The bonus has to do with being inconvenienced based on what you book.

-Hotels upgrade on good faith typically in an attempt to improve the customer's experience. If they upgrade you to a room that does not match the bed type booked (for example, many hotels don't even have suites with 2 double beds), it is within your right to ask to be downgraded back to the original room booked. You won't get the points and you won't get the upgrade, but you can't claim any compensation or that the hotel did not honor your status.

-If in upgrading you, the hotel gives away all the rooms of your requested bed-type, and can't move you back to the bed-type you requested, then you are certainly due the points, and should be able to keep your upgrade.

-Upgrades aside, if the hotel can't accommodate your bed-type booked in the same category or better, then you are due the points.

If the hotel cannot accommodate the bed type you booked, then you should get the points, but you must request it and usually it involves making a fuss at check-in. To seem like a reasonable human being, you should have a decent reason for needing the bed-type you requested. For example, if you book a 1 queen bed and get a 1 king bed, and there are no longer any queens, I'm not sure how you reasonably argue getting a king bed significantly disenfranchised you as a customer. Funny as they may seem, neither agoraphobia nor megalophobia are reasonable arguments.

If you book a king and get a queen or two double beds, you should get points. Reasonable obvious argument. As a Platinum or Diamond member, the hotel should've give those rooms to non-elites and saved you the king.

The most significant place I see this benefit coming into play is when you book 2 double beds are are given 1 king/queen, but need the 2 double beds because of occupancy. If you have 3-4 people staying, you need to indicate that upon making the reservation. If you book 3-4 people into a 2 double bed room, the hotel should see that and should honor the 2 double beds. If you book 1 person and show up with 3-4, you've misled the hotel, and they are within their right to charge you for another room.

The most frequent time I see this benefit coming into play is when you book 2 double beds for 2 people and actually show up with 2 people:


When traveling with a friend, we prefer the 2 double beds over the upgrade. In the times this cannot be honored (i.e. hotel assumes 2 people traveling are SOs and would share a bed), I usually have no issue taking the upgrade, getting the points, and having a rollaway delivered. If the 2 double beds can be honored, but it means no upgrade, its usually not an issue to keep the upgrade and get a complimentary rollaway. No points in this case. Usually this decision depends on which friend I'm traveling with .


When traveling with an SO, you can try and make the same case as when traveling with a friend (want separate beds), but your SO might get annoyed with you for giving up a nice upgrade and settling for a normal room with 2 double beds and no points. Its your gamble. Maybe your SO is a points slut too.

If you are a true points slut, and when traveling alone the difference between a twin/double bed and a king bed doesn't matter for you, its probably best to frequently book 2 double beds. If the hotel gives up your room, you can make any number of cases for preferring 2 double beds even when traveling alone. (PM me for ideas if you can't come up with one). If they can't honor it, you should get your 5k points, and whatever other upgrade/compensation the front desk is willing to throw in for your inconvenience. At times of high occupancy, a hotel would rather give a solo-traveling elite 5K points than walk a group of 4.

Of course, always booking 2 double beds when traveling alone may prevent you from getting an otherwise awesome upgrade because the hotel wanted to honor your preference. If they honor your preference, you can always inquire about an upgrade at check-in, but you may have missed out during pre-allocation of upgrades.

I do always book mattress runs as 2 double beds. Once I got 5K points, so I guess it paid off.

Otherwise, I find this benefit rarely comes into play--perhaps its more common at the platinum level, as Hyatt's should be giving diamonds preference over platinums.