My policy , when not on business trips = Putting all your eggs in the same basket is never a good plan , so i check whats most convenient for me , not just the hotels of the chain or the airlines of the alliance where i have biggest status ....

i do however try my best to stay away from airbnb and short stay flat rentals , cause they kill local housing market and sometimes charge more than real hotels who need to comply to many laws and pay employees

So hotels are still needed but if bonvoy cheapeast option cost 100usd in an african country which doesnt have USD as official currency (thanks DCC) , where minimum legal salary is not even above 100usd and most hotels around are 20usd per night (equivalent in local currency of course) , then i can say bye bye to courtyard

If you read the thread, there�s some back and forth on whether that offer is actually open to �everyone�

Hyatt doesn�t status match to globalist outside of corporate status matches. Not sure above the thread. The OP claims he got it in China but no one I know was able to replicate what he got. However, that offer is pretty much the same as Hyatt�s corporate status match program.

The only flaw in the OP's argument is that Hyatt has CLEARLY been the best for elites for at least 15 years. So anybody who truly cares about elite benefits has long been...

Plan A `- Hyatt

Plan B - SPG

With Plan C being any combination of IHG, Marriott or Hilton that worked for any given trip that Hyatt or SPG couldn't cover.

What Marriott is willfully doing is getting rid of any remaining SPG fans who had given Bonvoy the benefit of the doubt because they still liked some of the hotels. Which means that they are now down in the muck with the other hotel chains...

I think the vast majority of the complaining about Marriott is overblown. All that said I am impressed with some of the acquisitions Hyatt has done, and I have signed up for their card and will attempt to stay with them a bit more. However, it is extremely inconvenient in many cases given the lack of footprint. With Marriott, at least I know I have a ton of acceptable options anywhere, and I earn points towards redemptions at a lot of my favorite hotels.

Hilton is tough - I love many of their luxury properties, but I feel no need to be loyal to them. Hilton Gold is enough for the odd stay at a Hilton resort at the loyalty program is currently constructed.

TLDR - engage in all of the loyalty programs and pick the hotels you like the most. No need making this complicated.

Normally I'd agree with you but when you have the CEO of Marriott all but admit he doesn't care about the guest and only cares about the billionaire owners and mgmt companies that to me takes it to a different level. I spend lots of money with this company. To read this guy's uncaring remarks has for the first time really opened my eyes to giving another chain my 60k a year that would appreciate it.

AA sent me a Platinum gift/challenge, then they sent me a Hyatt challenge:

1. After linking, register by September 30, 2021 to receive the benefits of World of Hyatt Explorist status for 90 days.
2. Complete your challenge within 90 days of registration to earn:
   • Explorist status by staying 10 qualifying nights
   • Globalist status by staying 20 qualifying nights
3. Enjoy your new elite status through February 2023.

That is exactly the same as Hyatt�s corporate status match (with the same time frames). Is it possible they still didn�t meet their Globalist quota (if that exists) so they�re pushing to get more ppl?

Agreed, I am measly gold with Marriot and no Status with Hyatt(Husband is discoverist though) . We have gotten better service at Hyatt on the last 2 trips than at Marriot. The issue for me is not even the benefits , the main issue is the way they've treated us the past few stays. One major example is the fact that we were given a room that smelled line dog urine and we requested a change. It was denied because the "hotel was full", no apologies, not even a single effort to accommodate us,mind you we were not in a big city but a small town in Colorado. At Hyatt, we have been given upgrades(including a room with eiffel tower views on our recent trip) even without status and the staff has always been friendly and helpful. We are definitely shifting to Hyatt and use Marriot when Hyatt is not available.

There is another path to Globalist too -- through CC spend. If you have the World of Hyatt card, you get 5 nights for starters; then another 2 for every $5K in spend. You only need 30 night to make globalist this year.

By itself, the returns on the Hyatt Credit Card aren't great -- just 2 points for dining, transportation, and gyms and 1 point for everything else. But with the Hyatt milestones and CC incentives, it's a great deal: free Cat1-4 stay at $15,000; 2 lounge awards at 20 nights; another free cat1-4 and 2 lounge awards at 30 nights. When you figure all that in, you're getting something like 5% back on your CC spend (not counting the double points for the first $15,000 and the advantage of achieving Globalist).

This was a no-brainer for me. I made Globalist mostly on CC and then canceled about 30 Marriott nights. I will easily get Hyatt Concierge this year. My only remaining Marriott stays are in places like Sarajevo, where there aren't many other intl. chains.

That�s fair. For some people it�s worth, though I suspect not for everyone. For people churning SUBs, it�s absolutely not worth as the opportunity cost on spend is so huge (like trading 85K-150K UR/MR for 2 EQNs and 5K-15K WoH).

For people with the ultimate cash back setups, I think it works. Basically buying Hyatt points for 2.625 cents each in exchange for status and the $15K FNC. If you grind out enough spend to 60 night Globalist, that�s multiple FNCs and multiple suite night certificates. But, it�s pretty all or nothing IMO. If someone puts a ton of spend onto their CC and can�t hit those thresholds, it�s a lost cause. It also makes EQN runs a strictly losing proposition.

For people with Chase UR setups, I don�t think it�s worth it for people with a lot of category spend.

My biz travel is going to pick up a lot in Q4 and I've already decided to pivot to Hyatt. If I can get an Explorist challenge in Q4, that would be ideal....but even if I have to slog my way up from Discoverist in 2022 I'm still going to do it.

Marriott Titanium and Hilton Diamond have both been utterly useless this year. The hotels aren't worth staying in with any status. Even if the sign says full-service Marriott or Hilton, it's a Fairfield/Hampton experience inside.

My only difference from the OP's approach is that for my international stays in 2022, it'll be a combination of burning down a million HH points and 600,000 Marriott points, and then booking houses or flats beyond that. We often have 4-6 people traveling and have had pretty good luck booking excellent properties through VRBO, Booking.com, or Airbnb. If it were just 2 of us, the luxe hotel route might be more appealing, but with a bigger group we like having a living room, balcony, kitchen, etc.

Here are the things that keep me with any Marriott properties:
- Many aLoft hotels have no pet fees
- a couple places I visit (some regularly) don’t have Hyatt, but do have Marriott
- I have several hundred thousand points to burn

Other than that, I’m completely in the Hyatt ecosystem. We are mostly domestic US based travelers who drive where we go, especially now due to covid. We use some cash back cards, but find the milestone bonuses, easy ability to spend Hyatt points, etc. make up for being in the Hyatt system.

From a property development standpoint, I love where Hyatt is going. It seems that many of the places I travel have exciting new-build Hyatt properties in the pipeline.

However, I still see and recognize the value that Marriott's footprint brings. For me, every property I am interested in is either a Marriott or Hyatt, and I personally find it worth maintaining status at both. Of course, that will likely be much harder next year as the only reason I was able to be a Globalist in 2021 (both quickly, and perhaps, at all) was due to the combination of a double night credit promo earlier this year and Hyatt's halved requirements.

Next year, I'm honestly not sure what I will do as getting 60 nights organically (minus 5 from WOH CC) at Hyatt will be tough on top of trying to get 35 nights at Marriott (downgrading to Platinum would likely not be the worst thing), especially as I actually traveled more nights pre-travel recovery. Post-travel recovery, I'm going to more diverse locations but staying fewer nights, which I could see continuing next year. It might just be easier to stick with Marriott (unless double night promos align in my favor and I do some mattress runs).

I briefly held Hyatt status and did overall like it, but historically their footprint has just not overlapped with my travel patterns except (1) in Asia, where MR properties are significantly better relative to the US and (2) places like Milwaukee, where the Hyatt Regency is nothing to write home about. I've tried Hilton a couple of times and always end up frustrated or disappointed with them for one reason or another. IHG has basically no mid level (aka "premium") or even low level brands that I'm interested in.

That said, as LTT I'm as annoyed and disappointed by the interview as anyone else, and tbh I've spent about 8x as much with VRBO in the last year as I have with MR.

Good job by the OP. However, I find it strange that there is this general perception that Hyatt is some sort of benevolent, non-profit-seeking entity that somehow will manage to magically deliver all the benefits one could ever imagine, no matter where the market goes. That somehow, even if tens of thousands of Ambassadors migrate, Hyatt will manage to have a suite ready and waiting for each of them, and that they'll each be guaranteed 12 PM check-in and 4 PM check-out (wait a second...).

it may be true that, at this very moment, Hyatt is the place to be...just like SPG once was, or maybe Hilton, or...etc. But I see that as a transient phenomenon, and if Hyatt finds itself with more customers than it knows what to do with, I'm not sure where everyone is getting this belief that they won't simply pull the very same levers (taking price, reducing benefits) that all of their peers have. Either that or I guess they just somehow will build more suites to give away, or figure out how to have elites overlap in the same room for 4 hours, or undersell hotels by large percentages to enable this, or...

Get while the getting is good, but nothing lasts forever.