I think if you can maintain status in more than one program, each has advantages and disadvantages.

Background: I first obtained Diamond status in 2009 (primarily through business travel of about 100 or so nights). Upset by the HHonors devaluation at the end of 2009 and after learning from Flyertalk how to better manage my travel to get more points, I did a Marriott status challenge (only to Gold) in spring/summer 2010. I still easily requalified for HH Diamond this year, and I earned two more Q3FN certificates by hotel hopping during Q2 (using a Marriott property in the middle of the week since there were not two different Hilton properties I could use for consecutive stays in the area I travelled to for business). While meeting my Gold status challenge, I also earned two free nights (Cat 1 - 4) and 60K Delta miles through Marriott promotions.

The reasons I prefer Hilton are that I can earn a lot more points and feel that I get more value from my elite benefits on personal stays; more specifically:

- My business travel is restricted to lower cost properties (i.e., Hampton Inns or Marriott Residence Inn or Towneplace Suites). These Marriott brands only earn 5 points/$ spent before elite bonus. Hampton Inns earn a minimum of 10 points/$.

- Hilton allows double dipping (airline miles + HH points) or receiving an extra 5 HH points/$) versus having to choose points or miles at Marriott.

- Outside of a possible room upgrade (which honestly is not that important to me), many Marriott properties where I have stayed or am likely to stay for personal/leisure stays do not provide free breakfast or lounge access (i.e., Courtyards, Vacation Club, and "Resort" properties do not provide free breakfast at all or have lounges, and most FS Marriotts in the US close lounges on weekends).

- For award stays, I believe (I may be mixing up Marriott and SPG here) that at Marriott properties with resort fees, the guest has to pay these, while Hilton does not charge resort fees on award stays.

- Hilton promotions this year, at least for me, have been much better than Marriott ones. As a business traveller required to use a corporate Amex for business hotel stays, the last Marriott Megabonus requiring payment with Visa was completely useless to me for business travel.

- While it took less stays/nights to earn free night certificates at Marriott, I prefer Hilton's certificates because they are valid for a full year and include almost all Hilton properties, while the certificates I earned through Marriott were good for closer to six months and only up to category 4.

- Hilton's Diamond special request came through for me in booking a Saturday night only award stay at a property that was blocking paid and award stays for the single day

I agree with others who have said that it generally takes significantly more HH points than MR points to stay at a hotel of similar quality/location, but the value of redeeming HH points increases when you use GLON or AXON awards, and I can earn them much faster.

Marriott has some advantages too, but given how few points I earned in about 25 nights at Marriott properties this year, I doubt I would be able to take advantage of some of them (e.g., travel packages, fifth night free) anytime soon. I also like that MR points do not expire, and that Marriott supposedly will provide some elite benefits when booking through a third party.

In general, it obviously is valuable to not be completely wedded to one program, since one of the most imporant thing is having the properties you want in the location that you need or want to stay.