Allow me to respectfully disagree.

Last year our notoriously tight travel restrictions were eased and I was able to try many different brands in both the IHG and HH families, as Plat and Gold, respectively.

HH is the favorite program for most folks in our group but I am slowly converting them away. The impression I had last year is that HH properties try very hard to fulfill the minimum level of recognition, like a checklist. At IHG properties, especially on the lower end, it seems as though the attitude is to genuinely value the revenue and give more recognition, via better upgrades, point bonuses, food vouchers, etc., than required.

But what really clinched it for me was the latest personal trip I made. For 30k points total, I redeemed THREE nights I needed for the trip. Each one of those, I attempted to redeem at Hilton first. Either no availability or 2-3x as many points.

In my experience, I've been just as likely to get a "bad" property in either program. Quite a few of my nights are in fairly rural locations. I've consistently found the Holiday Inn Express sleep and bathing infrastructure to be better than that at Hampton.

Rationally, it's not clear to me why I would choose a Hilton property given all of that. So I don't plan to. If my colleagues or clients strongly object, I won't fight it (hard), but I'd rather earn points faster - that I can actually use - and enjoy a better stay experience.

I guess that's my commitment to take business elsewhere. In fact, next week HIX will gain 4 room nights that probably would have been Hampton nights.