Originally Posted by
qazw1
I have been able to find $200/night property in a major city for 10,000 Marriott points. I am lucky to find any Hilton properties for 25,000 points. Unless one must stay at cat 7 properties, Marriott points are worth far more.
That's not the question.
The question, for a Plat/Diamond type member, is whether 20 Marriott points is worth more or less than 29 HHonors points. (I'll ignore the Residence Inn issue for now since that only comprises 10% of the OP's stays.) Throw 5 Starpoints in for comparison if you like...
Well, that's just one question. There are other questions to ask about the elite perks, quality of the properties, your personal reward desires, etc.
But from a raw value perspective, 20 MR and 29 HH are reasonably similar in my book. My last HHonors redemption was a little over a penny per point. My last Marriott redemption was around 1.4 cents/point. They were done back-to-back in the same country in late 2009 so it's a reasonably even comparison. Both good hotels, both good elite treatment, both good awards.
(Granted, the weaker U.S. dollar in 2008-2009 made nearly all of my hotel awards in all programs look really, really good on a "cpp" basis!!
)
HH actually had the value edge in my case. In 2010, with the new HH categories, I'd still say it's reasonably even.
All I'm saying is that I wouldn't let award value be the primary driver of an HH to MR switch unless there's a specific award you want, like the TP's...