<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitsheel:
Somehow, points and miles hasn't been brought up... if you make 50 stays at a hilton property, you'll have 25k airline miles ON TOP OF your hhonors points.</font>
That's a valuable point. There is a kink in multiple earning levels, with the plentiful hamptons only earning 100 miles. (However, with Southwest all hhonors hotels give the same credit, with 32 stays being enough to earn a free trip.)
And it also goes with elite qualification. Hilton lets you qualify for elite by stays, nights, or revenue. Marriott is just nights. Priority club is nights or points. Thus, with Hilton, you could hotel hop, and achieve gold status in 16 nights, with diamond taking a little longer.
Nobody has mentioned the Radisson yet. Their goldpoints program is more of a general awards program than a strict hotel program. However, they do have plenty of ways to earn points, as well as hotels in Hawaii.