BKKLEE

+1............. and Starwood has also run similar/same stays for cert programs so OPs statement that only Marriott has had these promos is not correct..........

bldr1k

I've been a Hilton Diamond for 8 years and last year I got so fed up with Hilton I switched to Marriott and made Diamond.

Overall I think Marriott Platinum is better then Hilton Diamond but it really depends on where you stay. I only stay in Hilton or Marriott properties and not any of the other family members - so I can't compare those.

I usually get a nice room (e.g. high floor, good view, concierge floor) with both Hilton and Marriott but never get upgraded to a suite with either one these days.

The lounges depends on the hotel. In Europe and Asia I much prefer Marriott but in the US Hiltons I stay in are better.

In the end I think they are close and both are inferior to what they once were.

nacho

I have only stayed at Hilton once, but I have contacted their customer services regarding some issue with the stay.

MR CS are 1000 times better than Hilton's CS IMO. MR people take thing seriously.

Hilton BRG is bad too - fortunately I was so lucky that I got the Guest Service supervisor adjusted the rate before arrival. The hotel doesn't even have a clue about the USD 50 credit.

Cargojon

I've been MR Plat for years, this year I only made gold. Have some upcoming stays where Marriott is not an option, I figured this would be the time I'd try out HH to see what they were all about.

Emailed HHonors to status match my gold. They want me to do a 4 night challenge.

No thanks. I already have 3-4 bookings in place with HH. I e-mailed them back with the booking numbers, told them if they were interested in my business, they'd match me. Otherwise I was canceling those stays and spending my $ with Radisson.

Interested to see what they say. The double dip feature is nice, but if this is all I've gotten out of them so far I can't say I'm encouraged.

ETA: Just got the e-mail back from Hilton saying "no thanks." Now I remember why I dumped HH for MR in the first place.

Guess it's off to see if Club Carlson will match me.

kmwjes

Correct that hotels outside of the US, Canada, Mexico and PR must adjust the bill by usd50 otherwise a usd50 American Express gift cheque is mailed once the stay is completed.

I have found HILTON BRG excellent on certain stays; most recently $169 rate in Atlanta matched at $69 plus a $50 Amex gift cheque: Net Stay $19

den1k

I have been a Hilton Diamond for the past ten years averaging over 100 nights a year. Last year I started feeling like a second class citizen when using my HHonors points for rooms. When I questioned the hotel about my lees than desirable rooms, I was told "but you're staying here on a reward"/

Thats when I decided to check out Marriott. 60 nights so far and I find the tratment as a paid guest about the same. The test for me will be how I'm treated on a reward stay.

I do plan to write Hilton later this summer and tell them why I have cut back 75% of my nigts and dollars spent at their locations.

jr1202sr

I recently made platinum through the challenge (59 Nights so far in less than 3 months) and really have been disappointed in Marriott.

1) 65% my stays have not included an open Concierge Floor/breakfast benefit etc although 85% have been at Full Service Properties

2) I am staying at 3 Resorts for a week each approximately over the next 6 Months and will receive No benefit at all staying there (resort fee offers free internet, bottle water, etc)

3) I have been solicited to pay for an upgrade at least 1/2 the time of some sort before arrival and yet NEVER been offered a Free upgrade prior to arrival.

Just don't see what the advantage is. I use US based hotels for 85% of my travel (resorts being the non us based hotels)

Now that I am Plat through Feb 2014. I am looking at Hilton and Starwood to see if they offer something better.

I just don't see how it hurts marriott to show some sort of appreciation for resort stays for their Plat guest or FS properties on Weekends. I will spend at one resort close to 5K alone isn't that enought for at least a free drink coupon or a confirm upgrade? At one weekend Stay in Chicago at a JW I spent 1K in 2 nights and yet they don't offer free breakfast coupons on the weekend. Sigh.

iflyjetz

I'm with pretty much every program. I would suggest you look at Hyatt rather than Club Carlson.

hhoope01

1) I'm not sure I understand your first issue. I've been with Marriott for almost 20 years (I'm a LT Plat now). I don't think I've ever had any issues with a weekday free breakfast (either in the lounge or in the restaurant) at any NA based non-resort hotels. And I probably have more than 1500+ nights during this time. I admit that I don't always get a CL level room, but I've virtually always automatically received CL access. So I'm not sure I understand how you have such a high rate of not getting lounge or free breakfast access. (And I'm assuming you are talking about weekday mornings, not weekends as breakfast is not a stated Gold/Plat benefit then.)

Maybe they are giving you CL access, but just not saying anything when you check-in. I'm not sure if they always tell me that they gave me access or not. I normally just assume that I have it and I'm not sure I remember a time when my assumption was wrong.

2) My personal experience has been that my best upgrades have tended to be at Resort hotels over normal business/city hotels. I've always thought this was probably due to the fact that Resorts will probably have more room types to upgrade an elite to (i.e. balconies, ocean front/view, corner, and even suite upgrades sometimes, etc.) So while I probably won't get a free breakfast, I will quite often actually get a better room.

3) I would guess that the "solicited" pre-upgrade notices are either just general notices they send to most anyone staying there (i.e. not just to elites), or they are an opportunity to allow you to guarantee an upgrade before your check-in date since normal elite upgrades are supposed to be based on availability at check-in time.

Note that at a normal "business" or city FS Marriott, they may only have a couple of different room types (i.e. normal rooms and CL rooms). The hotel may only have one or two suite rooms in the whole hotel. So while they may not explicitly tell you that you've been upgraded, maybe they put you in a higher floor room or something similar. It might be nice for them to make an effort to let you know though. And I almost always ask about what room I've been upgraded to. That will sometimes either remind them that I am a Plat and that I should get an upgrade or it will prompt them to make a little extra effort to look for one.

And personally, I don't really have to be put in a CL level room to feel special. Yes, its on the same floor as the CL and maybe it will have an extra bottle of mouth wash or a robe in the closet, but other than that, they usually aren't any different at all. As long as I get CL access, I've gotten the real benefit.

nacho

Free breakfast at Hilton at any day of the week is a great perk. I have stayed at 1 Hilton in Germany (without lounge), so we got full buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant. That's itself is awesome because we are paying a very low rate and got free breakfast for family of 5.

However I have also saw some FTer here saying that they only got some cheap breakfast option in some Hiltons in NA - it actually states in HH that you are entitled to 'continental' breakfast as elite members.

pinniped

Really? You're irritated at HH because they offered up a four night Gold challenge? (Check it - it was probably four stays, but still...) Are you perhaps acting just a smidge over-entitled here? You have the four stays booked. Do them. Enjoy Gold through February 2014. If you really bail on HH in favor of Club Carlson (shudder) because of this, you aren't thinking clearly.

If you want Gold right out of the box, just sign up for the CC.

IME, Marriott treats you the same regardless of whether you're on a paid or reward stay. I've never felt discriminated against for using points or certificates. Although Marriott rarely upgrades me to suites, they always get the bed type right and usually have me in a "desirable" room. (High floor, nice view, away from elevator, balcony, whatever.)

Does Hyatt have a history of doing status matches to Diamond? That's where their benefits really kick in... I've never inquired myself, but I thought from reading one of the "buzz" threads that they weren't big status matchers.

After years of staying with Marriott, I think the advantage is this: you do business travel pretty much anywhere in their system and have a consistent experience...then you take your family vacations to international city hotels. If that's your travel pattern, the Travel Packages end up making this a more lucrative program - total reward value per dollar of business travel spent - than most of its competitors.

If your pattern is something else - resorts, lots of weekend getaways, etc. - then you should look at other programs. Or if you are a real road warrior, mix 'n' match...use Marriott to take the family for a week in Paris and then use Starwood or HHonors to go to Hawaii.

I don't get it either. I still shake my head and think about what a weird policy this is. On the stays when I *most* want the status to mean something, I get benefits taken away.

That's true - a lot of hotels do a continental breakfast as the elite benefit.

In practice, I've never been anywhere that wouldn't allow you to apply the credit towards something else. I did a HH stay two weeks ago where the continental breakfast was $10 and the hot breakfasts on the menu were anywhere from $10 to $16. I ordered whatever I wanted and paid the difference. Weekend stay, resort hotel, I was pretty happy with that. ^

nacho

I just think of another negative about HHonours - missing points and wrong info for my double dip.

I signed up for UA and they put the miles in my LH account. Then I wrote to them to complain, they said they will look into it, haven't heard from them again. I had 2 rooms, only 1 of them got credited.

For Marriott - it's a lot more efficient. I wrote to them, they replied right away, and I always get a reply within a week. If I have missing points with Marriott, they told me to wait, after the waiting period, I sent them the invoice and then the points are credited right away.

Hilton - this is definitely not the same. I asked them about the missing points for the second room, the hotel claimed that they will find out what happened but it has been more than a month, and no points was credited and the miles is credited to the wrong FFP.

When I was checking in to the hotel, I have to verify the info and half of them is wrong! How can that happened? Everything I have online is up to date and it should be like that. I corrected them and in the reply from the hotel they said that they can't change the info manually. I was really annoyed.

It never happens in a Marriott, where I only need to sign - they have all my info on their system.

I'm not based in the US so if I do stay at a FS I'd get breakfast 7 days a week, so for me the choice would be Marriott.

iflyjetz

I don't think any of the richest hotel loyalty programs (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood) match top status anymore. AFAIK, all have shifted to a status challenge.

For Hyatt, it's a 'Diamond Trial'. I did this last year and was immediately given all Diamond benefits, including 4 complimentary suite upgrades. I got all Diamond bonuses while completing my Diamond Trial. The Diamond Trial requires 12 nights in 60 days. Here's a link: http://loyaltylobby.com/2012/03/12/h...ge-as-of-2012/

I simply cannot believe that someone who complains about Hilton and Marriott is considering Club Carlson as a better loyalty program. I'm a Club Carlson Gold but they are #7 on my list of preferred hotel chains. That's based on MY preferences.
Based on MY preferences, hotel loyalty programs rank:
1) Hyatt
2) Starwood
3) Hilton
4) Marriott
5) Priority Club
6) Wyndham
7) Club Carlson
8) Best Western
9) Choice
I find that there's a distinct break between the top 4 and the rest of the programs.

Your mileage may vary.

Cargojon

No, that's not the reason I'm irritated at HH. I was drawn to Marriott many years ago after experiencing a number of piss poor stays at Hilton properties. I saw this as an opportunity to give HH another chance after all these year...but clearly they're not interested in by business. Why would I bother spending 4 stays in a HH property with no status when there are other chains out there that will match my status no questions asked? There are plenty of folks who've gotten HH to match their status as well. Shoot, most airlines will status match and the perks obtained from airlines status blow those from hotel status out of the water. But nooooo...not the almighty Hilton.

I don't feel over entitled - I feel entitled to what other have been given in similar circumstances, and I feel entitled to be made to feel that a business values my dollar. No go with HH.

pinniped

Good to know...thanks for the link. I might make use of that one of these years.

+1. We all have our own takes on the "big 4", much depending upon our own travel patterns, but I think most of us agree that all of those programs below the big 4 are a separate category entirely.

Priority Club sort of half-wants to be a bigtime program. There are some fine Intercontinental Hotels in the world. But basic PC doesn't really lead to benefits...you have to have that Royal Ambassador status, which I think has a fee associated with it.

The rest are nice for the occasional roadtripping motel and earning a few airline miles for things like the US Airways Grand Slam.