As the year comes to an end, I thought it is about time I do some reflection. This year has not been easy at all as I was on internship for the first half of 2016, which was followed by school in the latter half. As a result I was not able to travel as much, which made accumulation of stays extremely hard. I ended up doing a lot of unnecessary stays in Singapore and Malaysia.
For the year 2016, I spent 87 nights in total across 5 brands, with the majority of nights going to Hilton, SPG, IHG, Marriott and Best Western in descending order. With that, I attained Hilton Diamond, SPG Platinum, IHG Gold, Marriott Platinum and Best Western Diamond Select elite status till March, 2018. Not too shabby, but this is definitely lesser than the number of nights I did in 2015, where thanks to my exchange I clocked over a hundred nights.
The hobby is extremely expensive, but at the same time super satisfying. I do not even want to calculate the amount of money I have spent thus far, but my justification will always be that i make my own money, never take a single cent from my parents, and I maximise my points and miles to derive maximum value from my stays.
2017 will be better with my grad trip planned and my last holiday before work officially takes over my life. I am looking at visiting Korea, Russia, the Middle East and probably Egypt. So far only the Korea trip has been set in stone, but I am definitely monitoring flights and hotels for the other places. Google Flight Matrix and Trip Advisor are definitely the best tools out there. I cannot wait for what is in store for the brand new year.