Dear Starwood Lurker:

I was just looking for a Hotel at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam next weekend, Sheraton has a hotel offering a “Hot Rate” of $121 Euro vs. Hilton at $141 Euro. Both hotels are equally nice and I am sure I would be comfortable in either property. Even though it was more expensive I chose Hilton because its’ frequent stay program offers far more value to me. Please let me explain!

I would like to inform you first: I have been a member of the Sheraton /Starwood program for a very long time. I remember when Sheraton charged either thirty-five or fifty dollars a year to be a member, and was happy to see it evolve into a very good frequent stay program. I have been a Platinum Starwood member since the inception of the new Starwood program. In February this year my status was reduced to Gold because I did not have enough stays last year. The reason my stays decreased was I found a better program and it was the Hilton product.

Contrary to popular belief Hilton is far more rewarding than Starwood. A typical hotel stay for me when I include meals, telephone calls, and parking, costs about $150 dollars. As a Platinum member in Starwood I would receive 450 points for my stay. A Diamond in Hilton receives not ten but 15 points for each dollar spent. In addition to the base points I also receive 250 points for my car rental and 500 more points for using an affiliated airline. A $150 dollar stay in Hilton results in at least 3,000 Hhonors points. In addition to the points I receive at least 500 frequent flyer miles.

But the points do not stop there, Hilton is renowned for its promotion points, they have recently been offering both double points and miles with American Express. Each quarter they allow a four thousand-point bonus for the first four stays, and in the past two quarters they have offered easily attainable 50,000-point bonuses promotions.

In my first year with Hilton I have about forty stays and have acquired over 300,000 points and 30,000 airline miles. Forty stays with Sheraton could yield between 18,000 to 20,000 Starwood points, which could be converted to 25,000 miles.

In all fairness I should point out that Starwood has had many free weekend promotions in the past year and these promotions would have some value to people who do not stay in Hotels a great deal. The problem I had with the free weekend promotions was the nights could not be transferred to a relative, had to be used in a short time span, and the last thing I wanted after a week of being in hotels: was a few more nights in a hotel.

As a Platinum Starwood member I was upgraded only about half the time and extremely rarely to a suite. I would say that as a Hilton Diamond I am not treated much differently than my experience as Starwood Platinum and the upgrades are about the same in each program. Where I do find a big difference is with breakfast, I am almost always treated to breakfast with Hilton and could count on one hand the number of breakfasts I was offered with Starwood. This is an important feature to me and I enjoy eating in the hotel quickly and inexpensively. My company gives me forty dollars a day for food if I can put a few bucks in my pocket eating a free breakfast? Thank you.

Hilton offers a series of VIP awards for its most frequent travelers, as an example, for 100,000 points, just one third of what I received in the past year, I could stay in Hawaii for six nights. With Hilton I could give this stay to a friend or relative. For the twenty thousand points with Starwood or a whole years worth of stays I could receive an award of just two nights stay in a comparable Hawaii property. Sheraton really has no elite level awards.

What Sheraton does have and a reason I keep a large balance in my Starwood account is the no blackouts rules. You can travel when you want as long as a room is available. I like this and wish Hilton would institute it but not if they had to devalue the points to the Starwood level. I have had good luck so far with award bookings with Hilton but I am not planning on New Years Eve in Time Square this winter.

Hilton has far more properties than Starwood and more earning opportunities. Many of Starwood properties require more points to stay in each year. They stated with just four award categories and are now up to six and the top two levels have sub categories.

I know that Starwood gets a lot of awards and raves for its program and I have had good luck with it also. It just does not offer enough rewards to keep me interested anymore. Sorry Starwood lurker, I have been a lurker here for a long while also and you posting has finally made me come out of my shell. Good luck convincing anyone your program is better.