Hotel Program Elite Levels

One of the most alluring parts of hotel loyalty programs is its elite membership status and all its benefits. The four programs (Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott) we've been looking at so far all have a fairly consistent tiering system and we'll be comparing the key aspects of each program's tiers. I'll leave out an in depth discussion on elite bonuses for points earnings as those were already discussed here.

	Starwood	Hilton	Hyatt	Marriott
General Points earning rate	2 points / $1	10 points / $1 Double Dip allows an extra 5 points / $1	5 points / $1	10 points / $1 (at most brands) 5 points / $1 (at some brands)
Lowest Tier Point Bonus	Preferred (None)	Silver (15%)	Gold (None)	Silver (20%)
2 pm Late Checkout	N/A	Blue (varies)	Platinum	Silver
Free Internet	Gold (if goodies not selected)	Gold	Platinum	Gold
Room Available Upgrades	Gold	Gold	Platinum	Gold
Mid Tier Point Bonus	Gold (50%)	Gold (25%)	Platinum (15%)	Gold (25%)
Minor Goodies (Bottled water, snacks, etc)	Gold (if free internet is not selected)	Gold	Platinum (extra awards)	N/A
Lounge Access	Gold (if upgraded to executive/club floor)	Gold (if upgraded to executive/club floor)	Diamond	Gold
Continental Breakfast	Platinum (if other goodies not selected)	Gold (if not choosing 1000 HH points)	Diamond	Gold
4 pm Late Checkout	Gold	N/A	Diamond	N/A
Full Breakfast	N/A	N/A	N/A	Gold
Top Tier Point Bonus	Platinum (50%)	Diamond (50%)	Diamond (30%)	Platinum (50%)
Suite upgrades	Platinum	Diamond	Diamond (4 times on paid stays)	N/A
Gift	Platinum (if continental breakfast not selected)	Diamond	Diamond	Platinum

At the time of posting, these were more or less the privileges conferred upon elite statuses at each of the hotel chains. This table more or less reflects what is generally provided at most of the major chains although certain brands may have slight modifications to this. Individual hotels also have some leeway to interpret these at their discretion and while some hotels offer nothing for the optional fields (such as room upgrades), others might go above and beyond what their program terms dictate.

So just based on the above chart, if we don't consider other factors such as number of qualifying nights required to achieve tiers and various status match/challenges available for some of the programs, the best mid-tier (Gold) program clearly goes to Marriott with Hilton and the rest following behind. And with the top tier being more or less evenly matched, that means I'd say Marriott has the most generous elite program overall in terms of their privileges.