Note: Successive posts (that took weeks of research) recently were consolidated by the forum owners. This caused some real quirky jumps IMO. So, to make it look more like a thoughtful contribution, this paragraph has been edited and updated. - Author-May 29, 2022
Marriott Honored Guest vs. Hilton Honors
Originally Posted by
HHonors OUTSIDER
I think Hilton HHonors started in 1987/88 and am wondering when Marriott Honored Guest started? I think in 1983/84 time frame?
Not really sure if you are looking for the exact date or...
Most sources say the program started in November 1983. It was in response to Holiday Inn, who were the first to start a national hotel loyalty program in early 1983. One person on Marriott's own forum (so not on FT) says he joined as a Marriott Honored Guest
charter member in September '83. A Marriott fact sheet says it officially launched November 20, 1983.
https://marriott2.typepad.com/files/...-rewards-1.pdf
Other sources on that forum state the
Marriott Marquis program had already been active as a loyalty program
in the late seventies. But the Marquis Club was available only in select markets. Marriott also had separate programs for different branches like the Fairfield InnSider and the Courtyard Club. (
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/1265331-post1.html)
I think Hilton HHonors started in 1987/88 and am wondering when Marriott Honored Guest started?
Or are you meaning to say: In 1987 Hilton didn't just model 'CrestHil by Hilton' after the successful 'Courtyard by Marriott'-concept - they even dishonorably imitated the name of Marriott's rewards-program? People who remember what happened to the
Hilton Denizen chain may question: did Hilton have Carte Blanche to do so, back in the late 80s?
Evidently they had... or at least they were first to have a card-product with a french twist (late 50s-early 60s). Bons Voyages Marriott!
By the way,
Compris in French means ‘all inclusive’. When followed by a question mark, it also means “got it?” We'll get back to that in a minute.
This thread still needs to answer some important questions, like
- When did the Southfield Hilton Garden Inn open?
- Why does it look different from the other ‘original three'?
- Was is the first hotel ever to trade under the HGI brand?
- Why do some FT-members claim they stayed in a hotel that was going by the name of Southfield Hilton Inn (without Garden), in the early 2000s?
Why does it look different than the other ‘original’ three?
Expedia and other Online Travel Agencies state that the Southfield Hilton Garden Inn opened in 1988. This can't be really true, because HGI as a brand didn’t even exist at that point. But it certainly didn’t open as a
Cresthil by Hilton. Try a google search on ‘Southfield’ & ‘Cresthil’ and you'll find nothing (except maybe for this thread). So, to find out what the property’s original name or purpose was, I searched for the hotel’s address: ‘26000 American Dr’ and the year ‘1988’. (American Drive was named after the adjacent
American Center, at that moment headquarters of American Motors Corporation, the last independent American car manufacturer, acquired by Chrysler in 1987.) The search led to the newspaper item below, which says it
did open as a hotel: "
The hotel will be called Compri, a divison of Doubletree (...) and the Southfield hotel will be Michigan's first."
Escanaba Daily Press / AP, Thursday, June 12, 1986
I bet someone
Will now think: Doubletree? Compri? I don't get it!
Yuma Sun / UPI, Wednesday, August 8, 1984
(compri) hotels were part of Doubletree Inc. of Phoenix, AZ, an independent hotel company, then 80% owned by Metropolitan Life Insurance of New York. Doubletree, along with FFKR architects of Scottsdale (
Hospitality Projects - FFKR Architects) had developed a new moderately priced and ‘diamond membership included’ hotel-concept they called (compri). Where every guest had access to what they called the (compri) club, with perks like breakfast included and an evening reception - check the newspaper adds below for a full list of amenities. (Note: another source says MetLife had a 20% interest, DT-owners 80% - maybe it changed at some point or was written in error.)
Below are examples of former (compri) hotels located throughout the US, built after the FFKR blueprints. You may even have stayed at several.
Today, a handful have been renamed DoubleTree or DoubleTree Club, while others got different affiliations. Yet, not all (compri) hotels had the FFKR design. A historic hotel in Texas joined. The Los Angeles marina resort now called
DoubleTree San Pedro-Port of LA had already decided to join Compri before it was built.
Texas Monthly, May 1989, Compri McAllen, now Renaissance
Recently (2022) discovered some more ex-compri hotels:
For an in-depth review of the (compri)-concept, I would highly recommend this excellent essay: “
Why do expensive hotels nickel and dime you?” by Michel Forrest Jones, who worked as a night auditor in a (compri) hotel in North Carolina for a while. He also explains why the French term for ‘included’ (compris) was shortened to (compri) and what caused the formula to be unsuccessful.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-expensi...l-and-dime-you
When did the Southfield Hilton Garden Inn open?
Was is the first hotel ever to trade under the HGI brand?
On Dec 13, 1990 a Utah newspaper wrote: “The MetHotels chain of Doubletree and Compri hotels, which includes the Salt Lake Doubletree Hotel, has been acquired by Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts, the largest hotel company in Canada.” Because of the economic crisis at the turn of the decade, with low occupancy figures, MetLife probably needed to get rid of the investment and Canadian Pacific were seeking new opportunities for the underperforming properties. It looks like Hilton was hired to manage the Southfield hotel, as these select quotes from an earlier post by GUwonder indicate:
Originally Posted by
GUWonder
According to the above source, the Southfield hotel became a HGI in July 1991. Additional evidence for this can be found in archives of The Detroit Jewish News (made available online through the University of Michigan). Apparently a weekly advertisement ran in the newspaper. In editions until July 26, it would be called Compri.
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/dj...1.07.26.001/61 (right bottom corner). From August 2, 1991, the ad says: "We are pleased to announce that our hotel is now know as "Southfield Hilton Garden Inn".
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/dj...1.08.02.001/72 (centre of page). I think at the time, it would take a while for such an ad to be adapted, so the name change almost certainly happened in July.
As a bonus I would like to add: that same summer this add campaign ran across the country: "
Sometimes you've got everything but the right name." "People just feel more comfortable with Judy Garland than with Frances Gumm. Even though there's really no difference." (Different moviestars were used as well). "And since our business is making people comfortable, we at Compri Hotels have also decide to change our name. To
Doubletree Club Hotels." (...) "We want to assure our loyal guests that the only thing we've changed is our name. Except that we've now added the Doubletree tradition of welcoming guests with a delicious freshly baked chocolate chip cookies."
The year 1991 is the same year the Valencia, CA hotel was completed. But that property, as can be found earlier in this thread, while being meant to become a CrestHil, opened in November as a Hilton Garden Inn. In addition, in a previous post you may find that the Buffalo Grove "We've changed our name"-ads started appearing by the
end of 1991. This Pennsylvania Cresthil (opened in May 1990) was first spotted as a Hilton Garden Inn in an employment ad in November 1991.
Why do some FT-members claim the hotel called itself a Hilton Inn in the early 2000s?
When looking for adds and newspaper coverage containing the
26000 American Drive-address, until 1991 the place is called (Compri). Afterwards the hotel is called ‘Hilton Garden Inn’. Then somewhere after April 2001 it is suddenly called ‘Hilton Inn’ – and then in 2008 again ‘Hilton Garden Inn’. So how did that work?
June 1, 1988 --(compri)-->
July 1991 -----Hilton Garden Inn---->
2001 ----Hilton Inn--->
2008 --------Hilton Garden Inn------>
now
By the end of the 20th century, the following Hilton-franchises were active in the Southfield-area:
- Southfield Hilton
- Southfield Hilton Inn
- Northfield Hilton Inn
- Southfield Hilton Garden Inn
The first three had lost their Hilton affiliation around the turn of the century. My guess is that the HGI-management must have thought: if we start calling ourselves simply Southfield Hilton Inn, then nearly every directory search for those former hotels is likely to end up at our property. Or, a more compelling reason might be that they did no longer cohere to brand standards that had evolved by then, because when they joined HGI everything was still experimental. For example: the (compri) hotels served breakfast, but didn't have a full restaurant, so they were more like a Hampton Inn. Old guest reviews on TripAdvisor mention an extensive renovation that stretched over three years (2006-2008) and about halfway a reviewer posted this pic. You'll notice the building's (Compri) architecture, but as you can see, the typical HGI lobby-entrance for that period is being added. It is barely visible, but the top left corner of the building says ‘HILTON’ in red in all caps. (So it doesn't say Hilton INN. This observation also based on a picture found on an old-time OTA website, far too lo-res to duplicate here).
Tripadvisor review
Hilton Garden Inn Detroit-Southfield as it looks today.
Disclaimer: all print illustrations and pictures have been used under a fair use intention for the purpose of resolving questions related to the history of Hilton Garden Inn. All copyrights remain with the original owners.