After several years at Starwood, I've returned to Marriott. Some quick impressions:

1. I'd forgotten about Marriott's fabled consistency. It's nice to avoid surprises which, almost always, are unpleasant.

2. I like the new TVs and, particularly, the HDMI input. Now I can watch my own movies on my laptop (which has an HDMI port) in high def.

3. Marriott's room service food quality is higher than I've remembered. I'm three-for-three on some excellent room service dinners.

All in all, I'm happy to be back.

Welcome back. I, too, value consistency. My experience with Four Points was some are OK some horrible. With FFI or CbM I never get a dump.

Then go stay at the FFI Hays, Kansas.

It's not that Marriott....or anyone else....is incapable of error. "Even Betty Crocker burns a cake once in a while".

But my experience with Sheraton....and the sister Starwood brands....has been that it's really a roll of the dice. Some really great properties along with some real stinkers!

In 30-plus years of travel, I've tried 'em all. I find that Marriott-branded hotels across the board offer the most consistent levels of high quality and service.

I have been giving equal amounts of business to Hilton and Marirott the past few years.

With Hilton's recent devaluation, I am moving most of my business to Marriott. Especially now that I am at about 900 lifetime nights and see lifetime Platinum approaching (versus about 850 with Hiltons that will count towards nought).

No question that Marriotts have much greater consistency. And are much stronger on the high end, especially with JW and RC. Big pluses.

The big minus for Marriott is HGI versus Courtyard. HGIs have it just right. Courtyards seem stale--and suffer from the "no free breakfast for elites" rule.

+1

Saving me some research - I was just contemplating moving Marriott biz to other chains, including finally jumping on-board SPG.

Consistency probably is key for me with all the travel - and, considering your posts and the fact that I would be at Sheratons more than Westins if I switched some travel to SPG, then I might as well stay put. I did stay at a nice Westin in Dallas this week, but big city stays and big bills are not high on my list. However, I will stay another Westin night in the next month - they have a great Amazon promo going that I'm going to take advantage of to get me some bluetooth headphones for my Ipod (2 stays M-Th = $100 gift card!).

Having said all that, I still can't stand that, despite the heavy elite stay/night requirements at Marriott (even for mid level Gold), I can't help but feel it's not worth the effort or dedication. No free breakfasts at CY, varying tier/speed internet where they charge you for the decent speeds (happens many times at flagship hotels, but also had this happen at a SpringHill this week), and Mariott's generally higher prices compared to other chains have me constantly thinking alternatives.

That's why God invented new, nice Hampton Inns across the street.

Consistency and Continuity continue at Marriott and IMHO it is well worth staying at Marriott Properties and I like the fact they usually keep restaurant prices competitive.

Consistancy does it for me. I absolutely hate "surprises".

+1 on consistency versus SPG. I began chasing status with SPG several years ago when I stayed in a beautiful Four Points hotel near a client I was working at for 4 weeks. Then I stayed at other 4P properties and found them to be holes. Ditto some Sheratons. Yes, SPG has some beautiful vacation hotels in their portfolio, and their Amex has a good earn/burn ratio, but it's tough when you're on the road and you never know what quality of hotel you're going to find when you check in.

It's worth mentioning that HH properties are pretty consistent, too. And at the low end, HI and HGI are consistently better than FI and CY.

Indeed, Marriott has the best deals for eating in the hotel restaurant, ordering room service, or getting dry cleaning done. I love Hyatt's perks, but I would never order room service or have dry cleaning done at their hotels (the cost differential is at least 20-25 % more than Marriott).

Consistency is a relative term and what it does or does not mean depends upon the individual's own sense of aesthetics as well as their specific personal goals.

Bottom line is that Marriott and several other brands out there are players in the game and they & their brethren play the game well. There's never gonna be a perfect relationship nor a perfect hotel experioence each and every visit. It all comes down to the aggregate experience and how it is distilled in each customer's subjective mind. I myself like Marriott's chemistry and find that our experiences at their variety of products are sufficiently satisfying for us to stick with them. It's a choice from the several decent options that are out there.

Barry

You have to stay much longer with Marriott to acheive status than anywhere else, that is certainly a fact, but FS Marriotts are very consistent, which is what I need for business stays. For leisure their top-end products, JW and RC are a great way to burn those points.

I do like surprises, but not on business stays, therefore Marriott fits the bill, Holiday Inns are variable, as are Hiltons, both have good and poor, Marriott is consistently good and for business thats what I need...

I have to mention consistency at Marriott is tops but on several occasions I had the honor to meet several members of the Marriott family on the CL in SLC. They are very nice people and down to earth. Took the time to say hello and talk with several guests. I never forgot that and am approaching 1000 nights at Marriott.