It's hit or miss for discounts. The biggest discounts I've seen are just from booking early. If you can pick a good chain (Marriott/SPG has been the best for me since they're everywhere and reasonably priced) and get a rewards card it can offset the cost. Free food from the lounge is great too (pick a hotel with an Executive Lounge)--rarely pay for food.

As for upgrades, yes almost all the time if you're top tier status. You just have to pick a hotel that isn't fully booked so they can upgrade you. It pays to research upfront to find a hotel with a lounge, good upgrade options, good free breakfast and seldom fully booked, but its worth it.

There are a lot of things to consider based on what you want. E.g. gym, pool, fast wifi, lounge, free breakfast, near a park, good place to run/walk outside, high-rise for the views while you think through problems, rooftop bar, near a movie theatre, rewards card, airport shuttle, etc.

Yeah I was looking at Marriott, before seeing this post. I travel a moderate amount for work and had thought of consolidating it to get Platinum status.

Your post made me realize I could also go to a hotel 3x per year when I have a big writing assignment to finish. Could work very well with having the status and upgrades.

>It pays to research upfront to find a hotel with a lounge, good upgrade options, good free breakfast and seldom fully booked, but its worth it.

Any good resources to research this efficiently? I looked at marriott's site, and it wasn't obvious which hotels had lounges. I think it's by brand, but apparently some are missing/closed/closed on weekends.

Likewise for breakfast, how do you research it?

TBH, I don't do this very well, so I don't have any suggestions. I typically travel to the same places, so I stick to tried and true favorites I've discovered over the years or learned about from coworkers.

The "long stay" discounts you'll find online are often available for stays over 1 or 2 weeks.

For really long-term stays, if you are able to speak to someone at the hotel, then it's often possible to negotiate much more favourable discounts than you'll find online.

Beijing and Shanghai have some nice extended stay hotels that are 4 to 5 stars. Rates are weekly or monthly, I lived in one for a couple of months when I first arrived in China.