Originally Posted by mjh69

I would shoot for another hotel program, but instead of putting in the hard work in ask for a status match/challenge inorder to at least get some perks. Of course we all want to enjoy the benefits of being top tier at hotel programs (and we do on year 2 to retain status) but what i find with being top tier in Hyatt/Marriott/SPG/Hilton is that i can pick and choose to stay at which hotel chain when the promotions suits me well (yes i stay too many nights a year in a hotel but i kind of like it :P)

For example this year Hilton came up with a really good Q1 promo (which is why i join HHonors) so got a status challenge for diamond and upgraded to gold immediately and basically spent most of my stays in Jan and Feb at hilton properties. Then for some reason i wanted to put in marriott nights when the had their Q1 promo i put 25 nights there as well (but that worked out well as i ended up spending a lot of Marriott points on a recent trip).

Now i'm putting basically all my nights until end of July in SPG hotels as they have the best promo for me right now but on the weekends now I'm staying at a Hyatt as the hotel (hyatt in irvine CA) are doing a rate which is too good to turndown (89 a night Friday/Sat/Sun), plus they have their points promo as well going till the end of June. I will continue to follow the same pattern in Q3 and Q4 as the my ultimate goal is to earn a lot of free nights which i can spend (well my family can spend) very easily.

So depends on how frequently you will travel, but i would definately get into a 2nd/3rd/4th program or more if you put in the nights.