MilesBuzz! - Survey - more people that have multiple loyalties or that just stick with one (hotels

Quick survey - do more people stick with one loyalty or have multiple - I would say in this community, many people try more than one loyalty in terms of hotels.

So what are all of your thoughts on your "avg" consultant / person who flies often. Does your average frequent traveler do more than one hotel line or do they simply stick with one?

I've heard a lot of different things.

In GENERAL, I feel that younger frequent travelers tend to want to spread out to at least 2 if not 3. Whereas people that have been traveling for a little longer 7+ years typically stick with just one.

What are your thoughts?

I'm very eager to hear your thoughts/opinions

thanks! =)

I'm 23 (so that makes my "younger" haha) and I have recently changed strategies. For the last two years I refused to spend a dime on a hotel unless it was a Hilton property (as long as one was near where I wanted to be). This, coupled with three work trips to Hilton properties, got me to HHonors Gold.

However, this year I have decided I want to save as much money on hotels as I can. Therefore, I've been staying at the cheapest and most convenient two star or higher properties there are. While it means more time at Country Inns, Ramads, Clarions etc. than I would like, I have saved hundreds of dollars that I don't need to be spending so far. It seems my work travel has been spread out as I have two Holiday Inn Expresses, one Sheraton and one local hotel so far.

For the amount of time I'm staying in hotels, the extra money beats the amenities, though I understand why others choose differently.

I'm not overly young, mid-30s, and have been travelling fairly extensively for business for the last 10 years. Unfortunately, due to my travel patterns and corporate policies, I cannot settle on one hotel chain, which is unfortunate, as I regularly log over 100 nights per year (Granted, that's verrrry light by FT standards...).

In the US, I generally try to stay in Marriott properties (FF and CY, never full service due to price). I log most of my nights at the CY down the street from my coporate HQ in CA. Unfortunately, Marriott doesn't have many mid-grade hotels in the UK, where I travel frequently, so I split my points there between Priority Club and A-club (There's a Novotel basically across the street from one of my contractors...).

I generally also have a smattering of Hilton stays (mainly Hampton) in the US and the UK if there is not one of my favoured brands nearby. For leisure, I really like Fairmonts.

Thus, I have some form of mid-level status with Marriott, A-club, Priority Club, Fairmont, and Hilton. I also have fake SPG gold from my Amex, but I haven't stayed in one since 2007.

Always the bridesmaid...

I'm probably older than all you guys put together. I'm top tier in Marriott and Choice, and will be Diamond again in Hilton.

If I'm flying a lot (like every week), I pick an airline and stick to it. Most of my flights tend to be short, so I make status with segments and miles by flying, credit cards, and working every promo I can find.

Which brings me back to the hotels ... I do 150-200 nights/year, so I can spread the love around, but whether or not a promo is going affects where I stay (all on my own dime, and I have complete freedom to choose). Currently, I'm feverishly working a promotion from Wyndham (10K AA miles/3 stays) and, since I'm currently not flying, I can use the miles much more than the hotel points, so I forewent (real word?) the balance of the current Choice promo and will probably skip the upcoming Marriott promo, too.

I'm just a points/miles whore and I follow the promos.

I ought be be ashamed of myself for what I'll do for a bushel basket full of miles, but I have to admit it's paid off handsomely.

PS - only been doing this foolishness since I discovered FT (~2002), but I like to think I'm making up for lost time. :)

Oh yeah -- having a pile'o'points in a couple of chains gives you much more flexibility when it comes to redeeming in desirable areas.

I am 41 and I usually spend about 3 months worth of nights in hotels. When I travel for work I am a firm believer in one night=one stay. As a result I am keeping top tier in Hyatt, SPG, Hilton and mid level Marriott. That gives me a lot of flexibility when I take the family on trips. No matter where I go, between the four programs I will always find a hotel where I will treated with white gloves, upgrades, complimentary breakfast, lounge access, etc.

I've been sticking with two - SPG as I think it's the best program, and MR as it gives me the most properties in locations that I tend to need - hitting top tier in each for the last 7 years. Very rarely do I get in a pinch where neither is available - I hit HH 2nd tier a couple of years back, but that's about it.


I have managed to stash away enough for a full week at the top awards level in HH and HY, so I have 4 options when I'm looking for vacation destinations. I like to start with MR, as it has the best stay nights/reward nights ratio, then to SPG's always-available policy for XMas and other peak times when MR has nothing available. HH and HY are last resorts - once I use them, it will take a decade to pile them up again - I haven't redeemed at either of those two in at least 8-10 years.

I had been maintaining mid-level status with three chains (Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton). I've changed strategies and I am now Hyatt Diamond, and I maintain Marriott Silver by virtue of the Marriott Rewards Visa. I've given up on Hilton, as I find their points program to be the least valuable.

In my opinion, it's better to have top status with one chain than mid-level status with multiple chains. I am pleasantly surprised at how well Hyatt takes care of me as a Diamond: upgrades, amenities, VERY early check-ins/-outs, etc. I also find Gold Passport to offer the best value (among the hotels I have listed) when redeeming points. YMMV

I'm "between" young and old and I have status with two chains (Hyatt and Choice); when I was young, I had status with two chains (Hilton and Marriott).

I'm in my mid/late 20's & have been traveling a lot in the last 4 years. I will only stay at Hilton properties unless I have coworkers with me & they refuse to stay a bit further away (most of them like Holiday Inns).

Since I usually travel to remote areas, a lot of the higher-end hotel chains won't do much for me because they're too far away. However, I can usually find a Hampton, Homewood or something within a 30-minute drive of where I need to be.

41, soon to be 42 year old.

When i was doing 150+ nights/year while a sales exec at my previous employer, I ended up top tier at Marriott and SPG and 2nd level at Hilton. Having kids and doing a lot of Disney meant the swan/dolphin hotels and the urge to be top tier at SPG. I'm a pretty big fan of Westin's but there's not a whole lot of them so I looked for Marriott next, and if I couldn't get Marriott I would fall back to Hiltons.

I started my own company 4.5 years ago, and my travel is way down. Marriott however kept me Plat for 3 years without achieving anywhere near the 75 nights/year ~ IMO it was extremely nice of them to keep me Plat and they went above and beyond what they needed to do. I think the reasoning behind keeping me Platinum was that a good part of that was my travels at my previous employer had me staying at some very expensive Marriotts in NOLA, LA and NYC and the JW in Vegas (think $250+/night rates), so they made a very good buck off my stays.

They just downgraded me to Gold this last year. To show my appreciation of keeping my status for as long as they did, I am doing just about all i can to keep my business with them. As a business owner I am always looking at keeping expenses down in as many places as I can, however I am pretty picky about where i lay my head down, and I'm not going to stay at a place that has a rate of $39/night (unless it's a place that should be charging $390/night and somebody put in the wrong rate), so I go out of my way to stay at Marriott brands. Just two nights ago I had a meeting in Evansville, Indiana and ALL of the Marriott properties in Evansville were sold out (yes, on a thursday night to boot). So, I stayed in the next closest FI which was about a 25 minute drive to Princeton, Indiana. Overall, I've been lucky enough to find some pretty reasonable rates at some of the FS Marriotts but most of my stays have been at CY or FI. I took the family on a 4 day trip over memorial day and we stayed at the RI (think 7yr old, 4yr old and 6 month old). As long as I'm paying less than $100/night I'm pretty good with the rates, but in the long run I've probably averaged around $85/night or so this year. I don't know if I'm going to get the 75 nights in or not but should get at least the 50 nights to keep up gold.

I'm 44 but always tended to have a primary (IHG) and have back-up memberships to always capture any points no matter where I stayed. Use the primary for comps/upgrades on business and occassional personal as I fine your level of status really helps. Still follow that line but more opportunistic thanks to the FT community. When it comes to personal stays I'll maximize points redemption but ultimately will pay for the room I want vs take a chance on points & upgrades unless rock solid. For business its what ever pays out the most and personal I'll buy what I want

I really really tried to focus on just one hotel chain, but due to different corporate rates (from the client) and availability, I had to split my time among Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton last year, and then made the mid-tier status on all. One instance where I had no choice in my hotel was when I worked in Houston right after Hurricane Ike passed through last year, and wow, all the hotels were fully booked where I kept getting different ones each week no matter how hard I tried to stick to just one. However this year, Hilton was so nice to offer me a fast-track to Diamond challenge, and I just completed it! So, I am happy and back to Hilton...

You also get more bonus points the higher the tier you have, and with Hilton doing double dip plus 100% bonus points, I feel that's the easiest program to build up points very quickly.

The downside of multiple programs is that I think it's hard to keep activity up among all the programs if you change jobs / travel patterns. Don't most require activity within the past 12 months? I'm so afraid of my points suddenly expiring, so I try to redeem points for my parents to use when they travel.

I also think hotel program choice depends on whether you know a particular place where you would redeem the points. Usually the only places I go for pleasure I am visiting relatives and stay with them, but the one place where I do use hotels is Lake Tahoe, and only Hilton has a place in North Lake Tahoe. Hyatt just opened a new one in Incline Village, but it's about a 30-40 minute drive to the ski slopes from there, so I prefer good ol' Truckee.

I'm a 23 year old consultant who had status in two chains: Hilton Gold and Marriott Silver.

My first two projects as a new hire had negotiated corporate rates at Marriott and Courtyards, hence my silver status with them. I racked up around 43K MR points in ~18 nights, 4 or 5 stays.

Then, starting mid-February this year, I was put on a project that had negotiated a corporate rate at a Doubletree. Over the course of 2.5 months, I racked up ~117K HHonors points in 38 nights and 10 stays. I found HHonors points much easier to earn thanks to Double Dipping and the quarterly promotions.

Just this past week, I took a vacation with my dad to Colorado. For the first and last (fifth) night of our vacation, we were planning on staying in Denver; corporate headquarters for my company are based in Greenwood Village, CO, so we were able to use my company's negotiated rate ($109) at the Doubletree Denver Tech. My dad had questioned me about canceling the DT reservation last-minute and pricelining a 4-star for $70. I cautioned him that A) parking in downtown Denver would add $20-25 per night and B) I had a surprise in store for him due to my Gold status. Sure enough, we kept the DT reservations, and due to my Gold status received free breakfast for two for the two nights of our stay in Denver (valued at over $32 per day). Factoring in the (unpaid) cost of parking and breakfast, our DT stay cost approximately $68, which is well less than what we could have gotten on priceline (+ parking + breakfast + taxes/fees).

Now, there is another point for my story. I recently decided to switch FFP from US to AA. As I have yet to earn any miles on AA, I immediately modified my Double Dip preferences to HHonors pts + Fixed miles, so for both of the ONE night stays at the DT, I was able to earn 500 AA miles. With close to 120K HHonors points in the bank, I will happily elect to increase my AA mileage by utilizing the Double Dip feature by earning AA mileage. Add to this the 25% Gold bonus and Q2 1000 bonus night promotion, and I am not worried about earning enough HHonors points for a vacation in the near future. :)

I have discovered that my company tends to focus on Hilton properties when it comes to negotiating rates: Hiltons, Doubletrees, Homewood Suites, etc. I may elect to match my Hilton status with SPG in the near future, but for now, I am very content with HHonors!

I am middle aged. I have been travelling over 25 years. My status loyalties are:

DL PM+
AA ExP
US <100k no status
BA <100k no status
BMI <100k no status

Hilton Diamond VIP Preferential
Best Western Gold
Radisson Silver
SPG Silver Plus
Marriott Lots of points no status today.
Holiday Inn Some points and free stays, but no status today.