Originally Posted by Mort

That's true, and if everyone stayed only one night per stay, chains like Hilton probably wouldn't bother to offer "stays for status" options... it would be nights only.

But many stays are for two nights, or three, or longer. Hilton is trying to motivate stays for that reason, primarily.

But they're also doing it to get business they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Let's say that someone is 2 stays short of Hilton Gold status, but 10 nights short of Gold. And let's say that this person has two upcoming stays in late December. Hence, that person is likely to choose Hilton for those two stays rather than SPG or Marriott.

Heck, I'm an example of this myself. I do at least 16 stays with Hilton each year because I want to maintain Gold and I can do it fairly easily with 16 stays, but 36 nights would be too much and I wouldn't bother. Even if I only stay one night per stay, Hilton is getting business they wouldn't have gotten from me otherwise.

There are probably others like me. So Marriott, IMO, is losing business because they don't offer "stays for status".

But then again, Marriott probably gets more nights from me (and more credit card use) because I want to maintain Plat, and if they awarded Plat for stays, I'd earn it much faster.

So who's smartest, Hilton or Marriott? Hard to say. Each one made its decision based on what they deem to bring them the most business. I do know that if Hilton didn't offer "stays for status", I would stay there a lot less often.