factory81

So I am preparing for a 2015 trip. Italy, France, Spain will be covered. And I am scoping things out - and during my 2013 trip to Europe I realized that there just aren't that many IHG properties in Europe.

Doing some research, it seems Marriott may have the best coverage in Europe. Does anyone have any other insights or opinions on how they have tried to travel Europe (on points)?

Ocn Vw 1K

Please follow as the thread moves to the Europe forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

RTW1

You should focus less on points and more on getting good value for money. The good properties (both in luxury and value for money) are often independently owned or part of local groups. Some places are decent for point redemptions but in a lot of locations you will get far better results by spending a little money.

xooz

You don't say how you would be accruing your points, whether you are using credit cards or whether you will be getting points for paid stays. If the latter, you will probably be impacted by where your travels take you, with Hilton and Marriott being the most ubiquitous. If it is via credit cards, you have many options, and can maybe accrue enough on more than one chain to use for your trip.

If it were me, I would use the Awardmapper tool and look at the cities/areas I want to stay in and see what options look best in each place. Check reviews on the places you are interested in then begin accruing in the one or more chains. Don't leave out Carlson, since their credit card is currently the best (IMHO) for simply accruing points with credit card spend, and you also get an extra night with each award stay.

factory81

I can do both. I can sign-up for stuff, (e.g. Marriott 70k), or I can switch my hotel stays more toward a certain program.


I have done some poking around though, and it seems like some hotel chains have no interest in "covering" Europe, or even having a single property to stay at. IHG for instance has a thing or two in the major places you may find yourself. But Marriott seems to have hotels everywhere - with a market saturation like no other. Some brands like Hyatt seem to have only aspirational properties in the mega-city centers (Rome, Paris, etc).

Uh Clem

Marriott has the most hotels but Starwood is a better value if you're using points. A typical Westin will run you 40k points for 5 nights where a typical full service Marriott will be 135k points. With Starwood, you can use points for a club floor upgrade if you don't have status. Usually 1000 extra points per night.

LondonElite

Correct.

In Italy, France, and Spain most of the big chains are poorly represented. Starwood hotels fall into the disappointing or expensive-disappointing category for me. Marriott has good coverage but a lot of older hotels, same goes for IHG. Hyatt has relatively few properties in Europe, etc. I would agree with value for money.

Gagravarr

For France, you main chain is Accor. If you have Accor Platinum, you might get a free drink, or you might get a slightly less bad room, but often you'll need to take a printout of the Accor Le Club website with you to show to the staff. Knowledge of their own loyalty program is pretty poor, but then again, so are the benefits in most places...

For Spain, the main chain is Melia. In my experience, the only program which has ever managed to make Accor look good is Melia... As long as you don't expect your rewards program to be competant, Melia do offer a free second night around your birthday (with some annoying restrictions), and often give you loads of bonus points towards a Cash+Points booking (but neglect to bother telling you they've done this, and you typically only have 1-2 weeks to book). Top end Melia properties are excellent, rest have small to major issues.

You'll find Hilton and Starwood properties in some places, but it's often a bit patchy. IHG have a better coverage, but it's still a little patchy and not enough to rely on everywhere. Club Carlson is quite good, but only a handful of Spanish or Italian properties, France has better coverage.

In many places, you may be better off booking into somewhere independent, having checked reviews online first, and skip the chains.

LondonElite

Most European Hilton and Starwood properties are pretty dire. I'm bemused by people who make their hotel choices on the basis of a few miles or an upgrade to a not much better room when they could have booked a much better hotel in the first place!

factory81

Thanks everyone for getting this discussion going. Lets not forget about Austria, Switzerland and Germany as well.

I think everyone hits a theme here - award hotels coverage is patchy all through Europe. With a variety of hit or miss redemptions.

I haven't ever considered Radisson/Club Carlson for a program - but I will admit. I did see a number of their properties outside major train stations in Europe.

I have "generally" been considering a Starwood + Marriott + IHG + fill in the gaps out of pocket strategy. If I can secure some free nights in top end properties in the mega-tourist stops, I consider this a success. Aka, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, etc. I can stay bed and breakfast style - or even in a hostel if I need to. Looks like I will just have to pick out a few places I want to stay at, figure out how many nights I want to stay there, and then earn points in the appropriate program.

deniah

accor is the biggest. club carlson has decent coverage with the radisson brand. best western is actually quite prolific and theyre more upscale worldwide than they are in US (where its a roadside-stop).

you might get better value if you stick to your US affiliation, and use hotels.com to book the other properties

helosc

Hilton has many hotels in Germany and Austria. The hotels are not cheap to get on points but some have point and cash rates.
On weekends and in summer the (cash)price is generally very reasonable and if Hilton has a good quarterly promotion it is possible to earn a fair amount of points.

LondonElite

Well, name me a German city with a Hilton and I'll name you a better hotel in the same price range.

helosc

I don't doubt that, although I have been perfectly happy with the Hilton hotels in Germany.
I have also been perfectly happy with other hotels in Germany.
I didn't claim that the Hilton hotels were the best hotels in town, merely that Hilton had a good presence in German cities.
It was my impression that the poster was mainly interested in staying in chain hotels - using points (or if not possible, earning points for future stays).
And I thought it was time that Hilton was mentioned.....

GUWonder

It depends on region/occasion.

Best Western and Choice and Carlson, for example, cover me better in Scandinavia than other programs. But in other parts of Europe, IHG and Accor fill in way better along with Hilton. Starwood and Hyatt for airport hotels or higher end city center localities in Europe.

A portfolio of points -- more easily built up by those who can play the US credit card "sign-up bonus and "churn game -- works best.

Hilton Gold is easy to get and provides decent benefits for award stays too; and it has a decent network. Unfortunately, they massively devalued the points last year so collecting points from stays is not as good a value as it used to be.