Gold worth it?
 

Good Morning -
I have done a lot more travel then usual the past 3 or 4 months and have accumulated about 42 nights at various Marriott hotels. Question is, should I try and get an additional 8 nights to make it up to gold status? Is there a fast/easy way to do that? I've looking into hosting a "meeting" at a Marriott property, but not sure if that still nets me the 10 nights or not.
Thanks for any/all help. I'm pretty new to this hotel loyalty stuff....

I think gold is worth it for the breakfast benefits and increased point bonus. You are close. How close would you be on your own?

Someone smarter than me will know, but I thought the 10/nights for a meeting required a block of rooms now.

The increased bonus is only 5 % , no (25 vs 20 % for Silver)?

Gold will get you free internet, breakfast, lounge access, & possible upgrades. If you can get the 8 nights cheaply it's worth it.

Cheers.

Agree with the PP's about Gold being "worth it". For us the concierge lounge access (we use it for breakfast and snacks at night) alone would make this worth it. Add the wifi access if that's important to you.

Any ideas on how to get the 8 nights fairly cheaply? I've tried reading thru the other thread about the meetings/night requirements, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer on that. Thanks again for all the replies and ideas, I'm this close, might as well go for it!

Do you have a Marriott CC? That will get you 15 nights. If it were me and I already had the CC, I would call to see if they would extend the gold to you based on nights already. If not, you will make gold easily next year with the roll over night.

I would think the least you would spend for 8 nights is $500. Do you think you will spend $500 on breakfast and internet in the next few months?

Won't signing up for the credit card give you 15 nights? Perhaps its not too late for those to post this year.

Alternatively, you could just stick with the 42, have 10 pulled for silver next, let the other 32 roll over and then only need 18 to get gold next year. Add the credit card on early next year and need only three nights to get gold. Did I figure that right?

Gold at Marriott
 

It is extremely useful in Asia and to also (to lesser extent) in Europe.
But value could be limited or very useful depending on your future travel plans in US.

Reasons:

- Asian marriotts and JW have far superior longe offerings
- Their difference in rate over mid-tier versions is not that great
- availibility of fairfield/springhill/residenceinn is none to sparse

In US:
- lounge tend to be ok to poor compared to Europe/US (although there are many excellent ones too)
- but difference in rate between FS Marriott/JW/Ren and FF/SH can be substantial


If you are traveling on someone else's dime (employer/client) then free internet/BF may not be of value to you

Also, if you are PL savy and paying from your own pocket, it is much cheaper to get FS Marriot/Ren at half the price and even if you have to pay for BF, it is nothing compared to PL saving. (yes, in many cases, even with PL , for repeat customers, tagetting a specific property with high probability of getting it is possible especially in non-high-density-urban areas)


If I get GOld without too much trouble/cost, it is nice to have. But as other poster said, the best rational approach would be to calculate and compare
a) your potential stays in 2014 where you would pay for BF/inet out-of-pocket while prefering to stay at FS Marriot/Ren vs SH/RI/FF.
b) cost right now of getting Gold

You don't need room blocks for elite nights
 

This has confused many. Room blocks are only needed for you to get points for the rooms. Room blocks are not needed for the 10 elite nights you get for hosting a meeting.

I just hosted a meeting/event at a courtyard and got the 10 nights. If you are going to go for it I think it is by far the easiest and most affordable way to do it.

There's your easiest/cheapest solution.
Call all of the Marriott properties near you and find the lowest rate for hosting a meeting. The lower end hotels will probably be the cheapest solution.


If you stay at full service hotels, it's well worth it. Even if you only stay four or five nights in the next year at full service hotels, I think it would be well worth it, just for lounge access alone.

The Gold extras are not about the extra half point per $. Gold at marriott is about benefits at hotels, and this varies by brand.

For the non full service brands, FI, CY, AC, SHS etc there is a prospect of room upgrades subject to availability at checkin.... And the own hotels secret policy.

At the FS brands, Mar, Ren etc the possibility of upgrades is sweetened by guaranteed lounge access, if the property has a lounge and if no lounge then often vouchers for free drink and snack in the bar. There's also free Cont'l breakfast 7 days week in lounge, or restaurant if lounge is closed (as many are at the weekend) though it seems all non-lounge hotels outside USA give free full breakfast.

I've never stated at FI, but my 1 experience of CY as a gold was it meant nothing at all. But at Mar, Ren and Autograph it's a very different story. I find I'm mostly upgraded, though usually to a larger room, suite upgrades are pretty unusual, probably happening 2 or 3 times a year. The free breakfast is a considerable benefit on my leisure travel, especially with 4 ravenous teenagers in tow! Lounge access is always a good thing although most properties in Europe don't have a lounge.

I'd say gold delivers $40-$400 benefits per night at FS, depending on the upgrade and lounge. On the other hand the only added extra for plat is 500 welcome points and 2.5 extra points per $. I value plat as giving about $8 night of benefit.

So it all depends on whether your stays are mainly FS. If so a cheap meeting would be worth it, shoving stays Marriotts way would, so would getting the CC but manufacturing stays wouldn't, even if like me all your stays are FS.

The other thing to consider is your rollovers. If you've stayed the 42 nights this year then 32 will rollover to 2014 meaning you'll only need to stay 18 more nights in 2014 to get to gold which you'll then retain to Feb 2016...

If I were you, I'd go for it, either by hosting a meeting (you can do it cheap in the US), or do a staycation/mattress run. I think there ought to be some great cheap options in MCO area if you want to do the mattress run/staycation.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Wait. There's rollover for silver too? And this includes cc spend/15 nights bonus?