The Q4 promotions have been wondrous.

There was the 1 free night for 10 paid for which I was not targeted, but was enrolled upon request.

And now the quadruple points fo Sunday night stays (I almost always include Sundays).

Being eligible for both bonanzas is unprecedented, and easily beats out the Marriott Megabonus promotion.

So Hilton has not lost ALL my business. When free night earning potential overwhelms the competition with a one-two knockout punch, I'll happily send business their way.

Likewise the SPG tribe has remarked upon Starwood's poor showing.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...ers-award.html

I guess everyone should have flocked to Marriott.

^ Exactly how I feel....

I get why people like the higher-end SPG properties and have retained my *wood Amex, for banking WN points and other purposes. But I have to say: I scored nearly 30,000 points for a three night stay recently - stayed a Sunday night, am a VIP getting 50% bonus, used Surpass card, completed 10 nights for a free night certificate.

The credit card earn on Surpass is the single biggest difference, I think - *wood is capped at 2:1 whereas there's a 9:1 earn on Surpass at Hilton.

Plus, where I live HH properties outnumber SPG about 10 to 1. Which is what it comes down to for a lot of people, I suspect.

and there are more than a few chains whose number of properties dwarf Hilton's.One has to take the awards with a grain of salt.

Who amongst us really has the large number of stays at different properties & chains so therefore are qualified to say that chain x is better than chain y? (Few is the answer.)

That said, I do find it easy to see why Hilton isn't winning these awards.

Marriott also has very broad distribution with similar options to HH--which may in part reflect its bonanza success at this year's FT awards.

I have been giving equal amounts of business to Marriott and HH over the years--and am close to 1,000 lifetime nights with both chains. They are pretty equivalent--each having relative strengths and weaknesses. Had HH not have devalued when the economy was imploding--it would have far more advocates.

But the bigger question is if and when the promos all end (or say everyone only has double base points), then what? Will you still stay at Hilton?

i'm still staying with hilton despite the fact that the 2 properties where i will spend 20+ nights in before the end of the year are not participating in the q4 promo....at the end of the day things like free breakfast & promos are good, but i like to go back to the property where i am treated well....

For me the promos are nice, but it isn't going to make me switch loyalty unless the competition has a REALLY big promo (in which case I am sure hilton would have something similar).

A lot of my Hilton stays are in chicago and NYC and the locations of their hotel chains is perfect for me compared to the competition. The palmer house in chicago is right at the monroe street stop as is the HI, State and lake has the wit and there are a couple Hilton properties at state/grand. In NYC I prefer to stay in the theater/hk area and the only really convenient hotel for me that marriott has is the marriott on broadway and usually their rates are a lot higher than the HGI I prefer on 8th and 48th.

Really? I didn't know that - unless you are referring strictly to the Hilton brand and not the various HHonors properties. Can you provide more than a few examples?

ihg....

As long as there is competition in the market I would expect that there will always be someone offering a promo and once one does it the rest have to follow like lambs to the slaughter.

The way we play the game is we maintain membership in all the programs. When we are going somewhere we look at the hotels on offer, price it up then run the numbers thru a spreadsheet I have built which tells us how many points each location will offer us and what those points will give us in terms of freebies. We don't stay anywhere just because of a promotion or because it is part of any chain. For example our next 3 stays are the Intercontinental at Monterey, Grand Hyatt Vancouver and Hilton Honolulu. We are never going to be top tier at any of the programs however we are fine with that.

ihg has 4400 hotels vs 3200 in hilton, hardly 'dwarfing'. Cf hilton's 3200 vs 940 starwood.

Having said that, i'm sure there are chains, e.g. choice, which do dwarf hilton.

tb

they have 25% more hotels than hilton....also, they have better coverage worldwide....

The increased redemption requirements really turned me away from Hilton. I remain Diamond only because Hilton offered a targeted opportunity to requalify with around 7 stays this year. The Surpass card doesn't change the calculus much. 9 near-worthless points per dollar vs. 6 with my standard card isn't significant improvement. I score most points through transfering from other programs, plus the occasional Hilton bonus.

Hilton points, worth less than 0.5 cents each, can't be compared with Starwood points worth over 2.0 cents each.

The Priority Club Rewards program is much better than HHonors. You get way more bonus points if you work the codes, top Platinum status can be achieved with fewer than 10 stays per year, and most redemptions are 25K points or less per night, every night. Hilton's lame Point Stretchers are usually only offered on weekend nights at properties where the paid rate is $100 or less for those nights.