Originally Posted by
hhoope01
At least with IHG, hopefully you don't care much for elite benefits and those are few and far between (though points earning can be decent.)
Very true with IHG (don't use Accor so don't know with them). Other downsides I have found with IHG are point inflation for stays [most desirable properties in cities and many suburbs are 35K plus per night sometimes as high as 60K per night (i.e. as expensive and even more so than Marriott for the equivalent class property, especially in the suburbs)]. For families, only a small subset of urban properties are offerings rooms with two beds for award stays. IHG also doesn't have a fifth nigh free program. So you need to earn more IHG points vs. Marriott points to have the same award spending power.
On the plus side in addition to the generally more flexible cancellation terms, for rural areas and more distant suburbs/small cities, IHG still works well. That said, IHG also has many properties that are 24 hour and some are 48 hour cancellation in the larger cities. After doing both programs for approx. 3 years now, I still prefer Marriott but IHG does have its uses as a secondary program. The annual Chase MasterCard free night is also great since it isn't category restricted vs. the ridiculously low Marriott Cat. 5 certificate. End of ramble...
--Jon