Hotels: 2015 Year In Review

ByEdward Pizzarello
a body of water with a building and trees

I still haven’t run the final numbers on how many miles I flew in 2015 but I’ve finished my final hotel stay of the year.  I took a look back at 2014 and my goals for 2015 (you can too, right here) to see how I did.  My goals were easy:

  • I wanted to re-qualify for Hyatt Diamond status.  In the pursuit of lifetime Diamond, I also would choose Hyatt over SPG when given a reasonable choice between the two (i.e. a nice Hyatt Regency versus a Westin or nice Sheraton).
  • I wanted to re-qualify for Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum status.  Even though I think the math is off, SPG thought I needed two more years of Platinum as of the beginning of 2015 to hit lifetime status with them.  I did not think I would reach 100 nights with SPG to retain my Ambassador.
The Verdict?

Let’s start with Hyatt Gold Passport.  I figured hitting 50 nights would be easy in 2015.  I turned out to be correct, hitting almost 100 paid nights:

Hotels 2015 Year In Review

I think this number is light by 3 nights (my math shows 93 nights for the year).  That’s a whole lot of time to be traveling!  At any rate, I easily re-qualified for Diamond, hitting that mark around mid-year.

As far as lifetime status is concerned, I’m 80% of the way there.  I have a lot of travel in 2016 but I’m still not sure if I’ll hit it this year.  If I do, it’ll be very late in the year.  And, I’ll be popping a bottle of champagne!

Here’s a list of unique Hyatt properties I visited in 2015:

  • Hyatt Regency Pittsburg Airport
  • Hyatt Place Denver Downtown
  • Hyatt House Denver Downtown
  • Hyatt House Philadelphia/King of Prussia
  • Hyatt Place Seattle Downtown, WA
  • Hyatt House Redmond, WA
  • Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles
  • Hyatt Westlake, CA
  • Hyatt Regency Orange County, CA
  • Hyatt House LAX/El Segundo
  • Hyatt Place Madison, WI
  • Hyatt Regency Princeton, NJ
  • Hyatt House White Plains, NY
  • Hyatt Place Boulder
  • Grand Hyatt Manchester San Diego
  • Hyatt Place Kansas City
  • Hyatt Place Denver South, Park Meadows
  • Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile
  • Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, NJ
  • Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center, VA
  • Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui
  • Grand Hyatt, Shenzhen, China
  • Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
  • Hyatt Arlington
  • Hyatt Regency Atlanta
  • Hyatt Regency Houston
  • Hyatt at Market Street, Woodlands, TX
  • Hyatt Residences at Windward Pointe, Key West, FL

 

Starwood Preferred Guest

When I went back to look at my predictions for 2015, I forecasted between 45 and 55 nights at SPG properties this year.  Looks like I should play the lottery more:

Hotels 2015 Year In Review

I hit Platinum with one extra night to spare and now, according to SPG, I need to hit one more year of Platinum to lock up lifetime Platinum.

Given the impending merger between SPG and Marriott, you can be assured I’ll be hitting that milestone early in the year, just to be sure.  Here are the unique properties I visited in 2015, with links to those I’ve reviewed so far:

What Does 2016 Look Like?

A lot like 2015.  I plan to push as many revenue stays to Hyatt this year in an effort to get over the hump on lifetime status.  There are a few conferences throughout the year where I can book an extra room for employees traveling with me.  While this is a stretch, it’s certainly possible.  I’m not in a rush because I don’t expect any changes soon to the lifetime Diamond policy.

I’ll look for ways to hit 25 stays early in 2016 with SPG.  That way I’ve locked up lifetime Platinum status before the merger with Marriott.  I have no idea what that status will look like 2 years from now, but since I’m this close to the goal it makes sense to lock it up, just in case Marriott decides not to ruin it.  I’m not optimistic.

As in 2014, my total number of IHG, Hilton and Marriott stays in 2015 was a big fat zero.  That may change in 2016.

I have a ton of reviews I’m behind on.  I need to get crackin’!

What’s your hotel loyalty strategy for 2016?

How does the Marriott acquisition of SPG affect your decisions?

My goal in life is to fill my family’s passports with stamps, creating buckets of memories along the way. You’ll find me writing about realistic ways for normal people to travel the world, whether you’re on a budget or enjoy luxury. I also enjoy taking us on the occasional detour to explore the inner workings of the travel industry.

9 Comments

  1. Ok, so you were 4 nights ahead of me with just Hyatt and SPG. How many nights did you hit when you add in stays outside those two chains? And how many nights were you actually on the road, backing out any rooms credited for others (eg 2nd and 3rd rooms while you were staying at Starwood)?

    Reply

    1. I’m running out the door, so might require some math later. Off the top of my head, I’m pretty sure I’m still missing 3 nights with Hyatt that need to get credited. IIRC, Hyatt doesn’t count pure award nights for night credit. That means my summer trip is roughly a wash (2 rooms in Greece, 1 award room with Hyatt in Paris). I had 4 nights in unbranded hotels that I can recall. I’m guessing I had between 10 and 15 additional award nights with Hyatt but I’d have to go back and do the math. Assuming I’m correct on Hyatt award nights, then I’m guessing I have about 20 additional nights not reflected in the Hyatt and SPG night credit totals.

      Reply

        1. Yeah, but I was able to combine work and family here and there (business trip to LA, bring the family to Disneyland). So, it wasn’t all bad. And, how can you go wrong with a night of business travel at Hotel Sienna in Reno?

          Reply

  3. SPG 27 stays, 34 nights, Hyatt 25 stays, 41 nights, RC/Marriott 33 nights, Hilton 11 nights, LHW 8 nights, Club Carlson 8 nights. In addition 10 nights redeemed at Hyatt, 7 at the Vendome and 3 at the Highlands Inn Carmel

    Reply

Leave a Reply