I am with WHarvey above. I don't normally read the Starwood board anymore because too many of the people who post here seem to worship starwood for reason I have never figured out. I personally think the program is overrated by a large amount. I stay at whichever program available but there little incentive to stay with starwood unless you are platinum with them.
I just stayed at the hilton in athens and then the lemeridian in brussell. The hilton stay was at least five times better than the lemeridian with my second tier status in both program.
To the op I would say don't listen to most people from the starwood program for I have not found any objectivity in most of their comments. Hilton is a terrific program with great benefits esp. breakfast and pts&miles.