Originally Posted by Need A Beach
I've always shown loyalty to airlines and now I'm going to start showing loyalty to hotels. How did you decide which program to join? Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriot.... they are all great. What was your deciding factor?
I find hotel loyalty hard for a number of reasons. The biggest is that consistency within brands is very hard. To make my point, I will break-down two of the more popular US chains: Starwood and Marriott.
Starwood. Their upperscale properties are very nice (St. Regis). Their mid-levels (Westin) are also very good. Their low levels (Sheraton, 4 Points, etc.) really are quite terrible, IMHO.
Marriott. Their uppserscale properties are superb (Regis). Their mid-levels (Marriott) are not as nice as Westin. Their low levels (Courtyard, Fairfield) are typically nicer (and cleaner) than Starwood's counterpart. Again, IMHO.
The problem is, I often stay at the mid-levels but will stay at low-levels at times as well. So what's the best chain for me?