Originally Posted by
Happy
It is true Marriott has a much large foot print.
Unfortunately it is also true that for any worthy main city in the world, it would be VERY difficult to find a Marriott group property that is below Cat 6.
Even the AC budget chain in Madrid proper, a cheaper European city, is at Cat 5 for a hotel which standard is no better than a Days Inn here in the US as an example.
For the OP, I suggest you to go over both chains award charts and see where you could possible to use a Hyatt Cat 4 and a Marriott Cat 5. I would not be surprised you can find Hyatt Cat 4 is much easier to get you a nice value versus Marriott Cat 5 is very crappy - so much so there is a long running thread in Marriott on where to find the value for Cat 5... If it is easy, there would not be such a need for the quest!
You also want to consider that it is much easier to add nights on Hyatt award stays with the same UR pts earning than trying to do that with a Marriott cert.
Well, like I said, it depends on where you want to go. Not everyone concentrates on only the "main cities of the world".
I was going to Niagara Falls a couple years ago, and flying in to BUF airport late in the evening, and all the hotels nearby were pricey, and yet several Marriott properties worked with a cat 1-5 cert. Who cares that Buffalo isn't a "main city of the world" when you need a hotel after flying in late at night somewhere???
Also, if you rent cars while visiting places, it's much easier to find Marriott cat 1-5 hotels in the suburbs (where the parking is free) than Hyatts period, and you may not want to stay (at least not the part of the stay where you rent a car to do daytrips to surrounding areas) in the middle of the city where yes there's a Hyatt but the parking fees are astronomical.
So it really depends on what you do when you get there, just as much as where exactly you go.
IOTW, I'm not saying you don't have good points for main city centers, I'm just pointing out that that's not the only place where many people need hotels.