heubergen

I'm currently planning a 60 day road trip through all 48 states in the US and I like to have one consistent chain and therefore rewards program.
I was looking at all kinds of different chains but I'm not sure which one I should take.

• Choice with Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn
• Wyndham with Baymont Inn & Suites
• Hilton with Hampton Inns
• La Quinta

I only stay at each hotel for one night and don't need any special services. Breakfast is the minimum good enough as long as there's some cereal and milk. The other big thing is that I'd like to take my earned status at the end of my trip to stay in some nicer hotels within the rewards program which makes Choice for example not the best choice. Any thoughts?

sdsearch

There are way fewer Baymont Inns out there than Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn, especially in more rural areas.

And do you care what kind of milk? Most (though not all) Quality Inns have both 2% and skim milk, while Comfort Inn tends to have only 2%. Meanwhile, Comfort pretty consistently has hardboiled eggs (ie, real eggs, yaay!), but Quality Inn, while having for me better milk, only has powdered (ugh!) hot eggs, no thank you.

La Quinta (a) is merging with WyndhamRewards at some point (not yet clear when). Meanwhile, La Quinta hardly ever has any points promos, so it's slow earning points with them. La Quintas are also less consistent in quality than Sleep Inn, I'm not sure about compared to Comfort Inn.

Btw, status means different things at each of these programs. Status with Hilton gives the most benefits, but not if you're only ever going to stay Hampton after you get that status. And besides, with Hilton you can get useful status through a credit card (no stays needed), but again it makes no difference at Hampton.

Meanwhile, at Choice the main benefit of status is a longer reward night booking window (30 days out to 100 days depending on status domestically), but that's because booking window is a restriction at Choice (while it isn't at the other programs). And if Choice runs another "stay 2 times, get 8000 points' promo during the summer, you'll get way more points (usable for way more free nights) with Choice than with any of those other programs. (Hilton only has a double points promo for the summer.)

Meanwhile, in some rural parts of the country you'll pass through, you're only likely to find maybe Sleep, maybe Comfort, maybe only Quality Inn for Choice, maybe La Qunita and maybe not, maybe Hampton and maybe not, and other Wyndham chains like Super 8 but not likely Baymont Inn everywhere.

So I'd say Choice is the most likely one to work for you on such a trip, but you may have to choose another Choice brand (than just Comfort or Sleep) in a few places, especially in the sparse west.

Like I said, you don't need to stay at Hilton to get status at Hilton. So get a Hilton Ascend credit card and you'll have all the status you're likely to need at Hilton. So that cares of status. With that, can you stop worrying about status on this trip, because status (earned through stays on this trip) and using the same chain everywhere in sparse west are in conflict with each other!

And really, status doesn't mean much at any of these programs other than Hilton. Neither WyndhamRewards nor La Quinta Returns nor Choice Privileges givss you free breakfast anywhere you wouldn't get it otherwise, or free internet anywhere you wouldn't automatically get it otherwise, or much in the way of dependable upgrades. So the only one of the 4 you mentioned at which status has traditional benefits is Hilton, and there a $95/year credit card takes care of it all.

heubergen

First thank you for your detailed explanation! This will help me a lot.
A few comments; I don't really care what kind of milk it is and I also don't really care about the eggs because if I want a real breakfast I just go into the next diner and have a way better breakfast. Credit Card is without a SSN not that easy so I guess I can not take that chance. Mostly I would like to use the rewards for free upgrades and points.

After looking more into it I'm currently favoring Wyndham because they have Tripadvisor ratings integrated into their app and website and I'm perfectly fine staying at a Super8 if it's a good one!

After the 60 days I'm most certain not going to use the rewards program again.

jackal

You will not get meaningful upgrades with any of the options you've proposed.

Choice is my program of choice, but that's largely because they have a very low average daily rate (ADR) plus a very generous points promo they typically run twice a year (it's going on right now) where every two stays gets you enough points (8,000) for a free night at a decent low-mid-range property. My out-of-pocket ADR with Choice probably hovers around the $50 mark (a lot of $40-45 places, not too difficult in rural areas or lower-cost cities, especially if you're OK with decently-rated Econo Lodges and Rodeway Inns, interspersed with some $60ish properties). Add in the ~$20 rebate I get on each stay during their promo periods (I value 8,000 points at $40) means that my effective out-of-pocket is an average of $30/night. If you were to travel and value points as I do, on your 60-day trip, you'd spend $3,000 and earn 240,000 points, worth $1,200, for a net spend of $1,800. (You could also stay 40 paid nights to earn 160,000 points and then redeem them 8,000 points at a time over the course of the following 20 nights for a total out-of-pocket spend of $2,000 for your 60 nights.)

Of course, this assumes you do travel during one of their promo periods (typically spring and fall)...my typical MO is to bank points during the promos and then redeem during the in-betweens. Works out well for me. Choice is therefore a very lucrative program for those of us who stay a lot and aren't too picky about the places we stay. As long as it's clean and safe, I don't much care about fancy amenities or anything, and like you, cereal and milk is about all I need for breakfast, so while a fancy cooked-to-order breakfast is nice every now and then, it's not something I value for a typical one-night hotel stay on a road trip.

Wyndham's lower-end properties have a comparable ADR to Choice's lower-end properties, but their program is far less lucrative. There's a promo going on now through I think early July that gets enough bonus points for a free night after two stays, but it's a one-time promo. So on 60 nights, you'll spend $3,000, earn 30,000 base points plus 15,000 promo points, good for 3 nights at any Wyndham property. Those 3 nights are more valuable than 3 nights at Choice, since you can stay at any Wyndham anywhere for 15,000 points per night, and so if you value nice properties in nice cities, call it worth $150/night for a sum of $450...but that's still a far cry from the $1,200 (redeemable as 30 nights at 8,000 points a night, or you can redeem at some decently nice properties for like 20,000 points a night) you'd earn with Choice. (I personally wouldn't value 15,000 points at $150, because I simply don't appreciate fancy downtown properties enough to justify ever booking one with cash, so I'd probably compare it to an $80 property in the suburbs at best, but different people's boats float differently.)

When you start getting into La Quinta, your ADR starts going up. I don't think I've ever seen a La Quinta for less than $70-80, even in cheap rural places, and they're often half again as much in more expensive locales. I don't know anything about their rewards program, but like @sdsearch mentioned, they're merging with Wyndham in the near future. So you'll spend probably something more like $4,800 for your 60 nights and earn somewhere around $300 in rewards, assuming they're part of Wyndham when you do your trip, maybe with another ~$150 bonus if Wyndham does another promo (they seem to have had some kind of similar promo running for most of the last half year).

With Hampton, look for an ADR more like $90-100 in the cheapest rural places (and some of the very rural places won't even have one) and $120-150 in midsized cities. So look forward to spending more like $6,600 over the course of your 60-day trip. You'll earn 66,000 points worth maybe $400...also a far cry from Choice, and in fact, you'd do better to just forgo HHonors points altogether and book your Hamptons on Hotels.com (earning Welcome Rewards points) through a cashback portal and get about 15% back (i.e. $990). In fact, even if you're Diamond and staying during a double-points promo like the one that's currently going on, you'd earn a whopping ~100,000 points--worth all of $600. In other words, you'd still be better off ignoring HHonors and doing Hotels.com instead.

If you want to take advantage of elite upgrades for nicer rooms, you'll have to skip even the Hamptons (and even Hilton Garden Inns) and go for something more like a DoubleTree or a full-service Hilton property...and even then, despite being Gold myself and often traveling with (and sharing rooms with) friends who are Diamond, I can only ever recall getting a meaningful comp upgrade at a Hilton property once (the Hilton Cape Town, which gave us a nice two-bedroom suite). Even when the front desk agent says they've given us an upgraded room, it still looks like a normal hotel room to me--certainly not one I'd ever pay a premium for. But with DTs/FS Hiltons comes an even higher ADR, so that means your out-of-pocket spend is going to be even more...so those upgrades then really aren't "free."

For my money, Choice is the most rewarding program. Even when they aren't running a promo, the 10 points per dollar earned on the rate goes farther, because there are actually a meaningful number of hotels in the Choice system that are redeemable for 8,000 points per night. With an average spend of $50 (earning 500 points a night), that means you can earn a free night every 16 nights. With Wyndham, it takes almost twice as many nights (at $50, earning 500 points, it takes 30 nights to earn a free night, though that free night can be used for a nicer property). With Hilton, assuming an ADR of $110, it would take 18 nights to earn enough points to redeem for a free night at a Category 3 property (Cat 1 and Cat 2 properties are almost impossible to find, and even Cat 3 is not super common)--almost as good as Choice, but you're also spending 2.2x as much for each night, so it takes more money out of your pocket to earn that free night. Consider that factor when deciding which option to pursue.

As for having TA ratings in the app...that's a nice convenience but hardly one to choose a program over when such vast differences in rewards are on the table. The TripAdvisor app is easy enough to use, or honestly, I actually find the ratings on Expedia/Hotels.com to be pretty trustworthy (because you can only review a property on those sites if you have a confirmed/paid stay through them. (On the Expedia scale, I aim for 7/10 or higher but will occasionally accept a place that's 6.0/10 or higher if the price difference is large enough. I've learned it's not worth booking a place if it's 5.9 or lower.)

heubergen

Wow, thank you for that explanation! My trip is starting basically this Sunday so when Choice doesn't have a promo right now, I probably can't use it anyway. But the ADR of 50$ looks very nice and with a price like this I could also afford some nice Hilton hotels sometimes
That's not what I really expected so thanks for warning me from the "room upgrades".
You're right, I should probably just take the 2 minutes and look into the TA app or any other. So you would check out the hotel a Expedia and than order it through Choice to get the points, right?

Edit: I just saw this promo from Choice (https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/free-night). Is that the one you were talking about? So till May 25 I would get 8000 points each two nights?

jackal

The promo is going on now through May 25. You still have time to get some stays in. Register first at https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/free-night. Then switch and take advantage of the Wyndham promo (https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/hotel-...ee-hotel-night) and then you can take another look after that and figure out what's best for you.

Edit: to address your edit, yes--that's it, and yes, you earn 8000 points for every 2 stays. So if you start this Sunday, you can stay 20 nights and earn 80,000 points!

Correct, I check scores/reviews on Expedia or Hotels.com and then go back to Choice's site to do the actual booking.

I also always link to the Choice website from the TopCashBack cashback portal which gets me an extra 5% cashback. Easier to do from laptop (or maybe tablet) than phone but not impossible on a phone, but it's not as easy as using the Choice app on the phone.

heubergen

Thanks again for all the information. I made a bunch of lists and gave it some thoughts and I'm going to do it this way; I stay in some Hilton Hotels in the Towns where they are cheaper and than in the more rural areas I check on hotels.com which is the cheapest hotel with a decent review. I may don't get as much points but for the cities (8) I was looking Choice ADR was 73.63$ and booking with hotels.com 69.29$. At the end I would save about 200$ and that's not worth it to be locked to one chain.

jackal

One idea: if you were to use Choice between now and May 25, you'd earn 80,000 points, which would be good for 10 free nights at 8,000 points per night. I'd value those free nights at $40, so that's $400 in free nights you can use after May 25. That basically covers your first 30 days (or you can hold onto the points and use them throughout the rest of your stay as the opportunity arises). After that, you can be brand-agnostic and go for Hilton/Wyndham/whatever is the cheapest. Up to you, though.

If you do book through Hotels.com, be sure to first go through a cashback portal. Actually right now I think Upromise is the best for Hotels.com because they don't cut the cashback percentage when you earn Hotels.com Welcome Rewards credits. Then access Hotels.com through Upromise and you'll earn 5%, and then be sure to sign up for and collect Welcome Rewards credits on Hotels.com, which is effectively a 10% rebate. That gets you in effect a 15% rebate on anything you book through Hotels.com.

heubergen

Yes that would be a good option too. I'm just glad it starts soon so I have to make a decision, I could watch into tables and compare prices for hours...

Now I have it:
28 Nights (with choice) for 1480$ (20x74$)
32 Nights (only Hilton) for 3840$ (32x120$)
Total: 5320$

sdsearch

Yes, but only if each night at a separate hotel. Ie, the promo is 8000 points for each two stays, and a stay is defined (in every hotel program) as any number (1+) of consecutive nights in the same hotel, no matter how many times you check in or check out.

Btw, if past predicts the future, they're likely to have a promo this summer sometime (after a bit of a gap between promos) which they'll say is "stay 2 times and get a gift card", but in actuality if you stay 2 times you'll still get 8000 points, it's just that during the summer they'll have a promo where you can (but don't have to) redeem 8000 points for a gift card.

So if you "look under the hood" of each promo, they tend to have stay 2 times earn 8000 points promos of one sort of another in spring, fall, and summer.

However, even though the winter promo is typically different (for example, double points), this past winter they didn't have a stay-based promo at all, and we still don't know why, so we don't know if any of their other patterns from the past will also break this year or not.

sdsearch

Oh, you didn't explain that you're (presumably) not based in the USA, either in your post nor in your FT Profile. Sorry.

But you still may be able to get useful Hilton status quickly if this can work for you:

https://www.hiltonhonors.com/en_US/H...ftgold/landing

Again, I don't know if this will work for you depending on where you're based, but it's worth a try if you expect you might do 4 separate Hilton family hotel stays in the next 90 days (and if you haven't used this promo before). If it works, you could earn the status at 4 Hamptons but then later use it at Hilton properties where status actually matters.

heubergen

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm always staying in each hotel just one night so I qualify for the promo.
Hmm that looks interesting (4 instead of 20 nights), I check it out

jebr

Just a correction on the calculation: Wyndham gives a minimum 1,000 points on any stay, no matter what the rate is. Thus, if they're each one-night stays 60 stays would earn 60,000 points plus a 15,000 point bonus (so five free nights anywhere in their system.) If they continue to do promos where a certain number of stays results in a "free night" after the current promo ends, then it'd likely amount to six free nights.

For me, my main program is Wyndham, with Choice not having nearly as good of a property reach and typically higher rates for what I consider a baseline room. (That's typically in the Super 8/Econo Lodge level, and it's been easier for me to find a Super 8 than an Econo Lodge or similar level room in the Choice system. That could be a quirk of my travels, though.) I'm also more of a fan of being able to let those earnings go towards a bit nicer properties; mixed with the limited redemption window for Choice it's easier/simpler for me to find the value in Wyndham's program. I do tend to have at least occasional stays where a downtown hotel is convenient, and I can find something decent in a downtown area often enough to make Wyndham an option at least some of the time, so it works out for me. For someone wanting to stretch their points more, Choice is better during the promo periods as points balances can rack up much more quickly and there's cheaper redemption options. However, if Choice doesn't do a summer promotion then the earnings rate is better with Wyndham due to the 1,000 point minimum on any stay. (However, there's still the redemption issue where a free night can be found for 8,000 with Choice, where the only option for a free night is 15,000 with Wyndham.)

Both Choice and Wyndham have discount codes accessible to anyone with Allied Business Network, and those rates are still eligible for points earning, so I typically pair those two to get a decent rate while earning points.

jackal

Very good point--I had forgotten about that nice fact with Wyndham. ^

heubergen

When I'm checking with the reviews, most of the time the economy hotels are out of the list so I "have to go" with the mid-scale (Quality Inn, Baymont Inn etc.)
I want to check out the prices at Wyndham again but currently the website doesn't let me search for hotels, does anybody else have the same problem?
Edit: Nevermind works again