Boost Your Hotel Status (2021)

The normal path to elite status is to stay a lot of nights over the course of the year. However, unless you travel a lot for work, this may not be realistic.

Fortunately, there are plenty of shortcuts for getting elite hotel status.

It isn't always possible to qualify for the loyalty program's most valuable benefits like free breakfast, club floor access, or suite upgrades, but it is usually easy to get at least some valuable additional benefits and bonus points.

Jump to

Elite status from hotel credit cards
Airline elite status partnerships
Status matches and challenges
Ongoing status match programs

	The Best Western Credit Card gives you Platinum status, which entitles you to a 15% bonus on points from stays and some possibility of a minor room upgrade. $59 annual fee. Best Western Status Benefits. The no-annual-fee version gives you Gold status, which entitles you to a 10% bonus on points from stays.
	The Choice Credit Card gives you Gold status, which entitles you to a snack or beverage at Comfort Suites, a 10% bonus on points, and the ability to book reward nights 50 days out (rather than 30). $95 annual fee. Choice Status Benefits.
	Hilton Surpass Credit Card and Hilton Business Credit Card give you Hilton Gold status, which entitles you to the Hilton breakfast / snack benefits, the possibility of a room upgrade, free access to fitness centers, two free bottles of water per stay, and an 80% bonus on points from stays. $95 annual fee. Hilton Status Benefits. The Hilton Aspire Credit Card gives you Hilton Diamond status, which adds premium internet access and executive floor lounge access (at most properties), increases your points bonus to 100%, and potentially entitles you to suite upgrades. $450 annual fee but also gives you a free night certificate without any spending requirement, a $250 per calendar year airline incidental credit, and a $250 Hilton resort credit (which can be used to pay for your room at Hilton resort hotels). The no-annual-fee Hilton Credit Card gives you Silver status, which entitles you to a 15% bonus on points from stays, access to the 5^th night free on reward stays, complimentary access to fitness centers, and two bottles of water at most hotels. It is a great "downgrade" option if you want to stop paying the annual fee on one of the other Hilton credit cards, don't want to lose the 5^th night free benefit, and are willing to give up one of your Amex slots.
	The Hyatt Credit Card gives you Discoverist status which entitles you to a 10% bonus on points from stays, a free bottle of water, 2 PM late checkout, and the possibility of a small room upgrade when available. It also comes with a free night certificate (and the ability to earn a 2^nd certificate). $95 annual fee. Hyatt Status Benefits. The Hyatt Card can also help you reach higher level elite status. Just by getting the card, you'll receive 5 elite night credits and you'll earn an extra 2 credits for every $5,000 you spend on the card. For example, if you spend $15,000 per year to earn the second free night certificate, you will get a total boost of 11 elite night credits. Note that the Discoverist status you get with the card doesn't translate into any additional elite night credits. You just get the 5+ credits described above but are guaranteed a minimum of Discoverist status. Generating credits through spending is an expensive way to qualify for high level Hyatt elite status, but it can be very worthwhile if you only need a few additional nights to augment the nights you earned from the stays. For example, if you wanted to spend your way to Globalist status with no real Hyatt stays (which is an unlikely scenario), you would need to spend $140,000. But if you "only" needed an extra 15 nights, you would "only" need to spend $25,000. The United Club Credit Card also gives you Hyatt Discoverist status. But this card costs $525 per year, so is only interesting for people who highly value its United lounge club membership.
	The IHG Premier Card gives you Platinum Status, which entitles you to a 50% bonus on points from stays and the occasional minor room upgrade. While IHG Platinum status doesn’t really get you very much, it is a ‘high level”, rather than a mid-tier status, making it good for matching to other hotel programs when the opportunity arises. It also comes with a free night certificate. $89 annual fee. IHG Status Benefits.
	The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card and Marriott Bonvoy Business Card give you 15 elite night credits, which is good enough for Silver status. Silver status entitles you to a 10% bonus on points from stays, priority late checkout (upon availability), and free enhanced internet. The same benefit is available several other Marriott cards that aren't available for new signups. You can only earn the extra credits from a single personal card and a single business card (for a total of 30). Both cards also come with a free night certificate. $95-125 annual fee. Marriott Status Benefits. If you earn the bonuses from both a personal card and a business card or you spend $35,000 on either of these cards during the year, you'll be upgraded to Gold status, which adds an increased point earning bonus, 2 PM late checkout (upon availability), and the chance of a preferred room upgrade. Perhaps more importantly, earning 30 elite night credits puts you only 20 credits away from earning Marriott's much more valuable Platinum status. The premium Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card gives you Gold status (plus the 15 elite night credits). $450 annual fee but comes with a $300 credit towards Marriott purchases and a free night certificate that works for nights up to 50,000 points (rather than 35,000 points). If you spend $75,000 on the card during the year, you'll be given Platinum status.
	The Radisson Premier Card gives you Gold status, which entitles you to a 25% bonus on points from stays, some possibility of a minor room upgrade, early check-in, late check-out, and an in-room welcome gift. It also gives you the option of earning free night certificates. $75 annual fee. The no-annual-fee Radisson card doesn't give you any level of elite status. Radisson Rewards Status Benefits.
	The Sonesta Hotels Credit Card gives you elite member status which entitles you to free lounge access or continental breakfast plus other benefits such as room upgrades, late checkout and early check-in (upon availability), and a 15% discount on dining and resort amenities. $75 annual fee. Sonesta Benefits. Note that Sonesta will usually match your status with other hotel programs, so you don't necessarily need their card to get Sonesta elite status.
	The Wyndham Business Card gives you Diamond status which entitles you to suite upgrades and free snacks and beverages. You also get two free tickets to a local activity when you make award stays at one of a selected set of cities around the world. Your Wyndham Diamond status will be automatically matched by Caesars Total Rewards, giving you access to valuable benefits like a $100 annual celebration dinner, waived resort fees, two free show tickets every month in Vegas, and a free annual trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas. $95 annual fee. Wyndham Status Benefits. The Wyndham Earner Plus Card gives you Platinum status, which entitles you to a preferred room, early check-in, and late check-out (upon availability). It is automatically matched to Total Rewards Platinum status, which entitles you to free parking at Caesar's and Harrah's family of casinos and a shorter annual free trip to Atlantis Bahamas. $75 annual fee. The no-annual-fee Wyndham Earner Card gives you Gold status, which entitles you to a preferred room and late checkout (upon availability). It is a good option for "downgrading" the regular card if you don't want to maintain access to the annual free Atlantis Bahamas trip.

All variations of the Amex Platinum Card give you Hilton and Marriott Gold status. $550-595, but comes with a large number of credits and benefits.

Airline elite status partnerships

Elite members of some airline programs are given automatic elite status in partner hotel programs. For example, every United Platinum member gets automatic Marriott Gold status. To receive the benefits, you need to register and link your accounts.

Marriott and United	United Gold elites can get matched to Marriott Gold status, which provides some minor benefits. Marriott Titanium members get automatic United Silver status. United RewardsPlus.
Marriott and Emirates	Marriott elites (Gold and above) earn 3 points for every dollar spent on Emirates, on top of any Emirates miles they'd earn. Emirates elites (Silver and above) earn Skyward miles for every dollar spent at Marriott. Emirate Gold elites don't get actual Marriott status, but they do get priority check-in, 4 PM checkout (upon availability), and free enhanced Wi-Fi. Your World Rewards.
Hyatt and American Airlines	American Airlines elites earn 1 mile for every dollar spent at Hyatt and Hyatt elites earn 1 point for every dollar spent on American Airlines flights. Top-tier AA Concierge Key members get automatic Hyatt Globalist status. Lower level elites have access to special status challenges in the corresponding partner program. Typically, you’ll need to stay 10 nights within 90 days to earn Explorist status. Executive Platinum members typically can also stay 20 nights within the 90 days to earn Globalist status. If you have high enough AA status, it would be worthwhile to register right before a period where you will be able to stay enough nights to complete the challenge.
Accor Live and Air France / KLM Flying Blue	When you link your Accor live and Flying Blue counts, you are eligible for 5 XP and a bonus status night after your first Accor stay, and another 5 XP and bonus status night after your first Air France or KLM flight. Members with linked accounts earn both Accor Live points and Flying Blue miles on all their Accor stays hotels and Flying Blue flights. Program webpage.
Singapore and Shangri La	Singapore PPS club members or Kris Flyer Gold elites get Shangri La Gold status and will be automatically upgraded to Jade with just a single stay. Gold status entitles you to benefits like free fruit and free local calls. Jade members are entitled to room upgrades, late check-out, free breakfast, and other valuable benefits. All members also earn 500 Singapore miles, on top of their hotel points, when they stay at Shangri-La hotels. Infinite Journeys.

Status matches and challenges

Hotels are obviously interested in winning the business of frequent travelers. To help woo customers who have theoretically demonstrated that they are a frequent traveler by earning elite status in other programs, they will often provide a shortcut to their own status.

These come in two forms. A straightforward status match grants immediate elite status. A status challenge allows you to earn elite status if you stay for a certain number of nights or visits over a period of a few months—usually far fewer hotel stays than would ordinarily be required. Sometimes, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of elite status during the challenge period, sometimes you will need to wait until you’ve successfully completed the challenge.

Hotel programs will often match status that you simply received from a credit card. For example, in 2016, we had Platinum Status from having the IHG Credit card, got Hilton to give us Diamond status based on our IHG Platinum Status, and then got Hyatt to give us Platinum status based on our Hilton Diamond status—all without requiring a single hotel stay.

Most of the larger hotel companies will theoretically only match your status once per lifetime or once every few years—try to make it count. Wait until you have one or more trips planned where you expect to receive a lot of value from the extra benefits. While official rules will state once in a lifetime, those rules are not always enforced, so you can always try for another match.
If you are staying with a hotel that belongs to a smaller loyalty program (which you don’t expect to frequently use), it is often worthwhile to try for status match before ANY stay.
StatusMatcher is a useful source of information about whether you are likely to be able to get a status match or not. StatusMatcher is a website where travelers share information about successful and unsuccessful attempts to get their status matched. It helps you see whether a program is likely to do any kind of status matching, and if so, which other programs it is likely to match and what level of elite status you are likely to get.

Free Atlantis Vacations with Wyndham Status Match

If you can get matched to Wyndham Platinum status, you can get an annual "free" vacation at Atlantis in the Bahamas. You will still need to pay the resort fee ($50 + tax per night and gratuities of $5 per person per night).

That is because Wyndham status is automatically matched by the Caesars reward program. Fortunately, it is often easy to get Wyndham to match high-level status with other hotel programs.

Ongoing status match programs

A few hotel chains advertise formal status matching programs. Some additional hotel chains will periodically run status matching promotions. Even if you can't find information about a status program or promotion, one may be still be possible with any given hotel program. You just need to contact them and ask.

	Best Western's “Status Match…No Catch” program will match your status from other programs. The downside is that even their high-level Diamond status doesn't offer much in the way of valuable benefits. Best Western status match.
	Choice matches status from other chains. However, you are officially only permitted to status match once per lifetime and you don't get much in the way of benefits. Choice status match.
	Hilton's current policy is to match status from any other program for 90 days. If you want status for longer, you’ll need to stay 10 nights during that 90-day period to get Gold status and 18 nights to get Diamond status. If you have an upcoming stay at Hilton, you can take advantage of this to get benefits during your stay. However, you can only take advantage of this once. Hilton Gold and Diamond status is pretty useful due to the breakfast benefit but is also easy to get through credit cards. Hilton HHonors status match.
	Hyatt doesn't usually easily match other programs. But they have a partnership with MGM's M Life program. Status in either program will be matched to the other program every year.
	Marriott doesn't mention a status challenge on its website, but they will let you call customer service to enroll in a status challenge. You can choose between Gold status (which requires 8 nights in 90 days) or the much more valuable Platinum status (which requires 16 nights). Unlike Hilton's status challenge, you won't receive higher-level status until you've completed the challenge. Award nights don't count.
	Radisson doesn't mention a status match program on their website, but they will reliably match your status up to their Gold level. You just need to email statusmatch@radissonhotels.com.
	Sonesta will match your status in other programs. It is pretty easy to get their high-level "Elite" status which entitles you to club lounge access (or continental breakfast), discounted suite upgrades, a free drink, and a welcome amenity at Royal Sonesta, Sonesta Hotels, and Sonesta Resorts, a $15 "sip 'n snack" credit at Sonesta ES Suites, early check-in and late check-out, and a set of additional minor benefits. Instructions are available in their FAQ.
	Wyndham typically matches from other hotel programs. They also have a partnership with Caesar's, where status in either program will be matched to the other program every year. High-level Wyndham / Caesar's Diamond status offers valuable benefits with both programs. Wyndam status match. Caesars status match for Wyndham elites. Note: Wyndham has temporarily discontinued their status match program. You can still get an automatic match from Caesars Rewards status, but not from other hotel programs.

Perpetual Status

Because of the partnerships between Wyndham and Caesars and between Hyatt and M-Life, status you achieve in these programs can be maintained indefinitely. Each program's status lasts for a slightly different set of months. When your status expires in the one program, you can rematch it to your status in the other program. Then, when your status in the second program expires, you can match it back.

This can work with any type of status match, but it works best with loyalty program partnerships, where status matching is unlimited and automatic.

Unfortunately, high-level M-Life status doesn't match to Hyatt Globalist status, so you can only maintain Hyatt Discoverist or Explorist status.