I have used IHG as my secondary program for many years. I primarily use it for HIX "utility" stays. I also enjoy Kimpton and Indigo for nicer stays. As others have already mentioned, one may have better coverage in a region than the other. Also, sometimes IHG is cheaper, especially for city stays, than Marriott. Having the flexibility to choose between IHG and Marriott has worked well for me and enabled me to optimize my travel lodging. Also having both chains to choose from has been useful for vacation stays.

Hyatt rates are almost always above my expense guidelines for the areas I travel to for business. That combined with the relatively limited coverage is a dealbreaker for me for Hyatt. If I had more stays per year, I would consider adding Hilton as a third program. One year there was an especially good third quarter Hilton promotion and I took advantage of it and earned Diamond status. That was a once and done occurrence for me.

Bottomline, I think having two programs makes sense for most even semi-frequent travelers. For folks who wouldn’t have enough stays to earn status in both programs, affiliated credit cards can be used to get status in at least one of the programs. That is what I do. I organically earn Titanium status in Marriott most years, even though I already have Lifetime Titanium Status, and then use Chase IHG credit cards to maintain platinum IHG status. I realize for folks outside of the USA the credit-card based status may not be an option. YMMV…

--Jon