I’ve talked a lot about status and the quick trips I’ve documented so far have all been with Marriott because we have elite status with the chain. It’s probably time to dig into some details of the status we have and why we’ve been staying exclusively in Marriott hotels recently.
What level of status do we have?
My wife and I both have elite status with Marriott. I am a Platinum level member and my wife is a Platinum Premier level member. Within the Marriott program, the first level of status is Silver followed by Gold. Then there is my Platinum level followed by my wife’s Platinum Premiere level. There is one higher level above my wife that we have no chance of getting to. We simply don’t travel enough, but that level get’s you a dedicated concierge to help with your travel plans.
How did we get these status levels?
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how I have Platinum status. I believe it may be linked to a corporate program I signed up for, so there is a deal through my company that my member number is given automatic Platinum status. I don’t stay the 50 required nights to maintain the status, though I’ve been told my current status is good at least through the end of January 2020. Through one of my credit cards I automatically get Gold status so as long as I have that card so I would never fall below that level.
My wife on the other hand has earned her status. Through her work travel in past years, she had earned SPG gold. SPG is Starwood Preferred Guest which is a chain of hotels including brands such as Westin and Sheraton that was acquired by Marriott a couple years ago. The programs operated separately until August of 2018 when the programs merged. After the acquisition but before the programs merged you could link your Marriott and SPG accounts and get matching status between the two chains. Gold status with SPG matched Gold status with Marriott which was an excellent perk when staying at a hotel in the other chain. Each program had similar but different benefits at the different levels.
Status Challenge
Based on my wife’s matched Gold status on Marriott, she qualified for what is known as a status challenge with Marriott. This challenge allowed a member to get the next higher level of status if they stayed a certain number of stays at a Marriott property (of course) within a 3 month period. For my wife, if she had 10 hotel stays (1 day or longer) in 90 days she would then get Platinum status with Marriott without having to stay the full 75 days she’s normally have to stay to get that level.
Since she was scheduled for several trips for work the beginning of 2018, she applied for the challenge and within a couple months had stayed the required number of stays and had a shiny Platinum status showing on her account.
This level, also matched back to her SPG account, gave her preferential access to room upgrades on checkin, including suites if available in both chains. She got access to the concierge lounge and breakfast for two if the lounge was not open. She got increased points for each stay and a bigger points welcome bonus on checkin. There were a lot of solid perks for getting to this high level.
Then, once the programs merged in August 2018, the name of her status changed to Platinum Premier in the new program that spanned both the SPG properties and the Marriott Properties. She will maintain this level until the end of January 2020 even if she doesn’t stay another night.
What is a Mattress Run?
A mattress run is a stay, or multiple stays that are mostly for the purpose of racking up more nights or stays in a hotel in order to maintain or advance your status to the next level. You’re staying more because you want to rather than that you need to.
For example, on New Year’s Eve, we didn’t have anything planned, but decided to stay in a hotel about 5 miles from our house for the night. We didn’t need to, but we had our reasons for staying there.
Why did you stay in a hotel 5 miles from your house?
That’s an excellent question. There was nothing wrong with our house keeping us from spending the night there. We weren’t going to a party at or near the hotel. The reason we did the stay was because we had stayed 49 nights for the year on my wife’s account and wanted to get to 50 nights before the end of the year.
You must think we’re totally insane! There is a method to the madness, or at least a reason for it. When you get to 50 nights in a year you get Platinum status in the latest Marriott loyalty program. My wife already has the next level up from that, Platinum Premiere, because of her status challenge earlier this year and will continue to retain it through the beginning of next year due to some fuzzy math on Marriott’s part that we are definitely NOT complaining about.
So getting to 50 nights doesn’t help us get to the next level or retain the current status level. It does give us one thing, and at 50 and 75 nights in a year, you get a choice of an annual gift. This gift requires the actual number of stays and is somewhat independent of status. In other words, you can get platinum status without actually staying 50 nights, but you can’t get the annual gift without the 50 nights.
There are several gifts to choose from, but the one we are most interested in is the 5 Suite Night Upgrades. This benefit will allow us to put in a request to upgrade any reservation we have to a suite of our choosing for up to 5 nights. While we currently can get upgraded to a suite at checkin, these upgrade requests should put us towards the front of the line for any of these upgrades and we can get the upgrade confirmed up to 5 days before we arrive. We have several stays planned in 2019 that would be even more special with a suite upgrade, so this gift has value to us that is worth the cost of the extra night’s stay.
The stay
We had just returned from another trip over Christmas (posts coming up next) and did the math to find that we were one night short of the 50 nights. We didn’t want to “go” anywhere so we looked for places nearby that were relatively cheap. We’ve gone into Boston for New Year’s Eve before, but the weather didn’t look promising and we didn’t want to have to deal with traffic, parking, and the crowds. We were even considering just checking in and not spending the night. We did want to find a place that had an indoor pool so the kids would have something to do to get their energy out since the weather outside was going to be unpleasant.
Looking for AAA rates in an area nearby with several Marriott properties, we found a surprisingly low rate for the Westin Waltham Boston. It’s a striking hotel from the outside that we’ve stayed in before several years ago. The rooms themselves are a bit dated based on a previous stay a few years ago, but it has an indoor pool and we knew we would get a free breakfast due to our status. It wasn’t quite the lowest priced option we could find, but seemed like it was the best deal for just over $100 for the night.
We checked in around 3pm on New Year’s Eve and were told we had been upgraded to a suite! That definitely made for a great start to the stay. We were on the top floor overlooking the lake across the highway. The kids were super excited about the room. There were French doors separating the king bed from the living area where there was a couch with what was supposed to be a double bed. When we pulled it out it was more like a wide twin mattress.
I stopped by the front desk on our way down to the pool and requested a rollaway bed so the boys would get a better night’s sleep. The boys played in the pool for about 2 hours with a couple other families that seemingly had a similar idea of staying in the hotel for the evening.
We went out for dinner and on our return noticed the parking garage had spots reserved for Gold and Platinum level members. Of course, occupancy was really low so there were plenty of parking spots for everyone.
There really weren’t that many people in the hotel. There were a few families, but no business people, which are the main clientele of hotels in this area. This is a reason the price was so low and also a reason the upgrade was so readily available. We definitely appreciated the extra room and without the upgrade, we probably would have spent the night at home in our own beds.
Instead the kids went to sleep early in the living area while my wife and I watched the countdowns on TV in our room.
In the morning we got up and redeemed our breakfast vouchers in the restaurant for our 11th free breakfast in 12 days. We spend another hour in the pool before checking out.
It made for a fun and relaxing New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The kids had a great time and the suite upgrade made for a comfortable stay.
This was a great way to cap off 2018, get our 50th night stay and ring in 2019.
Happy New Year!
Tomatico Travels 
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