I book most of my stays at Marriott and Hilton family brands. The main reason is consistency. My business travel usually means arriving late in the evening and having to be up early the next morning for a full day with clients. I want to be confident that my room will meet my standards for comfort, appearance, and functionality (e.g., in-room Internet). I've tried other chains within similar price ranges, and they don't do well enough on a consistent basis. For example, Holiday Inns have just never appealed to me, and my experience with Sheratons has been hit-or-miss.

Secondary reasons are prevalence and loyalty programs. Radisson meets my consistency standard, but they have few properties and their rewards program is stingy. Still, I stay with them if there's a property where I'm going and it undercuts the MR/HH brands on price.

I had used Cendant hotels (Days, Super Ocho) on a Omaha-Atlanta driving trip back in 2000, and was amazed that they had no loyalty program or was the recipient of an e-mail campaign. Missed opportunity, I thought.

Family friend had arranged a Girl Scout weekend to Worlds of Fun and put us up in the FI in Liberty. Nice hotel for what we wanted. The guy at the desk made us aware of Marriott Rewards and that's all she wrote. Used MAR for our 2001 roadtrip OMA-SAT.

Bought MAR stock in 2001, started working PT for Marriott in 2006. Sorta like Sy Sperling, LOL. No regrets.

The only reasons why I stay at the Marriott full service properties (135+ nights last year) are EEO's, PP's, BB's and that's about it. You get far better elite treatment at IC's and Hyatt's.

simple answer I didn't; its my fourth choice among the 4 major chains