I used to have the following ranking of choice for stays:
1. Hilton
2. Sheraton
3. Radisson
4. Hyatt
5. IHG
6. Marriott
But now it is:
1. Hyatt
2. Sheraton
3. IHG
4. Hilton
5. Radisson
6. Marriott

Unless I start seeing some positive changes, they will fall even farther.

I was looking for the right word to use and --- BOOM! --- there it was. Take no offense. :)


Unfortunately I can't really comment on the upgrade situation. I work at a Hampton Inn (not &Suites) so the only "deluxe" room type I have is a King Study. I have instructed my Front Desk to upgrade Diamond and Gold VIPs from standards to studies whenever possible. It's not much, I know, but hopefully the gesture communicates our appreciation.

When I worked for IHG at a Holiday Inn, we would regularly upgrade our Platinum members until we ran out of suites (we had three jacuzzi and four junior) or concierge level rooms. The difference it cost us to make up a suite versus a standard room was negligible so I figured, hey, why not make someone happy? Believe me, if my current property had suites/concierge/etc I would do the same thing.

My biggest hurdle right now is figuring out amenities for our Gold and Diamond VIPs. Hampton is extremely standardized regarding what we can give our guests and put in our rooms. When I take free parking, free wi-fi and free breakfast standard for all guests regardless of status, and combine it with no suites and no food and beverage outlets, I have limited options for extra perks to offer. The only thing I can really think of is a free in-room movie but I haven't felt a lot of support.

So, I'm sorry I couldn't really give you what you were looking for but hopefully this sparks a little more conversation!

Thanks, HHonor GGuard, for your post.

Even as I read your OP, my first thought was "I bet this is a Hampton Inn guy." One of the things I've always liked about the Hampton brand is your attitude - I always feel welcome there and I feel like the people who work there want the property to be the best in its market. (In my experience, it usually is and you can tell by driving around the building and around the buildings of the nearby competitors.)

Priority Club is trying hard to win HH converts (you gotta love their online ad campaign). In the end, I think it'll be tough for them to gain many long-term converts primarily because they're going head-to-head with Hampton Inn more than anything. (Sure, they might pick up an Indigo or Intercontinental convert or two, but their bread and butter is rural/suburban HI and HIX.) Even if the HHonors program is struggling, the Hampton brand itself is still a strength.

I don't agree with your initial comments regarding the major de-valuation but appreciate your being here. I burnt most of my points by Jan 15th and so am not as worried about the situation as the poor FT'ers who have for whatever reason - perhaps no time available for leisure travel - not been able to burn at the same rate they earn.

The free movie is much appreciated when offered.

A small voucher for the pantry is another idea.

A local newspaper each day in addition to USA Today would be nice - good to find out about local movies, entertainment and sporting events, news, etc

Bottled water EACH DAY is much appreciated

There's a few suggestions that I think would each be much appreciated.

+1 on 'loves Hampton.' Just had a great stay at SBSCO (Steamboat Springs). I'll be back.

Hilton does better with this on VIP status, VIP redemptions and CC spend, though. Your 50K through Hilton.com turns into 95K if you use your Surpass card to pay for the stay and into 110K or so if you're a Gold status member (+25% base points - and it's not that hard to make Gold*). If you set your My Way prefs to Points and Points, you get 15 base points for your 5K in spend - for a base total of 75K and a grand total of 132,500 points.

(*You're 25% of the way to Gold using Surpass only for this batch of stays. You can, of course, augment using regular spend - 6:1 for gas and grocery and up to 10:1 using Hilton's online mall. Hyatt, Starwood have no online presence; Marriott does but you get no point multiplier on everyday spend, only 2:1 on dining, rental cars, airline.)

Use your Surpass to rack up 12,500 more points - either using it for a one-night $100 stay or on groceries or whatnot - and you get four free nights in a Category 6 Hilton. (details: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...thread-18.html)

Given the devaluations, this isn't the deal it formerly was, but you may come close to breaking even on your $2000 if you were looking to score a room in London or somewhere else where the USD exchange rate is particularly bad. Also, you may well score a room upgrade, free breakfast, a desirable property in a popular location, and your reservation is 100% refundable - never the case with the discounters.

Big +1 on the pantry item and the bottled water. ^

Hampton Inn is probably the one brand where I'm actually OK with USA Today only. In major cities, I love reading their local paper. In rural areas, I generally don't care as much. I figure a big-city Hilton can afford to stock enough copies of different newspapers but I understand a smalltown Hampton might not have that in its budget to do even 20 or 30 copies of the local paper. USA Today is pretty "vanilla" but at a Hampton where people are driving from and to all different directions that's probably best.

Hampton Inn, huh? I just completed a very pleasant stay--more than pleasant, a superb stay--at a Hampton Inn in a small town, posted about it in another thread. So far as point deflation goes, I used 7,500 points/night for a total of 30K points four nights. I can live with that "point deflation." We're not even going to discuss the good breakfast and the killer (my doctor would agree :D) cookies.

So far as the issue of upgrades goes, Hampton Inns and Embassy Suites usually don't have upgrades to offer anyway. My issue was and is a very limited one, that Hilton has a duty to monitor its properties (those that can provide upgrades) to ensure that they are given appropriately.

So I won't direct any more pointed questions about upgrades in your direction. ;)

Now, about getting a recipe for Hampton Inn biscuits and gravy-- :D

Open can, add biscuits :p

i don't think your post comes anywhere close to giving a true picture....with spg, you are forgetting points earned for promos, online booking bonus (which is available most of the time), property specific bonus points, plat amenity (only for top tier)....none of these are offered by hilton (well, the online booking bonus is but 500 hilton points are worth pretty much nothing while 500 spg points are)....as far as promos are concerned, hilton promos were pretty much non existent (until recently) while spg has multiple points earning promos on all the time....

i presume you mean spg platinum....also, when you say you never got an upgrade at a hilton property, do you mean you never got upgraded to a suite or that you never got upgraded to the next category room????

It's not true for Hilton, either. You don't have to spend anywhere near $12,000 to get >200,000 HH if you have the Surpass card. I get a whopping 26.5 to 1 on stays as a Gold member (25% bonus on base; MyWay set to Points & Points; pay with Surpass. And this is before promos.)

Hilton's got just about the easiest route to earning points via credit card spend around, IMO.

zaf, your math is off for all three programs. Your Marriott data is so far off I'm not even sure where to begin.

I still give the slight edge to SPG. Not by much, and I too hold the Surpass card for the purposes of maintaining HH status. I use all three of the hotel-branded cards at MR, SPG, and HH (when I have actual stays).

But with the current values of newly earned points, I value 1 SPG the same as about 5 HH. (Pre-devaluation, I thought of them as 1:3:4, with Marriott in the middle. Now I'm calling it roughly 1:3:5.)

I don't generally get caught up in those special 6-point categories - statistically they represent a small portion of total spending - but for something easy like monthly wireless bill I will probably switch it to HH Amex here in the next month or so.

Therefore, when I'm not chasing a specific CC-related perk (such as HH Diamond, the free BA award ticket, or SPG Gold), I use SPG Amex as my baseline card for non-hotel spending.

I appreciate you thinking hard about how you can differentiate the experience for elite guests. As a frequent traveler I'm fully aware of how many things are standard for all guests at Hampton Inn and how few upgrades the hotel may have to offer. Most of the time I do not mind!

When I book a Hampton I set my expectation to, "I'm going to get a comfortable standard room with free wireless and breakfast, and there probably isn't any kind of upgrade to be had." If you've got a few suites or jacuzzi rooms and can offer me one, that's great. You'd exceed my expectations. Other than that, just keep mastering the basics and offering HH points that I can redeem in pricey locales. Now, speaking of those HH points, there's this little problem with devaluation.... ;)

It's a bag!

What's your thinking, pinniped? Not trying to be argumentative, just interested. The reason I don't use SPG for everyday spend is the lack of multipliers - nothing for gas, grocery, post office, airline. My understanding is the only way to beat 1:1 is spend at SPG properties. Also, there's no online bonus mall - Hilton's isn't as good as Amex Bonus Points Mall, but it's there, and with some big-box vendors offering up to 6:1.

If I'm wrong, I'll gladly reconsider my position on this. I'll certainly agree SPG is the superior product if you're going to rack up most of your points on hotel stay, thanks mostly to the lower redemption ratios. I keep it myself as occasionally my Hilton of choice is full, offering an insane rate, etc. Also, I like a couple of the SPG properties - particularly the Gateways at LAX and ATL.

Edit: Just thinking about a hypothetical two-month spend....Let's say your budget is $3000/mo. on each of the SPG and Surpass cards. In my case, I'm spending probably $1000 per month on gas and grocery, so I'm going to rack up $2000 at 6:1 for 12,000 HH. The remainder adds up to another 12,000 points at 3:1, so I'm at about 24,000 points, or 98% of the way to a free night at a Cat 3 (costing 25K using code H301). On SPG, I've gotten 6000 points, or .9 of the way to an SPG Cat 3 (at 7,000 SPG) - or a Cash & Points stay in a Cat 5, if I'm willing to shell out $90.

Obviously, I'm going to score more for a hotel stay using either card. The reason I give the edge to Surpass is I can tweak those numbers - I also get 6:1 at Walgreens and believe you me, I buy a lot of stuff there. ;) I can also buy stuff using the online mall - Nordstrom, Drugstore.com, even Wal-Mart are represented, offering me opportunities to beat the 3:1 I'd get on Surpass from everyday spend. TigerDirect, an electronics retailer I like, offers 5:1, and if I pay with Surpass I wind up with 8:1, or nearly as good as I'd earn on a stay at Hilton.

You do have to be willing to buy stuff online and not every vendor is represented, but for some folks it's worthwhile, IMO.