I bet you’ve read a hotel review that sounded like this.
We checked in at the elite line, and the agent advised us that we had been upgraded to a premium suite. We had a marble bathroom and an extra large bedroom with a wonderful bed.
The next morning we were treated to an amazing breakfast as part of our megalonium status.
On the day we were leaving, the hotel allowed us to stay until 4 PM, when we flew home in First Class, sipping champagne with our caviar.
I’d fully recommend this hotel to anyone visiting the area.
Repeat after me:
If a hotel’s only reason for being great is the treatment it gives top-tier members, then it’s not a great hotel.
Don’t get me wrong. A great hotel can be amazing when it goes above and beyond for elites. However, most people who stay at a hotel don’t have top-tier loyalty status. They’re either like me and have status through other means (co-brand cards) or, more likely, they don’t have any status whatsoever.
If a hotel is poorly located and has small base-level rooms, the average guest will not care how amazing the pancakes are at the free breakfast.
To be fair, some reviews try to give a sense of how good a hotel is for the masses, but it’s hard to review a room when you’re not staying in it.
When looking at a hotel, I see it through the lens of an everyday guest because, for most of the trips we take, that’s exactly who we are. We rarely, if ever get room upgrades, and I can’t even get a Courtyard by Marriott to let me stay an extra 30 minutes.
Sure, there have been times when we’ve received a better room either by chance or using an upgrade we finagled by working the systems to our advantage. When I want a nicer room, I use my 100% guaranteed trick to score an upgrade. I’ll always say when we’ve paid for a better room, used an upgrade or got a better room totally by chance.
The next time you’re reading (or watching) a hotel review, make sure you’re being told about the service an everyday guest will receive. Not the experience of someone who travels around for a living and has top-tier status with every hotel chain.
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4 comments
Hmmm, so in my mind most hotels don’t do a good job delivering anything more than the guaranteed elite benefits (some weasel out of even providing what is guaranteed). So if a hotel treats an elite well, it’s fair game. You may not play the game of chasing top tier elite status either through stays or a credit card but some do. It only pays IMHO if you stay often at that chain. However, if you are and can use the benefits often enough to offset the opportunity cost of staying at that chain, then it’s worth it.
If a hotel actually honored elite status like that, it absolute deserves a good review. That said, I honestly can’t remember the last time I read such a review. Usually, it’s more along the lines of, “Despite my top-tier status, I once again received no upgrade (despite rooms being available on the hotel website), and I had to argue with the gruff reception staff to get my free breakfast. Oh, and my bonus points never posted.”
I disagree with your headline. I think that hotels should not be judged solely on honoring elite benefits but I think that ignoring the crucial aspect of benefits for loyal customers doesn’t consider why people stick with programs that provide valuable perqs for engaged customers. I say this as someone who has gotten many suite upgrades and received 5/6 flight segment upgrades for my wife and I in the past 10 days alone. At least for me, benefits like that really do make a difference.
I am in the same boat with the original poster. My choice of hotels is dictated by the destination or event I am attending, so loyalty isn’t an option. But I do go beyond the star rating and read reviews that discuss my concerns, with cleanliness and security being top priorities.