Best hotel program for many 1-night stays
 

I'm contemplating a switch in my regular stay chain in 2010. I've been a Marriott guy for a few years, using SPG and HH Amexes to keep Gold in both of those programs and doing one-off stays when Marriott doesn't work.

In 2010 and 2011, my stay profile is changing a bit. It appears that I will have many 1-night stays to the Dallas area, likely one of the suburbs like Irving or Plano. (Exact location is TBD but I'm pretty sure I won't be in downtown Dallas.) I will also have my usual moderate number of other leisure stays...usually weekends in bigger cities.

This will be related to an educational program partly paid by work and partly paid by me. So cost does matter somewhat. I am generally comfortable in a midscale hotel like Aloft, HGI, Courtyard, etc. I would consider something new like Hyatt Place or Element.

It's not a situation where I feel the need to Priceline or stay in a roadside motel - just saying I don't need an FS property. I don't need a huge amount of elite recognition on the 1-night stays: traveling solo, already have my own mobile broadband, am capable of grabbing a bagel outside the hotel if breakfast is not provided. I'll have the advantage that many of the stays will be Friday nights, so I should be able to usually get favorable rates.

On the rewards side of things, I would definitely want to redeem at the full service brands, including "resorts" in some cases, and have a meaningful elite status with good benefits.

Off the top of my head, I'm seeing the following as my leading choices:

(1) SPG. I've never held SPG Plat, so I believe they'd status match my MR Plat. I've stayed at Dallas-area Alofts before and generally liked them.

(2) Hilton. Lots of options and price points. More backups if I hit a "peak" date and need to go downmarket a bit. I'm Gold now, could be Diamond if I focus on the Surpass card.

(3) Hyatt. Could get acquainted with Hyatt Place - looks like a good concept for a suburban brand. Does Hyatt treat all stays as equal in terms of hitting status levels? What about their other suite brands?

(4) Marriott. I guess if I stuck to Marriott, I'd log 35 actual nights and keep Gold status going. I won't be doing 60 of these trips each year and not sure how many other Marriott EQN I'll have. MR has the same advantage as HH - tons of backup properties both upmarket and downmarket. But there are a lot of tired Courtyards out there.

(5) Other? I know things like Choice and Priority Club have good promotions and redemption opportunities at luxury hotels, but I don't know how many bad motel nights I'm willing to endure to get there. I'd have to be convinced there are some excellent properties for my paid stays before going this route. Maybe the Indigo brand? I've never done it...

Thoughts?

Where are you looking to redeem your points at?

Domestic?

International?

What type of resort? Beach? Golf? Amusement Park?

If you can have an idea of where you want to spend your points, then you can check the major players out for properties there. No point collecting Starwood points if they don't have a luxury property where you want to vacation at. Or maybe there is a resort you really want to go to for a week.

I've had lots of redemption success with all of SPG, MR, and HH. Mostly big city, U.S./Europe/Middle East. Some "resorts" here and there as well.

I don't generally redeem golf packages - nor am I a big fan of "resort courses" unless they are marshalled extremely well. I would potentially redeem hotel points on a golf trip though - I'm just more likely to book green fees separately.

I've never done an amusement park stay because it seems like the hotels are wildly overpriced for what you get. I like a good 'coaster as much as the next guy, but it's like golf...I'd probably just buy amusement park tix separately and stay in hotels not affiliated with the park.

I suspect I could find good uses for Hyatt points. I've seen enough of their properties in places I visit.

I don't know about Priority Club - I'd want to stay at their Intercontinental brand on award stays and I don't see many IC's on a regular basis. I've also read here that IC has a separate elite program, so I wonder what kind of "juice" a bunch of 1-night Candlewood or Indigo stays would really get me when I'm ready to blow the points on a big IC week.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9530/5.0.0.328 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I'd rule out MR from the start due to inability to qualify based on stays.

I'm happy with SPG and GP and you could probably swing both if you tried.

I would look at the hotels where you want to stay in Dallas. Is there a particularly nice one, given the cost factor?

Of your choices, Marriott would be tough, even with credit card credits, so it's likely not great.

Hyatt you'd make - it requires just 25 stays. Also, in January both double stay credit plus FFN (one free night for every two stays) are still going. So four Friday nights earns 8 stay credits, some standing, and two free nights for February or March. That might be most cost-effective.

What are the typical periods during the year for FFN? Is it annual? Or semi-annual?

Hyatt and Starwood both appear to have good coverage in the area. I know the Alofts are acceptable in quality because I've stayed in them. I assume the Hyatt Places are too.

In the last few years, FFN has been annual, in the October through December range, with a month on either side. This time it goes until January. The first sticky post in the Hyatt forum has the details on this one, and the "Current Promotions" one has historical details.

I would go for SPG Plat.
Big difference from SPG Gold to Plat. I am a new HH Diamond and so far have not seen much difference from Gold. Also, the Surpass card can get it for you.
I like SPG cash and point redemptions. HH redemptions are only worth it for GLON or Axon awards (IMHO).

I think I'm down to Hyatt and SPG, leaning towards SPG.

Doing some sample queries for both Dallas-area Hyatt and SPG, I find that the Hyatt Places and Alofts come in nearly identical - $75-80 per night for a few random Fridays booked well ahead of time. But SPG also has a wide variety of FS properties at all price points - including a couple *below* the Aloft rate. There are also some well-priced Hyatts ($100-125) range, but nothing like the $56 Sheraton I'm seeing on a few nights. :) (I'm sure it's a typical bland suburban hotel but for $56 how much complaining can you do?)

Plus...if rates got out of hand due to some special event or whatnot, the fallback of C&P would be helpful. (I can't imagine *any* event selling out every hotel room throughout the area...or killing C&P everywhere. It's not like Jerry has a Super Bowl in the next 2-3 years.)

One night stay strategy
 

One option to consider: HHonors and credit each one night stay towards BMI. Quite a few Hilton properties will generate 3K BMI for each stay. I have had several weeks of changing hotels to earn 15K BMI and the HHonors points on top of that. The only bad thing is chasing the BMI postings and keeping good documentation.

Generally, as you say, Hyatt, Hilton, and SPG are your best choices because they offer status based on stays.

Hyatt and SPG have had far fewer choices in suburbs than Hilton (and Marriott and ICHG), although with Hyatt Place and Aloft opening lots of hotels, that will change. You still have to make sure that there is an option where you are traveling.

SPG will generally give you more redemption options worldwide, both cities and resorts, due to the sheer number of Starwood properties compared with Hyatt. Hyatt can be more generous in redemptions, especially due to Faster Free Night-type promotions, for example one going on now in which you earn one night free for every two stays.

If your primary goal is redemption, you should calculate the number of points that you would earn on an average stay, compared to the number required for redemption, at SPG versus Hyatt. Be sure to take into account the Platinum/Diamond amenity -- the 500 bonus points at Hyatt is more than you would earn for the stay alone in one night most of the time, although I am not sure if Hyatt Place gives that.

You might join both and just scrape by with enough to earn top-tier status on both (25 stays each, although promotions often result in a lower number actually required), which would allow you to at least have some choice on each trip, as well as give you a nice bank of points with lots of options for redemption.

Is the 3k BMI a promotion? Or is that the standard BMI credit for an HH stay when you opt for points+miles? I am only aware of the 1 mile/$ or small fixed miles options.

I'm a longtime Hilton fan - I've always been impressed at how well they treat Golds considering you don't really need any stays to be Gold. But for a suburban stay, I think I'd be looking at HGI's and Homewoods - good (if bland) properties, but wouldn't they only generate something like 500 BMI miles per stay?

I'm thinking more and more SPG as each day passes - mainly because I'm already familiar with it, I like the broader mix of properties, and I like the Aloft concept better than the typical suburban midscale options in the other programs. But I would need to listen to that HH 3k BMI option too...it just seems too easy.

YMMV....
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...t-qualify.html

That promotion is over I thought. Besides, I think any discussion of BMI should have a huge disclaimer that BMI is not a healthy airline, and although LH owns it right now, its future, and the future of its mileage program is quite murky.

Quite frankly pinniped, I wouldn't set your target on a single brand for all of next year, go with whoever has the best promotion at the time. From what we know right now, I'd say that's Hyatt in January (FFN + double stays towards elite) and Hilton in February and March (1 free night after every four stays), then see where to go in Q2 based on promtions and later in the year you might want to make some decisions to focus on brands for elite status based on where you end up. No hotel chain's top level elite status is great enough in my opinion to chase it and ignore the generous promos the chains have been running as of late.

Since I also know you're not anti-WN, you should remember that Hilton double dips are pretty good with WN, .5 credits per stay can add up pretty well along with your rental car credits and possibly flights (are you planning on using AA or WN to get there?)

Leaning towards WN simply for simplicity's sake. For these sub-500 mile flights, I don't see a big "AAdvantage" to AA. I would not achieve Plat based on these flights and I'm more likely to keep my int'l travel on *A. If I knew I was traveling often to another farther-flung AA city, it might be a different story.

DAL is much more pleasant for O&D. Racking WN credits with flights and cheap weekend rental cars is better than the few AA miles I'd get.

My travel won't really pick up until late spring so I'll miss out on most of the early-2010 stuff. But it's good point: I might be able to attain SPG Plat by using them as primary and still do a little promo-chasing here and there. A lack of elite status at a Hyatt Place should not matter too much.