arlflyer

This has not really been my experience most of the time, especially given the fact that 1) Hilton continues to run lucrative promos, and 2) the Hilton credit cards return comparatively more than the Marriott product. Right now, with my current status and promotions, I'm earning 44 points/$ at Hilton paying with the Aspire (not amortizing the incremental stay bonuses), whereas I'm only getting 26 points/$ at MR properties at the analogous level of status and paying with the MR CC (I actually usually do my MR stays on the CSR because I'm hotel points rich and airline miles poor and appreciate the transfer partners). That's 170% of the earnings at HH properties, and generally the redemptions aren't higher by that much - e.g. a 35K MR property generally maps to around a 50K HH property, and near the top the two more or less converge (>90K for the highest at both).

A bit of a digression, but in actuality I more or less consider the programs interchangeable with a slight edge on value to Hilton and footprint to MR. So this actually works in my favor because I don't mind splitting up the stays across them (portfolio diversification strategy).

kaizen7

For me, so far so good.

Pros :
- Plenty of new options for me.
- Ambassador separate tier with unique name definitely good as properties can recognise ambassadors easily now.

Cons :
- Honestly nothing much until affect me. Yes sometimes the website is down but since I book my stays about 1-2 months in advance, I can just retry next day or if I really need the reservation done immediately, I could email my ambassador.

All in all nothing change much after being Bonvoyed.
Still quite pleased with Bonvoy so most likely I keep using Bonvoy as my main loyalty program.

xychromosome

Good analysis, however for those of us who prefer to use non-hotel CCs for their stays, I don't see the advantage of Hilton promos when their stays cost so much more points-wise than Marriott. The fact that you are earning 44 points per $ using a hilton card doesn't speak much to the value of each of those points!
That being said, I do like staying at Hilton properties, I find them to be more modern and up to date than the Marriott properties I've stayed at this year. For example, most have digital keys, whereas Marriott is slow to roll that same tech out to it's properties. That and more USB ports in each room. But when I'm ready to use my points, I find I get a better return from Marriott than Hilton. Just my 2c.

HomerJ

I was one of the people who got robbed during Lifetime (I had 722 nights), so that left me with a sour taste right off the bat.
Only upside I see is more available properties.
Downsides include hardly any suite u/g's, more over crowded lounges, almost zero recourse when you make a complaint.
When I was LT Plat at Starwood I really felt like they cared about my business...now I'm just a #.

arlflyer

No, it doesn't which is why I cited ratios of earn/burn rather than absolutes. I did note the intermediate values to which you speak as a matter of transparency in calculating said ratios.

With Hilton you're earning at least 1.5X on the non-CC side, and the redemptions are often not more than 1.5X, especially at the upper tiers.

YMMV.

Cledaybuck

I am a relative nobody in that I only stay enough to earn low level (or no) status. As such, my "loyalty" was driven by credit cards. In that sense, it has been a disaster. Went from one of the best cards for everyday spend to one which I have a hard time justifying spending any money on. The end result is that my first search when I need a hotel is no longer Marriott.com

nmpls

I'm ex-Marriott, and other than a bunch of IT issues I've been pretty happy. I miss the Delta crossover, which i got through SPG reciprocity, because I prefer delta to UA and getting marriott points was cool too.
I travel on government rate to a wide variety of big and small towns. I like having the extra selection in expensive cities, which gives me a much better chance of getting a good location hotel at state rate. While these may suck for a lot of people, older four points and sheratons are really good for this and are mostly fine. My number of qualifying stays is way up, which means I'm Titanium rather than OG Gold/Plat.
Also, as Marriott golds became golds with SPG, staying at SPG hotels before the merger really sucked.

I do think that my upgrades are up with quite a few suites, but it is hard to determine how much as I went up one rung as well due to the extra nights.

oopsz

I hit lifetime platinum and switched to hyatt.

SteveinA2

They've been great. I'm Diamond now at Hilton

jmj9905

My response is more connected to the SPG amex and the bonus for transferring points to airlines. If you transfered 20,00 spg pts. they gave you 25000 miles. You also got 1 point for every dollar charged and miles transferred 1to1. Now you get 2points per $1 but it takes 3 points transferred to get 1 mile. In addition you have to transfer 30,00 to get the bonus and 25,000 miles. By my calculation that's about 33% devaluation. I was spending a little over $100,000 a year. That spend now goes to my AA citi card. At least I get 1to1 now. YMMV.

pinniped

My experiences with Marriott stays have been mostly okay.

Basically, I just no longer have any emotion about Marriott or SPG as brands. They sell a commodity, I buy the commodity when it's in my interest, or I buy Hilton's commodity. Any former notion I had that I was loyal to SPG and SPG was in turn loyal to me are gone. It's a purely transactional relationship at this point. Maybe it was always an illusion to begin with and I had just bought into Starwood's sophisticated marketing.

That said, it can still be a rewarding relationship in the form of free stays and whatnot, but it's unemotional. I have no expectations at all from Marriott besides a clean room and some free stays after I pay for some stays.

Since my decisions about hotels are no longer impacted by loyalty, my use of Hilton has jumped quite a bit. But I wouldn't say I'm loyal to them - it's just that their commodity is now more attractive than SPG/Marriott on more of my stays. Their clean room and award points are sometimes better than Marriott's clean room and award points. Other times not.

The general decreasing value proposition for hotels in general has also increased my use of Airbnb, small traditional B&B's, and independent inns that don't require guests to pay for a loyalty program. This is probably the biggest and most durable change in my behavior since the combined devaluation of HHonors, the devaluation of Marriott, and the demise of SPG.

Adelphos

jmj9905

Adelphos I am aware of that. However, I have been a lifetime AA flyer. I joined there ff program inn 1986. My wife and I are both LT Plat. Until recently they had the best redemption rates and the most availability. I am retired now and we travel a lot internationally. We don't fly on AA int. but oneworld. As an example we are going to Portugal and the Madiera islands next feb. flying BA F iad/lhr/lis. Then in April we are returning to Southern Africa. We are flying BA f iad/lhr/jnb/wdh. Return is F on Eithad jnb/auh/iad.

So as you can see aa works very well for us.YMMV

SHLTP

Disaster. I've had 1 night at a Marriott since end March. 32 nights Hyatt. 20 at mix of other chains.

Literally 40% of time I go on Marriott to check prices the app and website don't work. CS never resolves anything. Too frustrating.

Lifetime titanium. Never thought I'd leave Marriott - on property remains good- but hard to stay when the app doesn't work and CS doesn't give a darn

Adelphos