Inconsistency can be a mixed blessing as many (Royal) Ambassadors have discovered since they tried to make the scheme more consistent across IC hotels.

Although it's nice to know to expect a certain level of service as an elite if the chain tries to be too consistent then we might lose some of the nice touches provided by the better hotels in the chain. Problem is PC Plat is way too easy to get on points, I had already earned over 60000 points in January alone I can certainly understand why the chain can't guarantee lounge access/breakfast unlike Hilton where there's probably a lot less elites.

Perhaps if Royal Ambassador was expanded in embrace the other IHG chains then we might just start seeing some bigger benefits as there'd be less top tier elites.

CPKensington - do you keep your own customer stats in addition to their priority club status? If there's a large number of plats staying in your hotel you could prioritise upgrades based on factors such as their frequency of stay and amount spent in the hotel on previous stays. As well as rewarding your own most frequent guests you'd help cement their loyalty to the hotel.

If you do give a super upgrade you have to make it clear that these are not guaranteed - something like: we always upgrade our best customers to our best rooms when they're available, but we can't guarantee if we're busy on future stays.