Originally Posted by
pinniped
Sidebar: how in the hell does a massive global hotel program like HHonors not have a hotel (or five) in Central Paris?
I honestly don't know how/why hotels choose to join and leave the major brands, but this just seems like too huge of a gap.
It varies for everyone. MR and SPG had modest devaluations this year. I have a sense that one is coming with PC as they formally reboot their entire program this summer. Sweet spots in all of the programs are getting harder to find, but you have to figure out what your own preferred destination/type of award is.
I now have Lifetime MR Gold and, theoretically, perpetual HH Gold/Diamond status through the credit cards. Ideally I'd send just enough stays Starwood's way to make low-Plat but I don't know if I'll have quite enough this year.
At the end of the day, I'll just pursue diversity, thus maximizing options for different types of trips.
Could not agree more. Until recently I had been 98% HH. I saw it as the easier, least need for thinking way to keep one account rich with points. Starting last year (HHs poor promo was the impetus or final straw) I reached out to MR and got matched. Best move I ever made! I do enough stays to maintain Diamond and EP with MR (though towards November I may have to use one or the other heavier to maintain both).
This move gained me 6 on those meager but still
very usable Cat 1-4 free night certs with Marriott (my trip Idaho-Wyoming-S Dakota is now making them extremely valuable). When I go to a city on business I now have a bigger array of hotels to choose from. I almost always stay as close to the job site as possible.
When I over think and over plan a vacation, I have more options for using points for the more optimum stay. When one or the other has the better promo, I can move to them more heavily, temporarily, to maximize my rewards. Just the best hotel strategy change I have done!
To one poster who was asking as to which one is better? For HH and MR it is hard to say. The Promos have been MR. Using points I have to give the edge to HH right now, however, it hasn't been long enough for me to make a fair judgment (though when you factor in the free certs, MR wins). But MR has, to me at least, some odd categorizing methods for some hotels. Quite honestly there is a sizable chunk of things about MR and HH that are even.