For me as an international member (based in Germany) Hilton HHonors does not do the trick as I have to earn points and status on stays in Germany and Europe for most of the part. With that proposition, Hilton has only the Hilton Brand available in Europe (plus a handful of HGIs) with rates usually outside my employer's allowance. Marriott however has three brands in the market here and using the in my opinion rather fair LNF-guarantee I can make stays at all brands work for me. In addition to this when traveling with the family, I can choose between more Vacation Clubs and Residence Inn's at the places I tend to go. So if you need to earn points in other places than the US, HHonors may not be the best choice.

In terms of redemption I also prefer MR over HHonors. For one I am at loss why Hamptons in this thread are compared to Courtyards - I'd rather think that Hamptons are comparable to Fairfield Inns and that Courtyard would be the equivalent of a Doubletree or Hilton Garden Inn.

Second for my redemption pattern MR makes more sense. I usually redeem for one-night stays when traveling alone on my own dime. My sample would be the JFK-airport area - with rates of $179 and up for a weeknight in a Fairfield Inn I'd rather use those 20K points instead. This compares to:

- Hilton Garden Inn JFK 25K
- Hampton Inn JFK 30K
- Doubletree JFK 30K
- Courtyard JFK 25K

Given the fact the Fairfield Inn also includes breakfast it's the perfect overnight spot for me when everything I need is a clean, safe room and a little food to start off the day. My other choice would be the Hampton - however what exactly will I pay those additional 10K points for?

So I agree it depends on your stay- and redemption-pattern if HHonors or Marriott Rewards is the best program. Given MY valuation of things I dropped HHonors alltogether (fell from Gold to Blue) and will make Platin next week on MR.

Greetings - Dirk

As a Marriott Plat and soon to be HH Diamond, I'll offer this:
- I've had better luck with Hilton in Europe
- Marriott lounges tend to be better stocked than Hilton
- I prefer the Hilton lower end properties to Marriott lower (HGI > Courtyard, Hampton > Fairfield).
- Hilton makes it much easier to maintain status with stays and nights, I frustrate the accountant with 4 invoices for a 4 night hotel stay :)

Hard to say which is better overall, but the big thing that sways my choice to Hilton is that they are generally 20-40$ less per night than the Marriott around airports.

HH points and MR points are not equal. HH is more generous in giving them out, for example through the "Points & Points" double-dip option and higher multipliers on the HH Amex card. That means the points are effectively worth less. Without getting too technical about it right now, I estimate 1 MR point is worth about 0.67 HH point. Amongst the choices you outlined above, I would pick the DT at 30k or the HGI at 25k as the best bargains, especially if I had HH status that got me benefits like free breakfast.

Great thread, I'd like some advice along the same lines. Let tell you about my situation. I'd like to earn points for using Hotels in Europe - that seems to be the biggest co$t when I travel there. In the past I've used Choice points for mostly stop over hotels, and have paid for destination hotels. Starting to travel again for my company. but I have a few restrictions now:
1) I Have to use the company MasterCard now
2) I tend to be in a city for 2 weeks to 2 months
3) I can't exceed Gov't Per Diem rates
4) I Have to make reservations thru the company travel site (in the past I could negotiate rates on my own). This means I can't get the 2 stays = 8000 pts deals I've done in the past.
5) I don't mind 'matress runs' BUT I'd prefer to keep it to weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun) and landing/departure days.
6) I've got a two week trip to LA coming up and will try and get 4 stays in at the Westin LAX for a deal they have going this fall 2 Nights = 1 weekend night free.
7) Marriot looks like it has some reasonable (12K/nite) properties in Europe. So I'm leaning that direction for my weekday points, but I don't fully understand the relation between AA, Delta, etc and hotels mentioned in this thread - Can those points be converted to Hotel points of certain brands or just the other way around?

Appreciate all the input

Great posts everyone! ..... answered lots of HH vs MR questions I had too ... Thx!