First off, let me congratulate you on your success with SPG. Let me be the first to state, that once I run off the 600,000 HHonors points that I have foolishly obtained over the years without having really used them in a substantial way, my second choice of a hotel program will be SPG, for the very reason that I have noted above -- being primarily a leisure traveller, earning status in even one program is hard enough, but two is quite difficult, and a program that allows you to burn off your potentially high number of SPG points that you have amassed over the years via your credit card use -- without any real blackout periods -- is one that certainly lends itself to thtat type of traveller.

Second, let me add that with respect to the hotel chains noted in this thread -- except for 6 C -- I can confidently say that if you wish to stay at extremely nice properties in Europe, with a great deal of geographic distribution, then being objective, the best is most certainly SPG, unless you wish to travel exclusively thru the UK where Marriott and Hilton hold sway.

With respect to your online booking bonus calculations with respect to the programs, I am unclear of your methodology and your total allocation of the number of points earned from this source to your comparison. However, in my brief analysis of the programs and from my understanding of them from review of various threads on them in FT and happening onto each of the sites, I do believe that SPG is probably the most frequent hotel chain that awards these points for bookings.

Hilton's allocation of a booking bonus of 1,000 points to a reservation is paltry in the scheme of things when reviewing the totat percentage that such a bonus would bring to either a reward for one night or more than one night. Same is true for Marriott. Of course, anything that increases your points is welcome, but in the grand scheme of things, the fact that such bookings are few and far and in between is deminimus for those properties.

With respect to SPG your analysis is spot on, and it would also be beneficial to Hyatt properties where lower per night point redemption rates are the norm. However, as I had hoped to point out, Hyatt has somewhat built into is award scheme an indirect booking bonus for specifc hotels, so in a sense, Hyatt has some form of Booking Bonus -- albeit not requiring an online booking -- as well.

That said, the hotel guests that most benefit from relatively small "booking bonuses" of whatever the source, are those that stay at either a Hyatt or an SPG property because redemption levels are skewed downwards by the natur of the program, and one's point accumulation in each, respectively.

However, I must disagree with you with your lumping your wife's 50,000 bonus point promotion from Hilton in with this form of booking bonus. Hilton, as most know, regularly offers this sort of promotion, usually at least twice annually, an although in some sense it does award one for staying at Hiltons for a short period of time with an enormous number of points, it is not truly an online booking bonus for one can also satisfy the terms of this promotion by making reservations for your stays over the phone to a Hilton rep.

In addition, as I have noted above, the trick with Hilton is not earning enormous number of hotel points, but being able to use them!

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