What country are you based in? If in the US, it's a lot easier to get second level up status (Platinum) at IHG by getting the Chase IHG credit card (which btw gives you, after the first year, an uncapped free night most anywhere in the IHG program in exchange for a measly $49 annual fee). And you get a 10% rebate on IHG points redemptions too.

It's status that gets you upgrades, not a random number of stays (but insufficient to earn status) in the same program. So unless you're not based in the USA, why not get status this easy way, and then you won't have to pay extra when IHG is more expensive just to achieve status with them.

Having said that, in many small towns all you get it with IHG is a small Holiday Inn Express, and there's not necessarily much to be upgraded to in many of those.

For really small towns (in the USA), the programs that are most common are Best Western, Choice, and WyndhamRewards. But upgrades with those are rare even with status, and WyndhamRewards doesn't even have true status (yet?).


Anyway, how it works for me it that I value a free breakfast and/or lounge access (not something you tend to get with status at IHG much, though, compared to a few other programs). But the benefits of an upgrade, while nice, are (a) not dependable, and (b) generally not worth any extra money (or points) for me. I belong to lots of different programs, and evaluate price against bonuses (in the points program) against location against in-hotel benefits (either due to the brand benefits or my status benefits).

So upgrades are low on my list of why I like hotel status. Besides breakfast and/or lounge access (in some programs), greater likelihood of extended checkout, less likelihood of being the one "walked" (if the hotel is overbooked), etc, are more important to me than the rarely-obvious upgrade.