The Canny Traveller: 101, Part 2 - Hotel Loyalty Programs

In The Canny Traveller: 101, Part 2, I’m going to talk about hotel loyalty programs and why you should join them and how to make best use of them.

The Frequent Flyer Program you have joined was most likely dependent on where you live and which airline best serves that area. Your strategy in choosing a hotel loyalty program will depend on different factors such as personal preference and which one offers the best plan for your needs.

As with Frequent Flyer Programs, join any and all hotel loyalty programs – I mean, they are free, so why not – but try and concentrate your patronage. I recommend that you have one that is your primary choice that you use when you can and one as back up. In my case, Starwood (Westin, Sheraton, W) is my first choice and Marriott is my second. This is helpful when you travel somewhere your first choice has no presence (for example, the west side of the Florida peninsula has no Starwood hotels but plenty of Marriotts).

So why be loyal to one hotel chain? Gaining status with a particular chain leads to nice rewards that will enhance your stays – room upgrades, late check outs, extra points, special offers, executive club access (at the platinum levels) and most importantly, free nights. Keep an eye on their websites for deals where you can sign up for double points and discounts etc.

Let’s take a look at some of the relative merits of three major hotel loyalty programs: Starwood Preferred Guest, Marriott Rewards and HHilton Honors.

The reason I chose SPG as my primary program was because it had no blackout dates for using points and nor did it have quotas on rewards rooms available. At the time, the competition did, but they have since come more into line with Starwood.

To earn Gold Preferred Status, you need to spend 25 nights or have 10 separate stays per calendar year. Platinum Preferred Status requires either 50 nights or 25 separate stays.
The Marriott Rewards Program has three levels. 10 nights per calendar year will earn you Silver, 50 nights will earn you Gold and 75 nights will earn you Platinum.

The Hilton HHonors Program Silver VIP level requires 4 separate stays or 10 nights to qualify. Gold VIP requires 36 nights, 16 separate stays or 60 base points and Diamond VIP requires 60 nights, 28 stays or 100,000 base points.

Having a program that allows you to earn status through separate stays makes it easier. On a stay of a few nights in a city with several Starwood brands, I will move hotels in order to get the separate qualifying stays. Plus, you will often find that one hotel is cheaper than its sister one night and vice versa the next and because the status gives you late check outs, you are not rushing to move from one hotel to the next and can still have a leisurely stay.

However, the problem with Starwood is that although it is very well represented at the high end with its Luxury Collection, W and Westin, it’s not very well represented at the low end. There’s the mid range Four Points by Sheraton and then only Aloft at the low end. Marriott has an excellent range of products from its luxury resorts and JW Marriotts through its mid range Courtyard down to a whole array of cheaper motels like Fairfield Inn. Hilton has lots of mid and low range products but does seem a bit thin on the ground at the very high end.

For a more detailed look at different hotel programs, try the Webflyer.com comparison tool: http://www.webflyer.com/programs/head2head/usat_index.php.

A Google search will also bring up any number of forums and articles going into the minutiae of the comparative benefits of hotel rewards programs.

Please note, that to earn these points, you do need to book directly with the hotels and not go through third party agents such as Expedia or Priceline. That is something to bear in mind if you see the same room at a cheaper price on those sites. In later blogs I will talk about when it makes sense to book hotels on third party sites and also how to bid on Priceline to get phenomenal deals on luxury hotels.