Getting back to travelling again but also getting tired of the usual "X nights per calendar year" tiers at many hotel chains.

Do any hotel chains base their membership tiers on overall nights stayed as opposed to nights per year? Just a long-shot I guess, in case I've missed something...

P.S. In the cruising world you also get some cruise lines requiring repeated travel, but some do offer lifetime tiers without any time constraints...

Marriott's Lifetime program is described here. They look at both total nights -and- number of years that you earn status, which would require stays in a specific year.

https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/mem...time-status.mi

If I understand correctly, what you seem to be asking is whether there are any hotel loyalty programs that base today's "status" on overall lifetime business, rather than recent business. If that is what you are asking, it seems like a longshot. Several hotel programs have "lifetime" tiers (I can think of Hilton, Marriot Bonvoy and Hyatt off of the top of my head), but those still require achieving thresholds in the past. For Hilton, it's 1,000+ total nights *and* 10 years (not necessarily consecutive) of Diamond status.

It's important to remember that these programs aren't designed to reward you for past behavior (spend), they are to create incentives for future behavior (spend). It's a little like having a teenage child - they don't appreciate the $20 you gave them last week - that money is gone. They are only thinking about ways to get $20 out of you next week.

Hilton has a credit card that gives you top tier status each year that you hold it. It is expensive but has great perks that if used more than cover the annual fee. I'm not sure if you have to have a US address to get it.

Hyatt, Marriott, Choice and some other programs have lifetime elite tier status earning possibilities. But given my experience with airline lifetime elite status and what hotel loyalty programs have done, my suggestion is to take a more transactional approach and discount the value of lifetime elite status since the benefits can be diluted over time; and the lifetime status earning possibility can be pulled even if you were to be just on the cusp of reaching the previously understood target.

Many thanks guys. Marriott does look good but I'm not sure I want to invest in numerous years of status-maintenance for what someone later mentioned could be diluted or even pulled completely. With cruise lines you have some that simply tally up all your historical night and don't put any time limitations on it. Thought maybe some hotel chain might do the same.

I love the teenager comparison, reminds me a lot of certain affiliate programs where nobody cares what you have done in the past but only how much MORE you can give them.

Interesting idea with the Hilton CC but I probably don't want to qualify using someone else's address and pretending to be resident. Definitely a great tip to share with my US-resident friends who are also looking for the same perks.

JUST A THOUGHT. Putting the status thing aside for a moment - just off the top of your head, which hotel programs have a relatively easy path to the next tier that offers complimentary lounge/club access for all room rates (and not just in specific rooms)? As in lounge/club access for 2-3 hrs every evening with all drinks included. Any hotel program stand out? I used to be with Swissotel for that reason but they've been gobbled up by Accor it seems...

A problem you may not be aware of is that many hotels that have lounges have either closed them for now or reduced hours, due to staffing issues they're having post-Covid (people retired early and/or were laid off during Covid, and now they're having trouble finding replacement people). Some hotel lounges which used to open for both breakfast and evenings are only open for breakfast now, for example.

So do you really want to spend the effort of getting status if the lounge is not going to be open when you want it?

And it's not clear how many more years it might take for hotels to return to previous staffing levels, if they ever will.

I doubt they ever will.

There are people out there willing to work in hotel lounges. The hotels simply have chosen not to pay the wages required to hire them. It's a business decision to cut services and sell a lowest cost (to them) technically acceptable commodity.

If I did not have hotel status, I would not spend much time or effort chasing it. Even the luxury brands within the big chains have reduced, eliminated, or otherwise nerfed hospitality and service. We've seen hotel CEOs comment on it - they're in the business of serving their property owners, not the guests.

My own future is pretty transactional: I'll happily take points on my business stays, then redeeming for mostly mundane personal stays where the points are just a cash replacement. For anything aspirational I'm more likely to rent a villa or go some other route like that. The days of great experiences within the big chains are mostly over except at rare properties at the very top end and in parts of the world where a hospitality culture didn't die in 2020 with the covid pandemic.

Try having a look at GHA. They allow a somewhat accelerated tier advancement if you stay even single nights at multiple brands in a year, so I remember it was possible to hit the highest tier with just 5 nights (I could be wrong) as long as they were at 5 difference brands. That said, I would also consider which hotel chains are best represented at the price point I want at the destinations I most often visit

Hyatt is straightforward - $200,000 in total spend (1,000,000 base miles) to get lifetime Globalist. Get cracking!

If you can hit 40 nights in a calendar year (and award stays do count toward your night counter) IHG now lets you select an annual lounge pass for your choice benefit at that milestone. IMO, their 2022 program changes were a significant improvement, though they�re still working on getting some properties to properly honor the new status benefits from it. (Some game playing from properties for the free breakfast for Diamond elites in spots)