What is SPG Gold Status worth to you?
 

Please excuse (or move) if this is the wrong place for this...

Just wanted to get some opinions as to what this level of status is worth to people in terms of actual benefits taken advantage of and what people are willing to to do get them.

I am 8 nights shy of Gold status and have a 4 night stay at an SPG property before end of year anyway. Wondering if it is worth it to try and get those remaining 4 nights, or more to the point, how far I should go to attempt it.

I get gold benefits already with my Delta Plat through crossover rewards, but that expires in January, so it's wither push for gold or have nothing for next year.

For me, it is about $20 a night for the club access and about $60 for the 4 pm checkout. (I don't always want or need 4 pm checkout) This is highly subjective, of course.

So if I plan to stay at SPG hotels 20 nights and want two 4 pm checkouts for a particular year, it will be worth $520 for that year.

I did not count the extra points I would get as a gold.

Unfortunately Club Lounge access is not guaranteed unless you get upgraded to a room which confers Club Access.

The late check-out is useful though.

Also we're not sure what the new Starwood/Marriot program will entail.

Which is not a benefit of Gold status anyway. If you get that upgrade, it's not because of your status.

And you don't need Gold status for that either. You get it with any of the dozens of ways to get Preferred Plus (e.g., AAA, AARP, Amex, ...)

To me the only benefit of Gold was the third point.

You will get extra points in 2016 by being Gold instead of a regular member. You might get a better room, but no upgrade is guaranteed as Gold.

If you have any prospect of lifetime Gold (250 nights and 5 years status) that might be worthwhile, in case that status transfers across to Marriott lifetime gold.

However if it's a struggle to reach Gold this year, unless your travel plans are expected to substantially increase, you won't stay enough to get much value out of the status in 2016. So I wouldn't spend much out-of-pocket to hit Gold.

I wouldn't spend real money or effort for Gold due to the minor value and uncertainty around SPG after the merger, but there are "free" ways of getting it if you think you'd stay at SPG properties enough to make use. If you don't have the SPG AMEX card, activate a new one before EOY to get 5 nights towards status, pushing you to Gold free, for the first year, plus a few free nights worth of points if you hit the spending requirements. The business version also gives access to Sheraton Club Lounges among other benefits.

If you have have >8-12k SPG spare points and easy access to a Cat1 or 2 property you could book and check-in four nights one weekend. Keep in mind the opportunity cost of a free night at a Cat 3-5 property; Gold alone isn't worth that much, but might be worth the effort if you expect to stay enough at SPG properties next year to make back a lot more points via Elite Bonuses (250 pts/stay, extra pt/$ spent).

Otherwise, if the benefits would matter for only a few nights next year just pay for them if and when you need them. As mentioned, you can get late check-out, minor upgrades and more via other means (booking channel, hotel offers, points, etc), sometimes even just by asking nicely.

Do you have the SPG AmEx card? that would give you 2 stays/5 nights.

But no, I don't consider SPG Gold worth anything. And I'm a LT SPG Gold.

As a SPG Gold, you get Skymiles for your stays. Since you are a Delt Plat, you do collect them so this is one additional thing to consider. If you take Uber, during a SPG stay, you get more points as a Gold too.

The extra points & 250 welcome gift is enough reason to get Gold for me.
(poor Asian without co branded credit card, it's cheaper for me to qualify on stays instead of nights).

to me it's worth about $200 a year in a good year (got some upgrades, etc.)

after the merger I'm guessing it will be fairly worthless.

I'm a hotel noob, but if you can reach status on 10 STAYS and a stay is equal to 1 night standalone, wouldn't it make sense to just check-in and check-out repeatedly during a multi-night stay? Sure it's annoying, but a 5 night stay is either 5 nights, or you could make it 5 stays, getting you half way there.

My best guess (I could be way off) would be that if you told the desk agent what you were doing, they might not even make you vacate the room, they'd process it and just "give" you the same room.

Also sorry, to stay OT the SPG site says gold "•An upgrade to an enhanced room at check-in — corner room, higher floor, or better view."

But I guess that doesn't necessarily mean one of the rooms that includes this club access?

They could move you to a higher floor, just the one below the club floor lol.
But sadly, guaranteed club access is not a Gold benefit.

I don't think Gold is worth much. Only Plat is worth anything really...

FWIW, even MR gold is worth more w/Lounge/Breakfast.

SPG Gold is valuable, but the status is not worth paying a premium unless the additional points earning from elite status exceeds the costs of going from PreferredPlus/Corporate/Business status account to SPG Gold. The exception I would make to this is if this was going to get me a lot closer to Platinum status whose benefits I was going to max out at some point thereafter.

You've got the right general idea but checking in/out of the same hotel won't get you additional stays. Starwood will merge the individual stays into one stay. You need at least 2 hotels to make this work.
Example:
Sun-Mon Hotel A
Mon-Tues Hotel B
Tues-Wed Hotel A
etc

It's called hotel hopping; I've done it to keep status with hotel programs. Here's an article on it: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/02/the-...hotel-hopping/