I've had good hits at Grosvenor House as both a Gold and Plat...love places with lots of suites in inventory! For the most part, Marriott Gold and Plat are pretty similar with the one exception being if you need this as your backdoor to Star Silver.

I miss the welcome amenity from my Plat years - it was nice to have wine and cheese brought to the room. Ten bucks at the bar? Meh...that's less exciting. Glad to hear some international properties are still doing a decent amenity: I've stayed at a few European Marriotts that brought a full bottle of a somewhat decent local wine.

If you decide to chase HH status, pick up their credit card so at least you start at Gold. You could go all the way to Diamond just on credit card spend, but you have enough stays/nights planned that this route is probably unnecessary.

HH, like MR, gets a lot better outside the U.S. and Canada. I've had great Gold/Diamond upgrades at far-flung Hiltons.