I care about redemption & Marriott works for me. To me redemption means being able to redeem points at properties worldwide when I want them & I've always been able to do so with Marriott. If I'm staying at a higher category property then yes it's going to cost more points than if I'm staying at a lower level property. That's true of a few chains.

The other 2 things that Marriott has going for it in terms of redemption is:

* Book 4 nights, get 5th night free
* 7-day travel package, which gets you hotel & airline miles

Thanks for the overall comparison of the 2 programs!

Cheers.