It may also be interesting to consider the affinity credit cards if a lot of points would be earned there. While SPG seems to require the most money spent at the hotel itself to get the award, it probably requires the least money to get the award from credit card spending. Consider the points earned with the credit card as a percentage as what one would earn as a base member:

program hotel pts/$ cc pts/$ %
SPG 2 1 50%
HH 10 2/3 20/30%
Marriott 10 1 10%
PriorClub 10 1 10%

(sorry for bad table format - it does not format easily here)

If you are to earn a lot of points via the credit card, SPG would probably do you better than the other programs. Marriott may be better for points earned at the hotel, but the credit card is pretty weak. Same with Priority Club. Not to mention SPG also carries the ability to convert the points to miles at the best rate of hotel programs. If someone could cross this table with the other one that indicates how much you have to spend on the cc to get a comparable room, that would be a better indication.

The bottom line is that it all depends on how a person plans on earning the points and how he plans on using them.

[This message has been edited by quinella66 (edited 07-23-2003).]

[This message has been edited by quinella66 (edited 07-23-2003).]