Hotel Elite Perks When Booking Multiple Rooms: My Strategy

In this post I want to address a situation that I think just about anyone who has hotel elite status has found themselves in. Fortunately in recent years there have been a few new solutions…

Having hotel elite status & traveling with others

There are different trips for different occasions — sometimes I travel alone, sometimes I travel with Ford, sometimes I travel with our son, and sometimes our parents are in tow as well. When we’re traveling with family, we typically book multiple rooms, and that can complicate things when it comes to taking advantage of hotel elite status perks:

• While hotel loyalty programs typically let you earn points for multiple rooms, elite benefits typically only apply for a single room
• We work hard to earn elite status, but then the stays that matter most to us — where our loved ones are with us — aren’t as rewarding

Look, I totally get it, elite perks are generally only for the member and one other guest staying in their room, and that’s not unreasonable. But I also find myself conflicted in these situations:

• Do I just use the executive lounge and have breakfast without my family? I don’t really want to do that…
• Do I pay for breakfast and club access for the second room so they can enjoy these amenities with me? That’s a better option than not having them join me, but sometimes it’s just not worth the money…
• Do I just forgo the perks that I’m usually entitled to, in solidarity?

Fortunately over time I’ve found that there are better ways to go about things, and in this post I’ll share my general strategy for getting elite perks when booking multiple hotel rooms.

Best options when booking multiple rooms

Over the past few years I’ve almost always used one of five strategies when booking multiple hotel rooms while trying to maximize the benefits that I get. Below they are, roughly in the order of the frequency with which I use them.

World of Hyatt Guest of Honor awards

World of Hyatt has the Milestone Rewards program, and as part of this, you can earn Guest of Honor awards. This allows you to extend top-tier Globalist perks to friends and family, regardless of whether or not they’re traveling with you.

Nowadays you can use these awards either when redeeming World of Hyatt points or paying cash for a stay, and each award is valid for a stay of up to seven nights. This comes with all Globalist perks, ranging from suite upgrades subject to availability, to free breakfast, to waived resort and destination fees.

To me this is probably the single best perk offered by any hotel loyalty program. I’m happiest when my family is happy, so when a loyalty program recognizes the value in that, I’m thrilled. It’s one of the many reasons that I love World of Hyatt, and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with this perk.

Double Hilton Honors Diamond or Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status

While lots of hotel credit cards offer elite status, there are a couple cards that make it especially easy to earn valuable status with minimal effort, which can come in handy when trying to book multiple rooms. So if you have elite status, there’s merit to having your spouse or a family member pick up one of these cards. For these purposes, I want to focus on two programs — Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.

Hilton Honors Diamond status is really easy to earn, as you can get it just for having the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review), with no spending requirement. The card offers lots of other amazing perks as well, from up to $400 in annual Hilton resort credits, to up to $200 in annual flight credits.

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status is also easy to earn, as you can get it just for having the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review). The card offers several other benefits that make the annual fee easy to justify, like up to $300 in annual restaurant credits.

With both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy, I’ll simply book one room in my name and one room in Ford’s name if we’re traveling with family, so that we can get perks for both rooms.

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Elite-like benefits through travel advisors & credit cards

The major luxury global hotel groups all have proprietary programs that travel agents have access to, offering perks like free breakfast, room upgrades, hotel credits, late check-out, and more. So booking through these programs can be a great deal, though keep in mind that this only works for cash stays, and typically the rate will be in line with the best flexible rate.

For the major hotel groups with loyalty programs, these programs include Accor STEP, Hilton for Luxury, Hyatt Privé, and Marriott STARS. Lots of hotel groups without loyalty programs have similar programs, including Belmond Bellini Club, Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club, Oetker Collection Pearl Partner, Rosewood Elite, and more.

Lastly, for independent hotels there’s also Virtuoso and Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, both of which offer extra perks at hotels as well.

World of Hyatt club access awards or suite upgrade awards

While World of Hyatt’s Guest of Honor awards are the single best option for booking extra rooms, the Milestone Rewards program offers some extra options as well. Specifically, you can earn club access awards and suite upgrade awards, each of which can be used to confirm an upgrade for a stay of up to seven nights (with the former being for club access, and the latter being for a standard suite).

You can either use these for yourself, or can transfer them to others, so that offers quite a bit of flexibility. If you’re staying at a property with a club lounge, then being able to confirm club access for additional rooms gives you the single biggest perk of elite status.

Since Guest of Honor awards are limited, this is a nice way to supplement those.

Crossing your fingers

If any of the above methods doesn’t work for you, I’ve found that sometimes just crossing your fingers and hoping for the best works as well. For example, while Marriott Bonvoy is hardly known for being the most generous hotel loyalty program, I’ve often booked multiple rooms, and ended up having elite perks honored for all rooms.

I’m never sure if this is intentional, or just front desk agents who don’t know the official policy, but I’ll certainly take it!

Bottom line

Often the stays that we value most are those where we’re traveling with family and booking multiple rooms. Those are also the stays where it can be toughest to take advantage of elite perks.

Fortunately there are some tricks to create a great experience for everyone in these situations. I find World of Hyatt is the best for this, between Guest of Honor awards, club access awards, suite upgrade awards, and Hyatt Privé.

However, with both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy, the great thing is that you can earn valuable status just for holding onto a credit card (Diamond and Platinum, respectively). So you can just have your spouse or a family member pick up an eligible card, and then book a reservation in each of your names.

On top of that, you have all kinds of hotel-specific programs offering additional perks for booking through select travel agents or credit cards, which can get you benefits like free breakfast, room upgrades, and more.

What’s your strategy for maximizing elite perks when traveling with family and/or booking multiple rooms?