GLOBALFLYERCT

Lifetime Titanium plus Diamond.

I have been staying at some Marriotts in the USA but also spread my usage to Hilton for the first time in a while during 2019. Treatment seems similar. With Diamond the points accrual rate is higher. With the fall promo and AMEX Aspire the average cent/point amount realized on redemption was higher for me by a factor of 27% comparing redemption value per dollar spent to acquire those points. Now without a good promotion its similar for Q1. Award stays at Hilton do not incur the resort fee which is an added bonus. I have enjoyed some good resorts in Hawaii, Arizona, and the Australian Gold Coast. I am not a road warrior any more but my Hilton stays booked for this yer are 3:1 vs Marriott. A good promotion and a good rate will switch me.

Dublin_rfk

Spending more than half the year on the road and having HH Diamond, IGH Platinum, and Bonvoy Titanium I end up having @ equal stays with all three over all levels. It's more than personal choice, it's what's available. Sometimes it distance or ease of access to the customer. Sometimes only one brand is available. Sometimes none of them are either close or available. In some locations one is head and shoulders over the others and at the next it's the other way around. Overall it depends on where you go as to which brand stands out.
You seem to have done your homework and know what you want so unless you have a solid reason to change why do so?

daloosh

HH diamond and Bonvoy Plat here. As usual, it depends on your travel patterns and cities visited. Some places outside major cities just don't have many Marriott hotels, some places have both HGIs and Courtyards (I prefer HGI) and Ritzes and WAs. I will say my upgrade success has been better at Bonvoy hotels the last year or two, which is nice, but if you are traveling for work, it often doesn't matter. I know you said your company pays for breakfast, but when you travel for leisure, that could make a difference -- but breakfast depends on which properties you frequent for personal travel. One definite benefit I enjoy and use often is the 4pm checkout with Marriott hotels, it seems much harder to get past 1pm with HH properties.

Like Dublin_rfk said, why change without standout reasons?

gengar

This was always my biggest gripe about HH Diamond and the main reason why I'm now challenging for Plat. Even getting a 1-2pm late checkout is like pulling teeth at many HH properties.

MS02113

While there have been reports of lounge closures on FT, it's not fair to characterize isolated local changes as a chain-wide initiative. If anything, reports here indicate that corporate has been requiring previously lounge-less Hilton (as in, Hilton the brand) properties to incorporate one during renovations.

Executive lounges in U.S. are generally so poor that I wouldn't miss them. Breakfast is always inferior to restaurant offering, and evening receptions are often grim (i.e., cash bar with mediocre wine and beer, bulk bowls of chips and salsa, a deep fried hors d'oeuvre or two, etc.).

International lounges are typically much better, though, and guaranteed access to them as a Diamond is definitely a valuable benefit.

What are you looking for in an executive lounge if not breakfast? I fear you'll be disappointed with Hilton's U.S. offering.

xychromosome

I don't think these are isolated cases. I've been to many full service Hiltons in the past year that did not have a lounge open, which may not confirm a system-wide closure, however when comparing Marriott to Hilton for the OP, they are more likely to come across a lounge-less Hilton than Marriott property. Once again, I don't miss the lounges as their offering was pretty lackluster, and I wouldn't mind if Marriott went the same route.

Alohashirt

Too be clear, I said that breakfast vouchers in a restaurant are worthless to me in a loungeless hotel. Breakfast in a lounge is a nice plus even though it's not my priority. I like lounges because they provide a space to work outside of the room or busy lobby. I like the ability to grab a bottled water or soda throughout the day/evening. And sometimes the hors' d'oevres are nice, especially when I have a late work dinner or am changing time zones. There's no one thing I like about lounges, just a lot of little things that take the edge off of long road days.

For now, I'm sticking with Marriotts where and when I can. But during Q4, I'll be going to places where Hiltons, Doubletrees, and HGIs are the only option. This means I'm unlikely to have enough nights to qualify for Marriott Platinum for 2021. That's why I'm weighing whether it's worth it to go all in and get an Aspire card and go as a Diamond.

Cledaybuck

If you can find a way to use the credits, it is worth it to get the Aspire no matter what level you reach with Marriott.

Kacee

Apart from the guaranteed late check-out benefit at Marriotts, I'm not sure there's a big difference overall between main-line Hilton and Marriott in the U.S. Much will depend on the cities you visit - in SF, for example, the Marriott options are IMO much better.

Traveling international, Marriott IMO has a big advantage over Hilton. Marriott also has a big advantage at the high-end, but I understand that's not really relevant to OP's situation.
​​​​​​​I agree with that. I get full value from the card with less than 10 Hilton stays per year.

yurtripper

I disagree with the poster who said that the Marriott late checkout is hardly any better than Hilton because it's 'subject to availability', meaning it's scarcely worth the paper it's written on. For me, the late checkout guarantee has teeth. 6 years at Plat level or higher and I've never once had 4pm request refused (half of the Plat years came from SPG though). At Hilton I can generally get 2PM without too much trouble but after that it gets considerably more tenuous. If I regard late checkout as a significant plus for a given day then I'll almost always go with Marriott.

In Europe, Marriott lounges are significantly better. In Asia, it's all good but I think Marriott has a better portfolio there; in Europe I think Hilton has the edge, especially when it comes to finding more affordable properties (and this is true the further East you go, until you get to Central Asia, which is sparse for everything).

So at least for Europe/Asia, I still put Marriott above Hilton (with the difference being wider as you move more towards FS) and have no qualms about letting my Diamond lapse this year while I continue to progress towards LTP in Bonvoy.

thbe

From my point of view if you stay at US properties most if the times by far, then just do your math about the point systems, check, which guaranteed benefits gives YOU more value and find out, which credit card offers you the desired status without being forced to spent most/all of your stays at the same group. Just check that 3 points. It doesn’t matter, at which brand you get inferior service by untrained underpaid staff in their 2nd or 3rd job.

I‘ve had top tier status at some loyalty programs in my life and all of them were less worth in the US. The US is a country for high priced hotel stays with inferior service. Even in the best times of IC Royal Ambassador - there best status at that time from my point of view - my experiences at US properties were below average. You can see many guests from the US crying out of happiness when they stay in Europe or better Asia and getting a great service or even a great breakfast.

The only good point about hotels and the US is, that as an US citizen you can get a high status by credit card easier and for more brands than in most of the other countries.

From my point of view Hilton offers the higher rebate by its point system, good properties to redeem outside the US and the top tier status is easier to get by credit card.

Kacee

Agree. The Marriott late check-out benefit is solid. Not only is it generally respected by properties that are bound to honor it (i.e., non convention and resort properties), but many resort and convention properties will offer it even though they are not obliged to do that.

arlflyer

Pretty much every big-city full-service MR property identifies itself as "convention" and my experience has been that plenty of them use this to get out of the late checkout requirement. Not saying the benefit is worthless, just that in my experience the Marriott "guarantee" has been more or less equivalent in practice to the combination of Hilton's soft benefit and asking nicely at the front desk.

Alohashirt

I have found the Marriott guarantee to be very reliable, with the exception of one Florida Courtyard that decided to call themself a "resort." (They had a palm tree and a pool.)

I rarely ask for it beyond 2:00 PM unless I'm flying a red-eye from California home to the East Coast. That's something I've done once in the last 3 years and try very hard to avoid. So a 4 PM checkout probably isn't worth chasing Marriott status for. It sounds from the helpful comments here like Hilton Diamond is pretty good for most of the things I care about, but not noticeably better than Marriott. I'll continue using Marriott where it makes sense, but am likely to get an Aspire card. I can easily use the airline fee credit and probably use the other benefits aside from Diamond, so it probably will pay for itself.

daloosh

That sounds right, your travel patterns will give you good use out of the Aspire card, the hoops might be a little higher depending on your airline and the whole gift card situation. The threads on Aspire are very helpful.