Secondary hotel loyalty program suggestions
 

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question, and if not, sorry. I currently am a Hilton HHonors member. I'm trying to figure out which chain would make for a good back-up hotel loyalty program. I am doing both domestic and international travel, but more of the latter than the former.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks and safe travels for 2013!

Eric

If you don't travel often, I recommend IHG (Holiday Inn brand - http://www.priorityclub.com/hotels/us/en/home). They have a great Asia presence and if you apply for their co-branded Chase Visa card, you're Platinum status for life of the card. You also get one free night per year with this card. These are the two programs I have as a leisure traveler.

Secondary hotel loyalty program suggestions
 

I got a Chase Visa/Marriott Rewards card. It came with silver status. This has become my secondary hotel program. I like it as there are many Marriott family properties around the country. Worth a try.

However, Silver with Marriott basically gives you nothing.

I like SPG Gold, which comes with AmEx Plat or Centurion IIRC, or the similar SPG Preferred Plus (???) which comes with AAA. Both give 4 pm checkout guarantees (except at resorts and convention properties) and preferred rooms within the same category, but Gold now gives a welcome amenity of a few points, a drink, or internet IIRC. Gold might also give more points.

Second that. If there isn't a Hilton property where you're going there probably isn't a Hyatt, Marriott etc. either, but Holiday Inns & Express are more widespread. A bit down-market perhaps but hey, a bed is a bed.

There's also Best Western, lots of properties worldwide but as each is independently run you never know what you'll get.

It depends a bit on the location of the foreign travel. Carlson is strong in northern Europe, Accord in France, Farimont in Canada, some upscale chains in Asia, IIRC Best Western in Australia, etc. Hilton already has a good footprint, so I would be inclined to pick a secondary program with some interesting aspirational properties for fun.

I sign for every program where I stay. My main ones are Priority Club, Best Western, and Hilton. They all build up pretty fast for me. I have signed with others, and occasionaly get enough for a free night or so. It dosent hurt to have a lot of them, if you travel extensively.

I rarely stay at AmericInn, but on my last stay, they sent me $40.00. That's 40 bucks that I wouldn't have if I didn't sign up with them a few years ago.

Thanks for the info everybody. I travel at the most maybe 6-8 times per year, mostly to retain UA/*A Gold.

From what everybody's said, perhaps I ought to consider not only geographic coverage of the secondary vendor but whether or not they have an affinity card to go with them.

I would suggest Starwood, despite the above being an excellent point. The great thing about Starwood (like Hilton) is that award stays count. I'm a Plat with 50 nights and I only had 3 paid nights. So for a low-budget traveler like me (I don't like to pay more than $100/nt--I only do so for top tier properties), it's really terrific. Also, you can start off with Amex Platinum card to get SPG Gold off the bat and then get the biz and personal SPG cards, getting a nice bonus toward qualification. Also, SPG points are an excellent redemption value for low and mid-tier (up to Cat 5) using Cash & Points. But I'm points rich and cash poor, so YMMV.

Hmmm, all good points made! This is not going to be a slam dunk decision as I thought it might be. I'm flying to IDA tomorrow for our annual sales kick off meeting and will give it some thought in flight.

As a non-hotel owned option, consider hotels.com WelcomeRewards. You don't get any status perks, but you get 1 night free for every 10 you stay, and the best part is that you aren't tied to a particular chain. If you are planning on using this only when your primary chain isn't available, it is a good option since the selection is far broader than what any chain can provide.

WelcomeRewards is interesting and part of my mix, but it in effect acts as a 10% rebate (since the free night is a weighted average of the nightly rate paid on the other nights) while hotel-operated loyalty programs can far more routinely provide greater than 10% rebate returns, more so if combined with a cash-back program like that operated by topcashback.com, quidco, ebates, fatwallet, etc.

For secondary domestic US in urban areas, Kimpton has been on my radar for several years.

For secondary international ex-US in urban areas, some mix of Club Carlson and Priority Club have served me well, but I have rotating secondary programs based on the geographical market of relevance.

So, I've chosen to retool my thinking process and have decided that if there is no Hilton, as mentioned there will be none of the others. Not likely I'll be going somewhere where I have to gamble on the quality of the accommodations. I'm going to pick Marriott in the event I can't get into a Hilton and pick up their Visa card too.

Thanks for everybody's input!

Eric

I've always thought it would be fun to have a period as a Kimpton regular as well. A few years ago, a group of us was working in Seattle regularly. A couple people went Kimpton, a couple Starwood, and I was still chasing Marriott Travel Packages. The Kimpton guys always talked about welcome gifts (full bottles of decent wine, etc.), full suite upgrades, occasionally extras like complimentary Mariners tickets, and personalized Christmas gifts from the hotel.

I get the sense that the raw reward of a Marriott Travel Package exceeded their raw value in the form of free nights to paid nights, but wow did they have a different on-property experience than I did...

Gold with Marriott is solid, I would pursue that.