Originally Posted by
craigthemif
... and then more and more hotels reduce elite benefits accordingly and/or everybody is elite so nobody gets upgrades...
That’s more of a problem with hotels in North America; and it becomes less of a problem the further away from the US the elite status member travels. But it’s also often the case that the further away a traveler goes from the US, the more of a rate premium (over independents and locals) is baked into the rates for the major US hotel brands’ partner properties overseas.