benefit. I peg the real value to us at maybe one-quarter that— particularly because 2 out of 4 days we were up and out before breakfast opened.
For 2024 my goal remains the same as the past several years: Spend points and get value from them. My stash of Bonvoy points is smaller now than in years past... so in 2025 I might boost it by another 100k or so with another credit card. But either way, I'll be looking to spend at least as much as I earn, since holding onto points long term doesn't pay.
⬆️ IHG: Burn, Baby, Burn! (But not Enough)
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, dropped to my #3 hotel chain for 2024. I stayed only 7 nights with them. Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year their prices were just too high much of the time, allowing Hilton and even Marriott to undercut them.My stays with IHG were a mix of points stays and paid stays. I wanted to make more points stays but the problem, as above, continues to be that points rates are often ridiculously high. A few times I decided to pay cash and hold onto my points in hopes of finding better value for them later. On the whole I whittled down my IHG points from 240k a year ago to 212k today.
Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit card. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Though once again those limited-service properties occasionally come through with small but meaningful upgrades such the "tower suite" upgrade at the airport hotel in Auckland.
For 2025 my goal with IHG remains, Burn, baby, burn! 212k points is not a huge balance at today's devalued rates, but Hawk has a similar balance on her account, too. Together we'd like to redeem for several stay-on-the-way nights to make our one-night or weekend trips easier.
⬆️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?
For the past several years Best Western has been down in my "Whatever" category, the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all in 2021-2023. But the chain came back on my radar this year as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW. Plus, they had a summer bonus program going that paid extra points after 3 stays. I hit that bonus with three one-night stays in small towns. Now I have 24k points total... and no plan for where to redeem them. 🤣 I guess I'll have to look up BW every time I consider staying in a small town this year.