Originally Posted by Red259

I haven't stayed at Hyatts, but they tend to be highly reviewed and had some prime properties in locations I wish to visit, although they do not have a large enough footprint for me to be able to obtain status. I started with hilton as part of a gold challenge and went with Hilton due to the ability to easily obtain gold status, the price point and that they have locations in the places I was travelling to. Since I have started staying with Hilton I have been happy with my experience with either calling the Hilton line or dealing with the staff at the hotels. I have been able to find good deals on rooms close to locations that I wanted to be at and the rooms were decent. The breakfasts were good. I have only stayed at Hamptons so far with some HGI stays planned. I have not had a chance to stay at the full service properties yet.

The drawback with Hilton seems to be the devaluation so my points do not appear that they would go as far as my girlfriend's does with marriott and her plat elite status. I have been looking at marriott given its large footprint, the fact that I have a number of stays coming up so I could meet a plat challenge, and their best rate policy seems easier to use than Hilton's. Also, the united silver status would be a nice touch since I will not have enough united flights year to make status. Also, my credit cards tend to be with Chase so I could transfer spare UR points into marriott if I needed to top off an account for a night stay.

Next year I am looking at travelling to Asia and Europe, so I am trying to put myself in a good position to be able to redeem miles/points for that trip, so that is one of my main goals.