You are probably going to get some biased opinions on the Marriott forum but let me take a stab.

Depends on things like:

Business or leisure
Whos paying
travel patterns
location
frequency of travel
corporate travel policy

I stay exclusively at FS Marriotts (with the occasional CY) but I travel everyweek, mainly in the Midwest, I am fully reimbursed by my company.

There are more Marriotts than Hiltons in the cities that I frequent and where there are no FS Marriotts, the CY's are nicer than the Hamptons.

Ask someone with a different territory or someone who is self employed and you may get the complete opposite response.

Bang on.

I am currently a Gold Marriott member.The location of where I want to spend my points is Barbados,and to date ,there is no Marriott property there.
Hilton has a new property.I tried Hilton Barbados for one night and very much enjoyed the location and property.I will be a Diamond HH member by end of May.I want to take advantage of reduced black-out dates....that Diamond status offers.

The move from full service Marriotts/Courtyards to Hilton/Hampton was easy and I found the service quite good as well. :)

There is going to be a Courtyard in Barbados next year --did you see that?

I think the argument for Marriott is that their hotels are more consistent. There are very few run down or lousy Marriotts---some may be better than others, but there aren't really any bad ones.

The same is NOT true for Hilton and Starwood. There are some flat out dumpy Sheraton's and Hilton's around.

The other argument for Marriott is the breadth and scope of their locations, especially compared to Starwood.

Your best bet is to think about the cities you visit and then look at the various properities. For instance, I would consider Washington DC and London to be very strong Marriott towns, whereas Starwood is probably a little stronger in Chicago and Hilton is fairly weak there.

Agreed...Westins and W's are pretty nice, but Sheratons run the gamut from on-par with Westin to on-par with Holiday Inn. That's a disadvantage to the brand: I won't stay in a Sheraton "blind" - I'll come to FT or talk to friends or otherwise find out more. If I don't have time to do that, I'll book Westin, W, Marriott, or Renaissance.

I also don't like rolling the dice blind on Hiltons and definitely not Doubletree.

Hilton has upgraded recently in Chicago by adding a Conrad. That gives them two luxury properties (Drake is the other) and two megahotels (Palmer House and Chicago Hilton) to go along with a new HGI that gets nice reviews, plus I think an Embassy or two. (I'm just thinking of stuff walking distance to downtown.) I actually like the two megahiltons as they are always dirt cheap for weekend leisure stays, they upgrade me very well, and the lounges are open 7 days a week.

The Chicago Renaissance is very good for Marriott fans. Don't know about the Starwoods...just know there are a few of them down there including a couple of W's, a Westin, and a humongous Sheraton.

Being a Dimond and a Platinum in both networks I have to admint that IMHO they're quite the same from a service perspective. I moved from Hilton only because they have no location in Germany where my company's headquoter offices are. So I'd choose a network only based on the proximity and a variety of locations. They became even more equal after Marriott renewed back a floating qualification system (when you have to spend 75 nights during last 12 months and not in a calendar year). From a points earning perspective they're also very similar at the end of the day. Hilton gives you more points per stay but in Marriott's award nights cost less.

Bottom line - I'm equally happy with both networks and would recommend taking into account the location aspect.

Where did you see this? ^

When in Barbados in March,I wa involved in discussions with some people (over dinner)that indicated that a Courtyard was being considered for Barbados.Busy construction currently as the World Cup of Cricket is being hosted next March in the Caribbean and Barbados has the finals.Hotel space is very nearly sold out and at a premium.

Marriott To Introduce Courtyard Lodging Brand To Barbados
 

A couple more things that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

• Hilton lets you earn status on nights, stays, or points. Marriott only lets you earn status on nights. If you do a lot of short (1-2 night) stays, or if you spend a lot of money per night, you might find it easier to qualify for status on Hilton compared to Marriott. For example, 28 two-night stays will barely qualify you for Gold on Marriott but will get you Diamond on Hilton.
• Marriott offers lifetime status. Hilton does not.

Personally, I started off with Hilton, made Diamond, and then switched to Marriott when I heard that award availability/redemption was better. I'm not sure about that... with Hilton, I was earning basically 2 miles per dollar (1 base mile/dollar, + 50% bonus for doing points-and-points, +50% bonus for being Diamond), while with Marriott, if I do qualify for Platinum, I'll be earning 1.3 points per dollar. So even though Marriott does require slightly fewer miles for awards, particularly for longer-term stays, I'm not sure it'll make up for the fact that I'm earning less on each paid stay.

I also like Hamptons better than Courtyards and far better than Fairfields, and HGIs blow all three of those other chains out of the water. Especially for personal travel, because I can get free breakfast as a Diamond.

I'm still conflicted... I'm sorta thinking about going back to Hilton.

Thanks for the info....I have been waiting for years for Marriott to return to Barbados. :)

I was just throwing Chicago out there as an example, but it was my impession that the Conrad is fairly underwhelming for the price and that the older (Drake and Palmer House) Hilton's are pretty tired.

Starwood is strong because the Westin Chicago River North is absolutely top notch, and the Sheraton Chicago is one of those "Westin quality" Sheratons you mention. Also, the Westin Chicago Michigan Avenue isn't as nice a property as its River North counterpart, but the location next to the Hancock Tower (and the Drake) can't be beat.

Plus there are 2 W's--one nice, one not so much, from what I hear.

So I would consider Starwood to be really strong in Chitown.

It'd be fun to go city by city actually and compare who is strongest where. There are many tossups---Boston, for instance. I'd guess I'd give Starwood the nod based on the Westin Copley-Sheraton Boston duo (with the Marriott in between the two of them, geographically and otherwise), the lack of a Ren, but there also is no W. (I'm not counting the Ritzs for Marriott). Hilton is not competitive in Boston, except at the Airport.

First, availability is almost never an issue with Hilton, if you are a Diamond. As a Marriott anything, you have the same availability as everyone.

Second, I'm getting 13 points/$ from Marriott, and 20 from Hilton. Did you slip a decimal point there? :)

Marriott did a study a few years ago and found that it took less points from Marriott to earn a reward stay than any other comparible chain

I know.

I was commenting on the apparent factor-of-10 difference in earning rates.