Starwood Status Challenge Now Publicly Available

For many years, Starwood has offered a status challenge, although the criteria was always changing and it was never well publicized. Fortunately, Starwood just created a dedicated page for their status challenge which details out exactly how you can earn your desired status. Keep in mind this is not a status match and you do not need to have status with another hotel chain. Instead, it is a challenge where you need to stay X times within Y timeframe.

With this challenge, you can earn Gold or Platinum status by registering through December 31, 2017.

• Gold status – Stay 9 nights within a 3 month period (typically 25 nights within a calendar year)
• Platinum status – Stay 19 nights within a 3 night period (typically 50 nights within a calendar year)

There is no way to earn status based on stays with the challenge, just nights. Also, only paid stays (and must be a qualifying stay that earns points) will count towards the night requirement.

To register for the challenge, you can call SPG customer service and let them know whether you’d like to enroll in the Gold or Platinum status challenge. You can also let them know which 3-month period you’d like as your “Challenge Period”. You can also retroactively enroll up to a month prior. So if you were to call now, you can opt for a March-May period, if you’d like.

If you meet the requirements, your status will update in your account within 5-7 days of completing the challenge. If you enroll now, your status will then be valid through February 28, 2019.

You are not eligible if…

You can only enroll in the challenge if you have NOT had the same elite-level status within the previous five years. So if you’ve had Platinum status in 2012 or any year post that, you are not eligible for either challenge. If you’ve only had Gold status, then you are eligible to attempt the Platinum challenge. Also, if you have ever enrolled and successfully completed a challenge (for the exact same desired status), you are not eligible. If you’ve enrolled and were not able to fill the requirements, you can enroll again.

Unfortunately, I assume many folks are disqualified from this challenge! But if you are transitioning your stays to Starwood, this could help you earn status faster!