For your hotel chain I'd recommend looking at Starwood. SPG points are much easier to use (and much more valuable) than Marriott in my experience. You can do a platinum challenge with them to get platinum status after 18 nights in 3 months. If you'd rather stick with Marriott, do their platinum challenge. Hyatt has a great program too, but they don't have as many properties so it depends where you go as to whether that's a good option.