Benefits of Marriott
 

I'm about to get my Hilton Gold level and am considering going for marriott plat. For those of you that frequent marriott what is the main draw for you? Within the chain is there a certain brand you prefer to stay at? Is the status worth getting? I'm just trying to figure out if I want to put my stays into marriott vs another chain. Hyatt would be nice but the footprint is too small. Marriott has a large footprint and the price point seems decent, but wanted to see if people selected marriott themselves or if its mainly selected by their employers.

I have a choice and chose Marriott because of the large international footprint. My INTL travel has been cut back significantly, but I'll probably still stick with them since I'm working towards LT status. Rates have always been good and I'm happy with the promos. With the new partnership with UA, I'll definitely keep plat status with Marriott if my air travel stays low.

Benefits of Marriott
 

I like having to concierge lounge in the evening. Just someplace quieter to go have a quick snack and see other business travelers without having to go to a noisy bar. In my opinion Marriott customer service is great and when the front desk sees platinum they do try a little harder - not always perfect but they do go the extra mile.

I like the overall consistency of the brand. I had only one or two cases where the experience was not that great, but nothing bad. So the risk of bad surprises is greatly reduced. Exec Lounges outside the US are also quite good, in the US it can be a bit hit and miss.

Why not tell us your preferences/experiences first? Why did you choose Hilton? Why do you like Hyatt better? Etc.

I haven't stayed at Hyatts, but they tend to be highly reviewed and had some prime properties in locations I wish to visit, although they do not have a large enough footprint for me to be able to obtain status. I started with hilton as part of a gold challenge and went with Hilton due to the ability to easily obtain gold status, the price point and that they have locations in the places I was travelling to. Since I have started staying with Hilton I have been happy with my experience with either calling the Hilton line or dealing with the staff at the hotels. I have been able to find good deals on rooms close to locations that I wanted to be at and the rooms were decent. The breakfasts were good. I have only stayed at Hamptons so far with some HGI stays planned. I have not had a chance to stay at the full service properties yet.

The drawback with Hilton seems to be the devaluation so my points do not appear that they would go as far as my girlfriend's does with marriott and her plat elite status. I have been looking at marriott given its large footprint, the fact that I have a number of stays coming up so I could meet a plat challenge, and their best rate policy seems easier to use than Hilton's. Also, the united silver status would be a nice touch since I will not have enough united flights year to make status. Also, my credit cards tend to be with Chase so I could transfer spare UR points into marriott if I needed to top off an account for a night stay.

Next year I am looking at travelling to Asia and Europe, so I am trying to put myself in a good position to be able to redeem miles/points for that trip, so that is one of my main goals.

I'm Gold and stayed at a few Marriott hotels in China and was very impressed with each one of them.

Three things jumped out at me:

The comparable brands with Marriott are Fairfield Inn and Courtyard, respectively. You'll find that the Fairfield breakfast is roughly comparable to Hampton but that there is NO free breakfast at most Courtyards. Overall, in that demographic Hilton tends to win on the in-hotel experience and benefits.

However:

That can be a HUGE difference. It's important to think about the actual stays you'll have and compare redemption values. Many of us find it takes 2-4x the points in the Hilton program, easily.

I have a stay pattern that tends to be similar to yours and I'm sticking with Marriott. The redemption value has won out over the in-hotel experience. (Of which I remind myself, every time I'm buying a breakfast in a hotel lobby or nearby diner.)

Compare Hilton's AXON awards to Marriott's Travel Packages, for the specific hotels you're considering. That's probably the best way to think about this specific situation. (Also compare the Marriott MegaBonus promotions to the bonus promotions Hilton has been running lately.)

When I say Asia I am looking specifically at Japan & China.

I picked Marriott because I'm based in Europe and Marriott has a good coverage of mid-range hotels in Europe. I'm also with IHG but I only use points for their PB offers because I think the whole IHG company is a mess.

I like Marriott because the hotels are consistent (you know what to expect - nothing exceptional but everything you can expect). If there is any problem with your stay you can escalate to higher level easily and Marriott does take the issues seriously and do the right thing.

I like the lounge access and the promo (stays 2 times get a cat 1-4 night). Yes it's not as awesome as Hilton's but I have a good way of using them.

FTers like to debate the finer points of the frequent guest programs such as earn/burn ratios, lounge access, and free breakfast, but I think for many of us-- whether or not we like to admit it-- a big part of it is simple practicality. Which chain has good properties in the places we need or want to travel to?

When I started traveling heavily several years ago I was a Starwood elite because they had a great hotel in one location I visited frequently for my job. I knew the details of the program and thought it was great. But then my travel pattern changed and I found that Starwood either had no properties in the places I needed to stay or had crummy properties. I shifted over to Hilton, which had far more properties overall and better standards.

For a few years I was a Hilton elite. I learned their program and how to extract the most from it. Eventually they changed the rules and devalued their points. I was pretty pissed about that and shifted over to Marriott. But a critical part of my decision to shift loyalty was, again, a change in my own travel pattern. At the same time as I was pissed at Hilton I was finding that they had few hotels or poor choices in the cities I needed to travel to, while Marriott had much better options.

For the last few years I've been a Marriott loyalist. My travel pattern has shifted again, though, and now I'm seeing that Marriott properties are running about 20% more expensive than comparable Hilton properties in two of the areas I travel to most. At some point I might get tired of all the bargain-hunting effort it takes to find fair prices in these areas and switch back to Hilton.