Franchises or company owned?

Don't know.

Yep, I know they have a lot under construction or nearing that phase.

By the way, since we are talking about Starwood....I've been having a few stays here and there at various Marriott and Renaissance properties (yes, I know, :p).

Marriotts are not generally as nice as Westin and above, but are better than Sheratons. Renaissance is better than Westin, but not St Regis. I'd put it as a Luxury Collection property.

The service at Renaissance isn't as good as Starwood. As a gold, they didn't preblock me to any upgraded rooms. I had to ask at check in. When I did, I was lied to and was given the worse room in the club floor room type (next to elevator, ice machine etc). Gold requires 50 nights per year stay at Marriott properties, which is the equivalent of SPG Platinum.

In terms of Elite recognition and treatment, as well as room comfort, SPG blows Marriott out of the water and into space. There's no comparison.

I think I'm done with my Marriott experiment and will go back to SPG.

Mostly alofts and Elements , a couple of W's plus im sure other 4p , Sheraton and Westin.

See, I just hit Marriott Gold and I enjoy the Marriott experience simply because I know what I'm going to get for the most part. The offerings are nearly the same at each property I visit, no matter if it is franchised or not. Maybe I'm not going to the right places, but is Starwood really that much better? :confused:

Tokyo is very easy to get around. I know you're comfortable with subways so just use the subway to go from point to point or rather from district to district. Also get a name card from your hotel so that incase you need to take a taxi home and the driver doesn't understand your english you can show him the card. Remember that it's not hotel, but ho-tel-ru.

Also since the street signs are not posted, get a visual of the skyline for reference and navigation.

Your Marriott experiences have been the polar opposite of mine. I get upgraded (even as a Silver) often.

I've thought about moving to SPG but Marriott seems to have more specials that I can take advantage of.

Easy to get around Seoul as almost everything has an English sign and most people speak English. Plus they have a nice subway system if you need to use it. Last time I was in Seoul taxis are shared expecially from Itewan. Itewan is the shopping meca of the foreign tourist. A few blocks of lots of shops that carry knock off designer things and plenty of tailors.

Most of the hotels run buses to this area.

I've had good luck with Marriott in the past myself. The franchises places can be great if your in an unexpected bind and the main website shows them as full. They hold back a couple of rooms for repeat customers if you call the property directly and they also give you a great room rate on top of it instead of gouging you

Would this apply to new KF members as well? It may be time to to set one up and transfer MR points in.

+1 My understanding was that they tried to put kids in the mini-cabin and my last NRT-EWR trip was a nightmare since i was stuck back there.

I need to rack up more 1-2-Free days. I found out that they are good at EWR unlike all the free Avis rentals which are not.

Can you use coupons on the CO website? I'm still milking the DL 5,000 mile promo for Avis....

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I've been staying at Marriotts both by myself and with family all of my life. They've treated me well and even as a Silver, I have received upgrades here and there. The one downside, in my mind, is that Marriotts get a little predictable and boring. Sometimes this is good but sometimes it just gets old.

This year, I'm going to give SPG a shot as their International hotels look like they are far ahead of Marriott in terms of design/style.

I much prefer Starwood over Marriott. But, as many have said, Starwoods aren't everywhere.

I'm contemplating going to Hilton from Marriott, but i'm still on the fence about it.

Sweet mother. Those are some incredibly nice properties, but I (unfortunately) do not get to globe hop like you do. I'm almost purely domestic and the SPG offerings in most of the places I go to are meager at best. They do have a lot of places under construction, but it just doesn't seem quite there yet. Hilton and Marriott are about even in terms of properties available. Perhaps in a year I will see about a status match to SPG.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Where I go most often, there are even more Hilton properties than there are Marriott. But still, it makes me wonder what if.