Originally Posted by
pjoalfa
...but Marriott is a lot tougher to keep status with.
...
The lounge/breakfast/internet access is pretty much the same for all 3. The lounges in the Hiltons this last year have been the best by far.
If you live in a country that has a Marriott branded CC, then the nights needed can be much more reasonable as the CC will give you an initial number of nights (i.e. 15 nights) plus you get another night for every $3K spent on the card. That can help bring down the nights needed for Gold/Plat with Marriott substantially.
Add to that Marriott has Roll-over nights from the previous year which can also greatly reduce your needed nights. (In fact some have stayed enough in one year to get Plat status for 2 years through roll-overs.) Also, this time of the year, Marriott tends to look at your stay pattern over the previous 3 years and has been very generous in letting those who have shown a pattern of stays keep their Gold/Plat status even if they didn't get the required number of nights the previous year.
And don't forget that Marriott has a Lifetime status. Having LT Plat with Marriott, allows me to stay at other chains to get status there and still keep my Marriott Plat status for those times I want to stay at a Marriott. ^
I have to disagree with the "lounge/breakfast benefit is the same for all 3 chains" statement. Virtually every Marriott property (FS and non-FS) will offer a Gold/Plat free breakfast with Courtyards being the main exception ( for FS weekdays in NA and 7 days a week every where else in the world). And I my understanding of Hilton is that they offer their top elites breakfast 7 days a week af most every property anywhere in the world.
Starwood on the otherhand has far fewer properties with lounges and they don't offer free breakfast at most of their non-FS hotels to anyone. And if the hotel doesn't have a lounge forget it. Both Marriott and Hilton will still offer breakfast to their top elites.