Book direct or hotels.com?
 

Hi all,

First post on here but a long time lurker! With my job, I travel pretty much each week, and currently book my hotels through hotels.com. Looking at my rough annual nights, I stay in hotels around 100 nights a year. My question is: Do I ditch hotels.com and move to Marriott!?

Thoughts!

TFTR

Do you want to save money on your business stays or rack up MR points for vacation time instead of Hotels.com perks? I'm presuming you've done the price comparison and picked the lower of the two.

Thanks for the quick reply. Hotels.com is useful, as I can book any hotel worldwide, and I get free stays in any hotel for every 10 nights- which obviously come in useful!

I dont feel particularly valued with hotels.com, where there are no real gold perks at all- hence the reason to change. Marriott has many brnads worldwide and I guess I can find a hotel anywhere using this scheme.....Obviously I don't understand the points/ free nights etc yet, but I assume at Titanium/ Ambassador status, I assume you get looked after!

are your hotel stays paid by yourself or paid by your company?

All hotel stays are paid by my company. I've done some comparisons with Marriott options v hotels.com options, and yes, there is obviously more choice with hotels.com, but of the countries and cities I tend to visit more often, I can still get a Marriott for the same sort of price. It does sound like I should do it..... I will hopefully be posting a lot more regularly with my experiences!

TFTR

By "paid by my company", is that reimbursed or paid directly to the hotel (company-paid CC excluded). The Bonvoy program does call for the member to pay and stay. Certain billing situations could cause you to not get credit and/or benefits. You might want to spend some time reviewing the T&Cs, there's no cost to sign up so you can have an account in waiting for those instances where it makes sense. Also, there are challenges available to fast track to higher status levels that may work in your situation. Some of us get so focused at improving our position with Marriott that using other booking channels are not considered. You might also want to check out the LNF portion of the program where if you find a lower rate that what Marriott.com is offering, you get the lower rate and bonus points AND still earn credit for the stay.

Wow- so many helpful replies!

All stays are booked and paid for by me on a company CC- so I assume there will be no problems with booking direct and gaining points. As I mentioned, I probably stay on average 100-120 nights, so assuming I can book the majority of these through Marriott, I shouldn't do too badly out of it! Even if I try it for a year and report back my results!!!

Off to Macau next week, then Singapore the week after, so 9 nights already in the bag.... call me a silver?!

TFTR

Direct of course! With 100-120 nights, depending on your spend, you'll hit Titanium or Ambassador level which will give some nice perks and you'll rack up quite a few Marriott (er, Bonvoy) points.

The hotels in SE Asia, like Macau and Singapore generally give great recognition for elite members.

I'd shoot Marriott a question about a status challenge. I'm not sure what they have going on right now but they'll often have a "stay X nights in X days and become platinum for the rest of 2019" promo.

It looks like you should book direct and build status (Platinum) which comes in handy when you need it. That's what I tell a lot of my friends who seem to chase lower fares and rates instead of building status with an airline and hotel. It seems short-sighted, to me.

Perhaps I am missing something but the math seems to very much favor hotels.com if you are not booking on your own credit card. Assume 10 nights at a $150 hotel. That is $1500 and gets you 15,000 points. You probably need 30,000 Bonvoy points for a free night at that hotel. On hotels.com you get 1 free night at $150. So if all you need is a bedroom and breakfast, which is all I need, hotels.com seems clearly better. If you are booking with your own credit card, you can get an additional $150 back through the Capital One Venture Card.

The book direct option because of the points and status is compelling. The upgrades, the lounge access, breakfast (at higher tier elite status of course), but it assumes points and stays will post.
My experience with Marriott - largely through their Protea Hotel brand, is everything requires manual processing.
The points don't post. I must wait 10 days before filing a claim. I hear back 5-7 days later, sometimes its a success, sometimes a round and round.

I go through this 2-3 X a month. There's never any improvement after repeated stays. So I've given up and book directly through Hotels.com for their rewards program. Everything just posts perfectly (in part because I assume hotels.com has a vested interest in closing out the stay for their commission?).

For me in my situation, life is just easier NOT booking at Marriott.com.

If you decided to go with Marriott and are an American, get one of the Marriott credit cards. Even though you have to use your company card to pay for the hotel, having a Marriott credit card will get you sign up bonus points and a head start on status.

Just to correct my own statement, hotels.com would generally be better if you are at the Silver or Gold Elite level. At the platinum and titanium elite levels Marriott is better, and there are a host of other benefits such as upgrades, gifts etc. Springhill Suites, $170/night 25000 points. 10 stays gives you 1.2 free nights with Marriott if you are Titanium or Ambassador Elite, 0.8 free nights if you are Gold Elite, 1 free night on hotels.com. Marriott Suites, $322/night, 35,000 points. 1.6 free nights for Titanium, 1.15 free nights if you are Gold Elite, 1 free night on hotels.com.