Stupid gold

macster43 said:

If you stay at a residence inn and you are gold or Platnium and book a studio room a lot of times you will be upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite. Also Residence inn has breakfast every day and mon-thur a lite dinner with wine and or beer.

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I've experienced a Residence Inn breakfast in Salt Lake City, an experience I'm keen not to repeat. I don't recall a dinner option, perhaps they noted my reaction to breakfast. I recall we were in a suite but can't remember if that was an upgrade or whether we specifically booked it.

The best breakfast experience I've had was at the Grand Flora in Rome. There's no lounge but platinum guests receive a free breakfast and it blew most of the other Marriott's I've stayed in out of the water.

I think it comes down to if you stay at the higher end Marriotts status is much more valuable than if you stay at Courtyards or the like because there aren't premium rooms that are worth getting an upgrade to.

Pompey Family said:

I've experienced a Residence Inn breakfast in Salt Lake City, an experience I'm keen not to repeat. I don't recall a dinner option, perhaps they noted my reaction to breakfast. I recall we were in a suite but can't remember if that was an upgrade or whether we specifically booked it.

The best breakfast experience I've had was at the Grand Flora in Rome. There's no lounge but platinum guests receive a free breakfast and it blew most of the other Marriott's I've stayed in out of the water.

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We travel about 8 or more months a year, most of it out of the USA. We tend to use a LOT of hotels rather then timeshares. We consistently get our best perks in Europe and the Middle East, rather then the USA. The upgraded rooms are hugh, and the breakfasts and welcome platters are just that platters!! And the lounges if there is one, OH MY! That is consistant whether I book, Marriott, Hilton, Best Western, IHG Club, Club carlson, etc. Yes, I am REALLY enjoying the hotel route when in Europe and the Middle East . We use mostly timeshares in the USA. We have stayed at some GORGEOUS timeshares in England and Scotland, and I really miss the Domus Romana in Rome, Italy that RHC had. Spent many a happy booking there, one time for a month. HEAVEN! But the hotels are REALLY working VERY nicely.

Our Gold level totally worked for us in Europe. Even though we booked standard hotel rooms, we received free breakfast everywhere. The normal charge was about 32 euros per person per day, so we thought that was very good value.

We normally feel it is little to no value at home in the U.S. YMMY

macster43 said:

If you stay at a residence inn and you are gold or Platnium and book a studio room a lot of times you will be upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite. Also Residence inn has breakfast every day and mon-thur a lite dinner with wine and or beer.

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Just be aware that the Residence Inns only give you half the points per dollar that most other brands do. I wish I had spent less time in the Residence Inns through the years now that I'm trying to reach the Lifetime Gold points requirement.

Sheila