I have top status in both Hilton and IC(Royal Ambassador) and prefer them. To the point that some have already made, it helps to know what you are looking for. My travel is to a mix of smalle and large cities. In smaller cities and towns they only have a Hampton or Holiday Inn. But in larger cities you have Hiltons, HGI's and Crowne Plaza's. Then you have the top tier, Conrad's and Intercontinental's.

These hotels work for me because they have places to stay when I travel on business and they have destinations that I would like to visit on reward. Most FTer's would tell you to find a place you want to go for free and stay in that chain on business. IC and Hilton have a good mix of properties both in number of locations and variety of quality.

Another reason I like both is that it is fairly easy to attain the top tier in both programs with my travel patterns. Hilton Diamond can be attained easier with number of stays than number of nights. IC can be a bit harder but if you are only interested in PC than that can be done in a matter of a few weeks.

Thats my two cents on Intercontinental and Hilton. Marriotts are good but I chose Hilton due to Marriott requiring more nights for Plat status. Starwoods have great properties but only in a a few locations where I travel.