With most major hotel loyalty programs, elite status is based on qualifying activity within a calendar year. So, how exactly does elite status credit work for a hotel stay on December 31? Does it count toward the previous year or the following year?
Continue reading: New Year’s Eve Hotel Stay Elite Status Credit: How Does It Work?
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Worth mentioning that for Bonvoy, the *spend* (if you're chasing Ambassador Elite) counts based on the checkout date, so would roll into the new year in your example.
Oh, the trick is don’t wait until December 31 for any calendar-year-based status-related-earnings, on flights, hotels, etc.
So the prize for too much mediocre Marriott is . . . even more mediocre Marriott
At Hilton, all credit goes to 2026 as long as you had an uninterrupted stay checking out in 2026?
If you checked-in at the latest 13 Oct 2025 and checked out on 1st January 2026, plus spent $18k you’d be Diamond Reserve by 2nd January?
I thought Hilton proportioned it out.
Jack, that’s a whole lotta ‘mediocre.’
And when a Marriott property denies you complimentary bottles of water, they can go full-Immortan Joe, and say: “Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.”
For IHG, separate reservations are still credited as separate reservations, even if the hotel consolidates them internally. It has always worked this way, and I've got tons of IHG nights under my belt.