I'm a long time SPG member and tend to stay in Starwood hotels if at all possible. However, we all know there are places that they don't have hotels, so I have used Hilton Honors as my backup chain.

However, I was just looking more closely at my HHonors account and it seems like that program sucks. I have stayed 28 nights at Hilton hotels this year and have earned less than 30k points which don't even get me a night in one of their mid-to-upper level hotels. This just doesn't seem right and it's making me wonder if perhaps I should consider a different backup chain.

Am I expecting too much? Is what HHonors is giving me about comparable to what I'd get from another chain or should I consider switching my backup chain? If I do switch, does anyone have a recommendation for a better backup chain? Note that it is key that a backup chain have hotels in many of the smaller cities and towns in the US. Marriott instantly springs to mind, but perhaps IHG or Hyatt might be options.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill