troyintn

I know it is early in the year, but I really like the Sheraton in Roanoke versus the Hilton properties. I will be their for the next 6 months. That means I will barely make Diamond with Hilton, but am I really getting anything for doing 120 - 150 nights a year with them? Currently have 21 nights at HH and 18 with SPG.

jerry a. laska

No, unless you need the points for a particular Hilton aspirational property you want to go to. If you like the Sheraton more you should stay there.

travelexpert

Since the MEGA-SUPER-UBER devaluation last year, my mantra was not to go over 40 nights--simply to earn Gold.

But my Hilton credit card now gives me Gold--so my new mantra is to stay 0 nights or only the nights I absolutely have no other choices.

And I essentially get the same benefits as all those 60+ nights "head on bed" suckers (of which I used to be one).

wallyworld88888

This is what you get for 50 nights and above at spg.
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefe...preferred.html

You can still get diamond at hilton if you do 30 one night stays. It will take a little bit of work. You just have to stay one night HH then the remaining 4 at SPG for the week.

HansGruber

Personally I prefer Hilton but *wood has benefits for going over the minimum so you have an advantage if you go to 75+ or 100+ nights with *wood.

Also SPG has a decent promo now: https://www.spgpromos.com/bringonthe...spgpromosredir

tkelvin69

Now that is really taking advantage of having status - don't use it.

alc

why not just do an one-night at the Hilton one night per week. You said 6 months, so even just using 4 weeks per month, that 24 stays for 24 nights. You are then only 6 stays before hitting 30 stays to qualify for Diamond.

Initially, I thought you had a typo on your title and you meant to say 30 stays/nights. As other had stated, Gold is as good as Diamond in "most" occasion. So, if you really the like that Sheraton, you can even just stop when you hit 20 stays with Hilton to get Gold status.

troyintn

I agree and make sure to get over 50 nights with SPG as my backup. Since SPG normally does not have the locations I need. That is my worry six months from now I am in another city without a Decent SPG other then the airport.

HansGruber

I'm in the same boat. *wood just doesn't have the footprint I need. I have kind of a weird year for travel so far this year. I think I'm going to hit Diamond staying in small towns with no SPG between now and the middle of the year.

I'm considering IHG as a new backup because it's the only other option in the town I have a bunch of stays in, although that may just be complicating things too much for me and I'll keep everything at Hilton until July. More points, more free stays later. I'm really hoping the Q2 promo is a bit better.

Then I'll use SPG or Marriott for the 2nd half of the year if I'm in a city that I can use them in.

Last year Hilton stole back a bunch of my business after making diamond because the Q4 promo was so good.

whimike

Personally I would stay at the Sheraton and get to Platinum status with SPG. Where SPG properties do exist, Platinum status has some excellent benefits. My own experience with HH Gold vs Diamond is that there isn't much difference.

san888

I agree, why doesn't Hilton see this. Seems credit cards are more important to them than stays.

jsmith50

Personally, I have stayed with Hilton once beyond 60 nights because I do actually like using what limited benefits I earn versus starting over at nothing with another chain to build toward elite status. Plus, Hilton is at least a predictable commodity. I like SPG but just not enough hotels in the places I travel, same with Hyatt. That leaves me with Hilton or Marriott and frankly, they've devalued the same way at Hilton so I think I'll just keep plugging away nights in Hilton properties and racking up points that hopefully one day I'll be able to use!

toomanybooks

I'd hop every night. Get status with HH, SPG, Marriott, Choice, Carlson, IHG.

jsmith50

No offense...but why and what would you achieve? I stayed ~200 nights in hotels last year. Let's assume I do my 60 nights with HH, where I already have my status from the previous year, in order to maintain my status and in doing so I get breakfast, free WiFI, occasional UGs, etc. Then, I switch to SPG where my DM status with Delta gets me late checkout, free WiFi, and a couple other nominal benefits but otherwise I have to earn status with nothing else given to me. Then I jump to Marriott where until I meet qualification criteria, I'm paying for WiFi, breakfast, etc. Plus, HH hotels are everywhere (much like Marriott). The other chains, not so much! Because of this, I've spent at least a year of travel trying to gain elite status in a bunch of hotel programs in order to get the same benefits I would have had all along remaining HH loyal (and really not much more than I would get with Hilton alone as (some of) the others are also devaluing their programs.) I also have accumulated a much smaller load of points such that I have less leverage in using them for personal stays where I'm likely staying in a hotel for a more extended time period (so now maybe I only have enough Carlson points for 1-2 nights whereas I have enough Hilton points for 3 months...but I guess since I've gotten a small amount of points in each account by hopping night to night I could do the same on vacation which would affect my quality of life and make me enjoy my vacation less). To me, there's just not very good return on investment as I'm diluting the value of the benefit that I get out of what I'm earning.

I know there are many out there who play the "he who dies with the most points wins" game or who like to be able to tell people they have elite status in 87 different programs but, to me, there's no value proposition in that. To those folks...good luck to you but it's not for me!

troyintn

I agree with Jsmith50, that is to much work. I also push 175- 200 nights a year, and really only have status with Hilton and SPG. after that it is one offs where their is nothing else.