Backup Hotel Chain

I'm a long time SPG member and tend to stay in Starwood hotels if at all possible. However, we all know there are places that they don't have hotels, so I have used Hilton Honors as my backup chain.

However, I was just looking more closely at my HHonors account and it seems like that program sucks. I have stayed 28 nights at Hilton hotels this year and have earned less than 30k points which don't even get me a night in one of their mid-to-upper level hotels. This just doesn't seem right and it's making me wonder if perhaps I should consider a different backup chain.

Am I expecting too much? Is what HHonors is giving me about comparable to what I'd get from another chain or should I consider switching my backup chain? If I do switch, does anyone have a recommendation for a better backup chain? Note that it is key that a backup chain have hotels in many of the smaller cities and towns in the US. Marriott instantly springs to mind, but perhaps IHG or Hyatt might be options.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill

hmm...interesting...i just joined Hilton and received GO. Have an upcoming trip in oct so i'll be able to compare the benefits between GO SPG and GO HH. from what i hear GO at hh appears to have better benefits than GO at SPG.

weird how 28 stays earns you so little points but i'll be able to comment after oct. maybe accor??? i've only stayed at the sofitel in macau so can only comment on that location

You'll need to have a long, hard look at the Hyatt footprint and where you travel. Even Starwood has 2x the number of properties; Marriott, 7x.

Marriott has many options in small towns because they own Fairfield Inn and Springhill suites.

Marriott has the footprint, as does Hilton, but at Marriott there aren't significant benefits before Gold at fifty nights, although credit card and rollover can help on this requirement.

I think you will have better answers if you posted this in the Marriott and Hilton forums.

Do a search and you'll find this topic regularly covered. I chose Marriott, as Hyatt has a small number of properties (none in my last 3 project sites), and the HH program has crumbled over the last several years (I was top tier in both at one time). Come flavor of Marriott is about everywhere. My current site has 1 SPG but at least 7 Marriotts (no Hyatt, a couple of Hiltons)

There is no way that 28 nights only yielded 30k points

28 nights at a low rate of $100 per night yields 28k points
Plus 5 as a diamond equals 14k
Plus optional 5 equals 14k
Plus Hilton has a double promo or extra 1000 points running just about all this year equals another 28k
Plus 1000 per stay at Hilton equal up to 28k
Plus 6 points with a Hilton cc equals another 17k

I add that up to a possible 129k on a low rate of 100 bucks per night YMMV

Hyatt isn't really a back-up program in the sense that there are very, very few places with a Hyatt and no SPG option (and if you're a domestic US business traveller there may well be none at all).

So that leaves Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club, or stepping down a level and doing something like Carlson (whose domestic options outside of major cities are really sketchy) or Choice.

None of the big three have particularly great redemption schemes after recent changes. So I go with Hilton because I do enough stays a year to keep Gold which has pretty good on-property benefits. Also, I tend to find many HGI properties and even Hamptons to be better than the Marriott or PC alternative.

Agree - that looks wrong. Hilton still has a better earnings rate than SPG, so it would be a very odd reason not to like their programme. Of course, there are plenty of other reasons not to!

I avoid Hilton since I have had repeated problems with them not awarding points. They also expired a huge number of points without warning. I know... my fault. However, their points expire way too fast. By comparison, Starwood re-instated a very large number of expired points for me once. In fact, it's one of the reasons I've switched my 50+ night business to SPG. That, and they have the absolute most gracious, wonderful reservation people in the business. When it comes to phone service Starwood even beats Onstar (which is damn hard to do).

In any case, I would choose IHG as a second. When travelling in the US, Holiday Inn Express is one of the best values around, with no absurd Internet charges and a nice free breakfast. Nothing fancy of course, but you can always expect a clean decent room with them.

Well, there's tons of small towns in the US that only have hotels in Choice and/or Best Western and/or WyndhamRewards. So if you really want to have just about everywhere (that has points-earning hotels in the first place) covered, it's one (or more) of these that you may need to belong to. (However, of those three, only Choice has near-perpetual "rich" promos that -- at least if your stays are very short -- earns you more points faster than in just about any other program.)

As for Hyatt, it's not a backup program for SPG, rather it's a program which has such a small footprint, that some people who have Hyatt as their primary program use SPG as their backup!!!