Best Frequent Stay Hotel Program
Jun 16, 2006, 5:13 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Cullman, Alabama
Programs: Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, IHG Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 648
Best Frequent Stay Hotel Program
Looking for recommendations on which chain in 2006 currently has the best frequent stay hotel program. I am about to begin traveling again and have a lot of marriott, Holiday Inn, comfort inn/sleep inn, some hilton and embassy suite hotels in my area.
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
Jun 16, 2006, 12:30 pm
#2
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: CT/ Germany - Ich spreche deutsch
Programs: UA 1K, Bonvoy LTTE, HH Dia, HY Expl
Posts: 4,657
FYI, FT does not allow cross-posting (posting identical questions in more than one forum). I assume the moderator will close this thread or merge it with your current thread in MilesBuzz.
Jul 22, 2006, 11:16 pm
#3
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,554
Originally Posted by christianj
FYI, FT does not allow cross-posting (posting identical questions in more than one forum). I assume the moderator will close this thread or merge it with your current thread in MilesBuzz.
Aug 14, 2006, 7:35 pm
#4
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 262
Originally Posted by SimpleManToo
Looking for recommendations on which chain in 2006 currently has the best frequent stay hotel program. I am about to begin traveling again and have a lot of marriott, Holiday Inn, comfort inn/sleep inn, some hilton and embassy suite hotels in my area.
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
Probably depends on what cities you plan to stay in.
Aug 15, 2006, 5:10 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,934
Originally Posted by SimpleManToo
Looking for recommendations on which chain in 2006 currently has the best frequent stay hotel program. I am about to begin traveling again and have a lot of marriott, Holiday Inn, comfort inn/sleep inn, some hilton and embassy suite hotels in my area.
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
I would like a program that lets you win a lot of free nights over the course of say 6 months to a year. I used to use marriott and Holiday inn in the good old days when you could win a airplane trip anywhere in the world for under 365 total stays and consecutive nights counted.
Appreciate all posters inputs and explanations on who is best in 2006!
See, it depends COMPLETELY on bonuses, as well as how long your stays are*.
Once or twice a year (even more times to some targeted members), Choice (Comfort Inn/Sleep Inn/etc) has a promo where you get 8000 total (not 8000 points bonus) for every two stays. Now, if those are cheap $80 stays, you'd normally earn 1600 points for that, so what they do is "round up" the second stay so that the total of the two stays is 8000. They tout this as "a free stay for every 2 paid stays", but whether 8000 points or more are needed for a free stay depends on the property. Still, IF you're doing short stays (since all the extra points from longer stays are "wasted" in this promo), then I can't think of anything to beat it.
The other "bonus happy" program is Priority Club (Holiday Inn, etc). But there, half the bonuses are unpublicized ones, which you can ONLY find out about if you read the all the messages about promos in the Priority Club forum here in FlyerTalk.
The Hilton Family hotels don't tend to have very much in the ways of promos, and most of the promos they do have are targeted. Their main claim to fame is that even if you want airline miles with your stay, you STILL get points too.
(In my area Mariott is non-competitive, given that MY end goal with points is usually to convert them to miles, and so for myself I don't compare room redemption between chains, only earning differences. Only with Hilton, where the points were in addition to the miles, and where the points convert to miles at a most awful rate, do I actually redeem for rooms sometimes.)
Since it costs nothing, I would suggest you sign up for all the hotel programs you're considering, since that'll get them to start sending you email (including in some cases those targeted promos, which you can't possibly get if they don't have your email).
Then you'll have to judge for yourself, once you know all the promos that apply on a given week, which chain is best THAT WEEK. You'll likely find that to get the best return you'll have to juggle at least two chains because some months you'll much prefer the promo one has and other months the promo another one has, and a third chain might make more sense when nobody has promos you're interested in.
*Just in case it's not clear: Many earning structures, either for bonuses, or normal earning, are on a per-night basis or per-dollar basis, but others are on a per-stay basis. Obviously, with one-night stays a night is the same as a stay. But if you are doing longer stays, you get nothing extra with per-stay earnings, but you do get get more with a per-night or per-dollar basis. And if you're staying in an expensive city, you get nothing more for that on per-stay or per-night but you do on per-dollar. It takes a lot math to sort it all out, and only you can do that math because only you know each of your circumstances.
Aug 21, 2006, 8:37 pm
#6
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,554
Originally Posted by sdsearch
Different ones at different times of year!!!
See, it depends COMPLETELY on bonuses, as well as how long your stays are*.
Once or twice a year (even more times to some targeted members), Choice (Comfort Inn/Sleep Inn/etc) has a promo where you get 8000 total (not 8000 points bonus) for every two stays. Now, if those are cheap $80 stays, you'd normally earn 1600 points for that, so what they do is "round up" the second stay so that the total of the two stays is 8000. They tout this as "a free stay for every 2 paid stays", but whether 8000 points or more are needed for a free stay depends on the property. Still, IF you're doing short stays (since all the extra points from longer stays are "wasted" in this promo), then I can't think of anything to beat it.
The other "bonus happy" program is Priority Club (Holiday Inn, etc). But there, half the bonuses are unpublicized ones, which you can ONLY find out about if you read the all the messages about promos in the Priority Club forum here in FlyerTalk.
The Hilton Family hotels don't tend to have very much in the ways of promos, and most of the promos they do have are targeted. Their main claim to fame is that even if you want airline miles with your stay, you STILL get points too.
(In my area Mariott is non-competitive, given that MY end goal with points is usually to convert them to miles, and so for myself I don't compare room redemption between chains, only earning differences. Only with Hilton, where the points were in addition to the miles, and where the points convert to miles at a most awful rate, do I actually redeem for rooms sometimes.)
Since it costs nothing, I would suggest you sign up for all the hotel programs you're considering, since that'll get them to start sending you email (including in some cases those targeted promos, which you can't possibly get if they don't have your email).
Then you'll have to judge for yourself, once you know all the promos that apply on a given week, which chain is best THAT WEEK. You'll likely find that to get the best return you'll have to juggle at least two chains because some months you'll much prefer the promo one has and other months the promo another one has, and a third chain might make more sense when nobody has promos you're interested in.
*Just in case it's not clear: Many earning structures, either for bonuses, or normal earning, are on a per-night basis or per-dollar basis, but others are on a per-stay basis. Obviously, with one-night stays a night is the same as a stay. But if you are doing longer stays, you get nothing extra with per-stay earnings, but you do get get more with a per-night or per-dollar basis. And if you're staying in an expensive city, you get nothing more for that on per-stay or per-night but you do on per-dollar. It takes a lot math to sort it all out, and only you can do that math because only you know each of your circumstances.
See, it depends COMPLETELY on bonuses, as well as how long your stays are*.
Once or twice a year (even more times to some targeted members), Choice (Comfort Inn/Sleep Inn/etc) has a promo where you get 8000 total (not 8000 points bonus) for every two stays. Now, if those are cheap $80 stays, you'd normally earn 1600 points for that, so what they do is "round up" the second stay so that the total of the two stays is 8000. They tout this as "a free stay for every 2 paid stays", but whether 8000 points or more are needed for a free stay depends on the property. Still, IF you're doing short stays (since all the extra points from longer stays are "wasted" in this promo), then I can't think of anything to beat it.
The other "bonus happy" program is Priority Club (Holiday Inn, etc). But there, half the bonuses are unpublicized ones, which you can ONLY find out about if you read the all the messages about promos in the Priority Club forum here in FlyerTalk.
The Hilton Family hotels don't tend to have very much in the ways of promos, and most of the promos they do have are targeted. Their main claim to fame is that even if you want airline miles with your stay, you STILL get points too.
(In my area Mariott is non-competitive, given that MY end goal with points is usually to convert them to miles, and so for myself I don't compare room redemption between chains, only earning differences. Only with Hilton, where the points were in addition to the miles, and where the points convert to miles at a most awful rate, do I actually redeem for rooms sometimes.)
Since it costs nothing, I would suggest you sign up for all the hotel programs you're considering, since that'll get them to start sending you email (including in some cases those targeted promos, which you can't possibly get if they don't have your email).
Then you'll have to judge for yourself, once you know all the promos that apply on a given week, which chain is best THAT WEEK. You'll likely find that to get the best return you'll have to juggle at least two chains because some months you'll much prefer the promo one has and other months the promo another one has, and a third chain might make more sense when nobody has promos you're interested in.
*Just in case it's not clear: Many earning structures, either for bonuses, or normal earning, are on a per-night basis or per-dollar basis, but others are on a per-stay basis. Obviously, with one-night stays a night is the same as a stay. But if you are doing longer stays, you get nothing extra with per-stay earnings, but you do get get more with a per-night or per-dollar basis. And if you're staying in an expensive city, you get nothing more for that on per-stay or per-night but you do on per-dollar. It takes a lot math to sort it all out, and only you can do that math because only you know each of your circumstances.