MSPeconomist

My guess is that I'll get at least 20 and maybe 30 Hyatt nights during this period thanks to the Starriott mess. It's enough WOH bonus points alone for a free night or cash and points somewhere pretty nice.

Kacee

pinniped

Yea, this was never a common theme on the SPG board. Minor quibbles with the app or needing to call for certain things, but I can't recall any widespread problems with booking, points posting, redeeming, status showing up, etc. Seemed stable to me. If they ever had a catastrophic outage, it didn't know about it: it would have happened at a time when I wasn't trying to book or complete a stay.

Marriott was reasonably stable too. It's just the merger process itself that has been a dumpster fire.

Hyatt has had serious, widespread IT problems over the years, including at least one catastrophic (many hours) outage that I'm aware of. Fundamental issues where you could not book a regular hotel stay at all - not just some sort of Gold Passport issue. Hilton has had some wonky UX in the past, as they never seemed certain whether they wanted members to use HHonors.com or individual hotel brand sites. (Multi-login problems, data not being saved, etc.) These problems seem to have been mostly resolved in the past year or two though.

Bigshaker

jpdx

We're living in promo-poor times, but 1500 Hyatt points per night (including C&P nights!) is vastly superior to anything Marriott has put on. What was the most recent ridiculous Starriott promo, 250 SPG per night? Yeah, this Hyatt promo yields at least 4x as much. I had 31 Hyatt nights booked anyway during the promo period, and the current Starriott woes make it very easy to shift some stays to Hyatt.

GUWonder

Orange County Commuter

In a few years some posters on here may have to sleep on park benches as they churn and burn through programs they are never using again

I have been lucky that I have had no problems with the merger etc....
My only problem has been phone calls so as long as I can do it online or on the app I am still booking. Hoping that all the people storming off to the World of Hyatt, Hilton, IHG etc will just increase my upgrade chances!

Kacee

It's not 1500 points per night unless you do 40 nights in 90 days.

It's worse than than the Marriott and Hilton promos for those who aren't on the road 150 nights per year. And the bonus only kicks in at increments - 5, 10, 20, 30, 40. You have to stay five nights to get anything.

RedSun

Sure, we all have growing pains. If the pains is too hard for you to take, just leave and you do not have to experience the pains again, period. So long.

KRSW

I'm not ready to jump ship yet... YET being the key word. I've been a vocal critic of Marriott's IT systems since well before the merger, and they don't seem to be making any friends with me on that. At least now there are managerial eyes staring at the IT department, so I'm hoping for improvement. Still having problems with logins, missing stays, missing points, etc., but am waiting for things to quiet down before I even bother addressing it.

I also generally like the Marriott properties. Only once have I had a real issue with a property (broken AC in hotel common areas, broken AC in the first room they gave me, pathetic AC but semi-functional in the second). Rooms are clean and in good order, all of their properties are non-smoking, properties are where I need to be, staff is usually decent if not good, room layouts are pretty good. I've had some bad Hampton/HGI experiences over the years. I just stayed in a small regional (8 hotels in 2 states) chain and it was absolutely horrific, worthy of being on Dan Bell's Another Dirty Room. It made the broken-AC RI PDX North seem like heaven.

If Marriott's IT woes continue into October, I'll probably start looking for greener pastures. Yes, Marriott's website sucks and has been getting worse over the years, but that's only a small portion of staying at a hotel.

CO-PLAT

This is what I have done. I think I've stayed in Hyatts twice in my life, but now have four reservations with them over the next six weeks.

joakgarp

Good luck with Hyatt. I can agree on their properties are excellent specially Grand hyatt and Park hyatt. Used them frequently when their BRG program was OK. However today Hyatt has about the worst BRG program and Promo program ever existed. I left their business last year and haven't regret anything. Used up my last points at a Park Hyatt property and had a fantastic stay. But they refuse to fix their BRG program and made it worse. Their promo program is like dust in the air. They don't listen to their customers, the Brg thread on FT was huge back then.

If rate doesn't matter for you and you don't understand the value in promotions then I understand your choice to go with Hyatt.
Let's see how it goes for Starriott. Things in this business change way too fast sometimes.

Alohashirt

With occupancy rates at record highs, Marriott management probably couldn't care less about all of the posts here and elsewhere about jumping ship. Sad but true. This "transition" has frustrated thousands of people and pleased almost nobody (other than the bloggers pumping SPG Lux cards).

Much depends on your own priorities and where your travels take you. Both programs have their downsides. I personally am sticking with Marriott for now, only because I have 51 nights (and whatever color they're calling that status). I value two things above everything else: Lounge access and 4:00 checkouts. Hilton Diamond and Marriott Platinum both provide these perks, but Marriott just made them harder to qualify for.

My own experience with Hilton has been excellent. Unfortunately, their lounges aren't as good in the places I go to-- and he 4:00 PM checkout sometimes requires haggling with the front desk. Your mileage will vary.

UA-NYC

If you have to haggle, it's not a benefit - Hilton Diamond doesn't promise a 4pm check-out

Alohashirt

That's right, they don't. But every time I have requested it, they have given it to me-- sometimes with a bit of haggling. The same has not been true at Marriott. Even with Platinum status, I've been denied late checkouts this past year. (Once at a Ritz Carlton and once at a regular Marriott).