April 14, Loyalty Traveler Current Hotel Loyalty Promotions Guide

The frequent guest has the choice of many hotel loyalty promotions with little guidance to their relative value. Loyalty Traveler’s summary of current hotel loyalty promotions and limited time offers for the frequent guest are shown below.

Rate discounts and loyalty program bonuses are two types of hotel chain incentives to consider when booking travel. 

Rankings are subjective and subject to change. Your specific travel pattern may result in some promotions ranking more favorably for you. When assigning a key rank I take into consideration the following factors and probably more: 

• The opportunity for a significantly high-value return on hotel spend in terms of a hotel rebate in free nights and discounted  hotel nights. 
• Current loyalty program promotions and offers from other hotel chains.
• Past loyalty program offers and rates for the specific hotel chain and loyalty program.
• Current economic conditions in the travel industry and hotel location.

Loyalty Traveler ranks the consumer value of hotel loyalty promotions on a Five Key Scale.

Five Keys = one of the best hotel loyalty promotions of the year.

Four Keys = high value rebate on the cost of hotel stays.

Three Keys = good value hotel loyalty promotion or rate offer

Two Keys = a bonus value if you play, but not necessarily worth going out of your way.

One Key = There is limited or no value. You are likely paying more than the bonus value.

April 14 HELP Summary for Current Hotel Loyalty Promotions by Program 

Best Western Rewards 

3-key Promotion $50 gift card after two stays by May 30 (March 30, 2010)

Elite Status Match Offer (February 19, 2010) FlyerTalk members are stating there is an accompanying offer for 5,000 bonus points after first stay.

Carlson Hotels – Goldpoints Plus

5-Key promotion: Award Nights On Sale through May 31: Radisson 50% off, Country Inn and Park Inn 25% off

4-Key promotion Country Inn & Suites Third Night Free is Truly a Free Night (March 18, 2010)

3-key promotion Up to Quadruple Points for stays through May 28, 2010 (March 31, 2010) This can be a 4-key or 5-key promotion if you have 4-night stays at a Radisson which combined with 50% free nights can be one or two free nights earned. 4x points is 80 points/$1. Top category hotel award at 50% discount is just 30,000 points. $800 on a 4-night stay will earn 65,000 points with online booking bonus.

Choice Hotels – Choice Privileges

3-key promotion Spring Promotion Stay Twice and Earn 8,000 points Feb 22-April 30

(good for free night at 1,500 hotels)

Hilton HHonors

4-key promotion Nine bonus airline miles promotions that may be combined with free night promotion (April 13, 2010)

4-key promotion Fast Ways to Free Stays (Earn a free night after every 4 stays or 10 nights through June 30) (April 7, 2010)

Hilton HHonors earn unlimited free nights through June 30 – Fast Ways to Free Stays promotion (April 4, 2010)

Hyatt Gold Passport

Limited Time Special Rate Sale US, Canada, and Caribbean (ends Wed. April 14, 11:59pm CST) Prepaid, nonrefundable rates for stays through July 5, 2010.

5-key promotion – Big Welcome Back promotion for one free night after every two stays March 26-June 30 (March 26, 2010)

5-key promotion – Hyatt Gold Passport Instant Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite Fast-track (Feb 21, 2010)

3-Key Limited Time Offer American Express Membership Rewards Hyatt $100 certificate for 2-night stay for 1,500 Membership Rewards points through May 31, 2010. Certificate valid in US, Canada, and Caribbean through December 30, 2010.

InterContinental Hotels Group – Priority Club

2-Key promotion Earn 200 miles or 1,000 points per night up to 20,000 points or 4,000 miles through April 30, 2010 (Dec 22, 2010)

Priority Club PointBreaks 5,000 points per night awards to June 30 (March 29, 2010)

IHG Friend & Family Hotel Rates (Dec 26, 2010)

Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) – Leaders Club Rewards 

3-key promotion – Earn 1 free night after every 5 hotel stays in 2010. Must stay in at least two different hotels. Bellagio in Las Vegas is LHW member. (April 13, 2010)

Marriott Rewards

5-Key promotion – May 1-July 31 New members of Marriott Rewards earn a free night after two stays  (April 5, 2010)

3-key promotion – $50 Gift card for weekend stays at Marriott to April 18 (Feb 24, 2010)

1-Key offer – Marriott Rewards Instant Redemption Awards (March 24, 2010)

Marriott Rewards Triple Airline Miles through April 30 (Feb 18, 2010)

Marriott Rewards 2010 MegaBonus Feb 1- April 30, 2010 (Dec 22, 2010)

Starwood Preferred Guest

4-key promotion $100 Amazon Gift Card for 2 Westin Stays in US/Canada by May 13 (Feb 20, 2010)

3-key promotion SPG link: Pay Your Birthyear Rate (This promotion can be an incredible savings or no savings depending on the hotel and your birthyear.) LT post 4/28/2009

3-key limited time offer Buy up to 20,000 Starpoints at 20% discount = $28/1,000 points. SPG link

2-key promotion SPG up to 4x points through April 15, 2010 (Dec 18, 2009)

1-key promotion Four Points Breakfast for a Buck (April 12, 2010)

Starpoints Airline Direct Deposit is Better for United, Continental, and Singapore miles (March 25, 2010)

Wyndham Rewards

2-key promotion Lufthansa Miles & More 1,000 miles per stay, up to 4,000 miles March 15-May 15.

Hotel Points-to-Miles Conversion Tables for 9 hotel programs and 7 U.S. airlines (March 30, 2010)

Other Offers:

5-key offer – Condé Nast/Competitours - Condé Nast/Competitours 250,000 miles giveaway for 200 words by April 30   (LT post April 9, 2010)

Frequentflyerbonuses.com – Five Years, Five Ways to Win (2005-2010)

Frequentflyerbonuses.com 5^th Anniversary Contest – Prize is $250 Marriott Gift card or 10,000 Spirit Airlines miles

Congratulations to Patrick Sojka of FFB for five years. Loyalty Traveler had its four year anniversary this month.

The hotel media is acting like this is the first year there has been competition for hotel loyalty program members. I see loyalty wars as a continual endeavor and there is really nothing remarkable about 2010 except for the fact that elite status is easier to get with several programs this year.

Best Western Rewards is currently offering instant elite to members of other programs. So what?

Hyatt has been giving away elite status for a year now and most programs will match your elite status with another hotel program.

My favorite line from the SmartMoney article is from Bjorn Hanson of New York University Tisch Center for Hospitality, “Before you switch loyalties, though, crunch the numbers on rewards to make sure you are getting the best deal.”

Great advice for a loyalty member, and I agree with this, but does anyone care to lay out a method for how to “crunch the numbers” on hotel awards in different hotel loyalty programs?

In the April 2010 issue of InsideFlyer I proposed a method for comparing hotel loyalty program awards. The InsideFlyer article is not easy reading, and I fault myself for not being a better writer, however, I wanted to show a way I think allows a frequent guest to “crunch the numbers” on hotel awards to compare hotel award value between programs. I think the method works for a basic comparison.

The rest of this post is a step by step explanation of the problems encountered when trying to compare hotel programs and award value between programs, followed by an example of how I compare award value for seven hotels in San Francisco. This article is also not an easy read, but useful if you are into calculating the value of hotel points.

Difficulties with calculating hotel award value across programs

There are several difficulties encountered when trying to crunch the numbers on hotel awards.

Here are a few of the variables:

Hotel loyalty programs have different rates for earning points.

• Carlson Hotels goldpoints plus gives 20 points per $1 for Radisson Hotel stays, 15 points per $ for Country Inn & Suites.
• Hilton HHonors members earn 15 points per $1 if earning preference is set for Points & Points, but only 10 points per $1 if earning Points & Miles.
• Gold Passport members earn 5 points per $1.
• Starwood Preferred Guest members earn 2 points per $1.
• Marriott Rewards and IHG Priority Club Rewards members earn 10 points per $1, except when staying at Marriott’s Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites, or IHG’s Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites.

Award Categories Are Difficult to Align Across Programs    

Hotel loyalty programs use different award levels for classifying hotel awards and the hotels are unevenly distributed across award levels for different programs.

Is a Hilton category 7 the same as a Starwood category 7 award?

A person on FlyerTalk made an analysis the other day equating these two award levels in a comparison of which program offered the best value. The Hilton San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf (category 7) or Embassy Suites, Seaside, a few miles from my home in Monterey, California (category 7) are nowhere near the same hotel market segment as the Hotel Gritti Palace (SPG category 7) in Venice, Italy or the Mystique in Santorini, Greece (SPG Category 7).

Uneven Distribution of Hotels Among Award Categories

The distribution of hotels within a program’s award category levels is variable. Hilton has just 42 hotels of 3,500 hotels in category 1 for 7,500 points a night; a little over 1% of its properties. Marriott Rewards has 288 hotels in category 1 after the March 8, 2010 changes. Marriott has almost as many hotels as Hilton in its loyalty program, yet seven times the number of hotels in its category 1 award level.

You could argue that Hilton has higher quality properties justifying fewer hotels in category 1. I don’t buy that argument.

Elite Status impacts the rate you earn loyalty points

Elite status offers the potential for up to 50% more points, but earning elite status is dependent on your hotel travel pattern. Marriott only counts nights as the one route to elite status, while all the other programs offer an additional route to elite status. The rest (except for Priority Club) allow elite status qualification for fewer stays than nights. This is the more favorable route to elite for a frequent guest who typically only has one night stays. Hilton HHonors allows elite membership to be earned through spending. Priority Club counts total earned points for elite qualification and bonus points earned through promotions and partner activity count.

Crunching the Numbers the goldpoints plus way

Carlson’s goldpoints plus award calculator shows the commonly used method for comparing hotel loyalty programs. The number of hotel nights is multiplied by the average room rate and the total base points are calculated.

Example of loyalty program comparison at goldpoints plus www.dothemathsite.com.

The calculations shown are based on $3,750 in annual hotel spend.

The calculator accounts for elite status, but does not tell you what level elite status is being used. It appears each night is being counted as a separate stay.

Elite Status

goldpoints plus = Gold after 20 stays or 35 nights = 50% elite bonus

$3,750 x 20 points/$1 = 75,000 base points + 37,500 elite points = 112,500 points

Marriott Rewards = Silver after 10 nights= 20% elite bonus

$3,750 x 10 points/$1 = 37,500 base points + 7,500 elite points = 45,000 points

Hilton HHonors = Gold after 16 stays or 36 nights = 25% elite bonus

$3,750 x 10 points/$1 = 37,500 base points + 18,750 bonus points (Points & Points 50% bonus) + 9,375 elite points = 65,625 points

Priority Club Rewards = Gold after reaching 20,000 points or 15 nights = 10% elite bonus.

$3,750 x 10 points/$1 = 37,500 base points + 3,750 elite points = 41,250 points

Starwood Preferred Guest = Gold after 25 nights or Platinum with 25 stays.

$3,750 x 2 points/$1 = 7,500 base points + 3,750 elite points = 11,250 points.

Note the dothemathsite.com calculator inconsistency for HHonors v. goldpoints plus.

Goldpoints plus is calculated using Gold status which requires 20 stays or 35 nights. Obviously the stays requirement is used for goldpoints plus in this example based on 25 hotel nights. But Hilton HHonors Gold is reached with 16 stays or 36 nights. The calculation shown for the dothemathsite.com result is based on nights for HHonors and results in just a Silver elite 15% bonus. Silver elite requires 4 stays or 10 nights.

Actually HHonors Gold elite should be used to be consistent in the comparison or the goldpoints plus points should also be based on Silver elite and only a 25% bonus for a total 93,750 goldpoints plus points rather than 112,500 points.

The inconsistency in the dothemathsite.com is a calculation error and not the main issue with this hotel loyalty program comparison method.

The real problem I see?  Using free nights earned as a basis for comparing hotel programs on the surface seems like a reasonable measure for comparing the value of different hotel loyalty programs, but I find this method has a couple of problems that are not so apparent.

First, the category 1 level comparison implies all category 1 levels are equivalent among the different programs. I have already explained how this is not the case between Hilton and Marriott.

Starwood Preferred Guest is another program with a pretty vacant list of category 1 hotel properties. There were around 75 Starwood hotels in category 1 in 2005 and today in 2010 there are just 29 hotels in category 1. As the number of hotels in Starwood has increased, the number of hotels available as category 1 hotel awards has decreased.

The second problem is with the mid category comparison.  The calculation explanation on DotheMathSite.com states the middle category is used for comparison.

The calculator bases Hilton awards on category 3 at 25,000 points. This does not account for the recent changes which makes category 4 the middle award level. Regardless of the Hilton category level used, there is no basis for comparing programs on each program’s defined middle category level. That just doesn’t align with real hotel award placement.

When the lights go down in the City

San Francisco is a good example for showing how this arbitrary alignment of hotel award categories is not grounded in the actual placement of hotels.

San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf has hotels in all the major hotel chains. They are all fairly identical within a couple of blocks of each other, three or four stories, and none with anything particularly outstanding in their architectural features or amenities. They are all upscale hotels in the same hotel market segment with similar room rates most of the time.

Here are the actual hotel category placements for seven hotels in this area.

Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf = goldpoint plus category 4 = 40,000 points

Hilton Fisherman’s Wharf = HHonors category 7 = 50,000 points

Holiday Inn Fisherman’s Wharf = Priority Club tier 3 = 25,000 points

Holiday Inn Express Fisherman’s Wharf = Priority Club tier 3 = 25,000 points

Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf = Gold Passport category 3 = 12,000 points

Marriott Courtyard Fisherman’s Wharf = Marriott Rewards category 5 = 25,000 points

Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf = Starwood Preferred Guest category 4 = 10,000 points

My Award Value Analysis Method for Comparing Across Programs

The main issue to address is the need to adjust these awards requiring different number of points to a common scale to allow a value comparison.

Step 1. Determine the room rate which requires an actual hotel stay date. I pick Tuesday, March 23, 2010.

Step 2. Calculate award value for each hotel based on room rate divided by points needed for award night.

Step 3. Apply an adjustment factor to correlate the rate hotel points are earned to the award value to create a common scale for comparison. The award value adjustment factor is explained below.

This table shows the results of steps one and two.

Step three is using an adjustment factor to place each hotel program on a similar scale. For example the Hilton HHonors member earning Points & Points is accumulating base points and bonus points at the rate of 15 points per US dollar. The Starwood Preferred Guest member earns points at the rate of 2 points per $1. Reaching 10,000 points for the Sheraton award night could require as much as $5,000 in hotel spend while the HHonors non-elite member would only need to spend $3,334 to earn 50,000 points.

Elite status bonus points, promotion bonus points, credit card transaction points, and partner activity points are additional variables for earning points that are significant factors in real travel.

But for now, this is the baby steps introduction to crunching the award numbers. This adjustment to award value to enable comparison between programs will only consider base points and elite bonus points similar to the calculations in the DotheMathSite.com analysis.

Hotel Award Adjustment Factors to place awards on similar scale of 10 base points/$1)

Adjusted Award Values for Hotels at Fisherman’s Wharf San Francisco

 The gap between the programs closes up. You can see the Hilton Points & Points earner falls in the middle of the pack. Hyatt and Marriott are at the top, however, they are also the most expensive hotels for that night. Using points for these two hotels is great for an award night, but not so desirable if paying cash. If one program is consistently higher priced than another for same market segment hotels, then you may need to spend more money to stay all the hotel nights you need during the year.

Award values ranked by hotel and program:

1. Hyatt  7.88
2. Marriott  7.16
3. Radisson  5.80
4. Holiday Inn Express  5.52
5. Hilton (Points & Points)  4.05
6. Holiday Inn   3.96
7. Sheraton   2.98
8. Hilton (Points & Miles)  2.70

Holiday Inn Express ($138) and Hilton ($135) have similar prices and Holiday Inn Express comes out a significantly higher award value at 5.52 compared to Hilton’s 4.05.

And if you take Hilton HHonors Points & Miles, meaning your rate of earning Hilton points is reduced by one-third the base points, then award value for Hilton is the lowest of the lot.

While Starwood comes out low at 2.98 for a member without elite status, the impact of elite status on award value is quite apparent.

Adjusting Award Value to Account for Elite Status

Members may earn as many as 50% more points per hotel dollar spend dependent on elite status.

Throw in a low elite status and now the Starwood Preferred Guest has a higher award value at the Sheraton than the Holiday Inn and matches the award value for the Hilton Points & Points earner.

Here are the award values ranked for the Fisherman’s Wharf hotels and low level elite status:

1. Hyatt    9.05
2. Marriott Courtyard   8.59
3. Radisson   7.25
4. Holiday Inn Express   6.07
5. Sheraton   4.47
6. Hilton (P&P)   4.46
7. Holiday Inn    4.36
8. Hilton (P&M)  3.11

The award value ranking changes again when considering top elite status. This is primarily due to Starwood not increasing at all from low level elite as an effect of SPG Platinum status while Hyatt increases from 15% to 30% and the other programs all increase to a 50% elite bonus.  

The rankings shift again when the elite bonus points of top-tier loyalty members are factored into the earning side of the award value equation. Courtyard now moves to the top and Priority Club leaps above Hilton. This is due to the fact that a Priority Club Platinum member is earning 50% more points at 15 points per $1 in hotel spend. The Hilton Points & Points member is only earning 33% more points at 20 points per $1 as a Diamond member, compared to 15 points per dollar for the HHonors member with no elite status.

Hotel award value rank for Fisherman’s Wharf for high elite loyalty members

1. Courtyard  by Marriott   10.74
2. Hyatt  10.23
3. Radisson   8.70
4. Holiday Inn Express   8.28
5. Holiday Inn  5.94
6. Hilton(Points & Points)  5.40
7. Sheraton   4.47
8. Hilton (Points & Miles)  4.05

The Missing Factor – Promotions, Promotions, Promotions!

Promotions are variable. My opinion from watching promotions across the different loyalty programs for several years is the promotion points earned with Starwood, Hyatt, and Priority Club make up a far higher percentage of total points earned during the course of a year of hotel travel than seen with Hilton or Marriott. Actually quantifying the promotion variable is difficult and the ability to earn promotion points is dependent on your travel pattern.

Ignoring promotions favors Hilton and goldpoints plus due to the higher level of base points earned per $1. In real travel promotion points and other bonus points from credit cards and partner activities are additional factors to be considered. Over the past couple of years Hilton HHonors has taken the lead with credit card earning while falling behind on promotion points earning compared to other programs.

So what’s my point?

The bottom line and the point of this post is to illustrate how “crunching the numbers” is actually quite a bit more involved than one might think when reading a simple statement from the SmartMoney.com, “Before you switch loyalties…crunch the numbers on rewards to make sure you are getting the best deal.”

I have thought about how to crunch the numbers to compare awards between programs. I present a method here that is far from perfect, but at least provides a simple starting point for comparing award values between hotel loyalty programs.  I think this method is more accurate and fair in its comparison of hotel award value between programs than I have seen in other analyses.

[Article correction April 12, 2010 - The original version of this article incorrectly listed Gold elite status as requiring 40 nights when it is 35 nights or 20 stays. This error did not affect any of the calculations or analysis.]

Today I put some more time into analyzing the category changes for Hilton HHonors.

Hilton HHonors = 3,551 hotels (Waldorf Astoria Collection has additional 19 hotels)

• USA = 3,139 hotels;  88.4% of hotel properties
• International = 412 hotels;  11.6% of hotel properties 

Category 7 =  117 hotels

• 68 USA/Puerto Rico
• 49 international

• 22 hotels made double category jump from Category 5 to Category 7
• 95 hotels increased from Category 6 to Category 7

HHonors Category 6  =  180 hotels

• 122 USA
• 58 international

• 3 hotels jumped 3 categories from Category 3 to Category 6 (Brisbane and Perth, Australia, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.)
• 42 hotels made a double category leap.
• (45 hotels made a double category or more leap; 25% of hotels in Category 6.)
• This 25% jump from Category 3 or 4 to Category 6 is similar                                                                                                          to 25% hotels jumping from Category 5 to Category 7.  
• 122 hotels went from Category 5 to Category 6
• 13 Category 6 hotels from 2009 remained in Category 6 after January 15 shift.

HHonors Category 5 = 462 hotels

• 347 USA
• 115 international

HHonors Category 4

• 1,110 USA
• 127 international

HHonors Category 3

• 1,340 USA
• 56 international

HHonors Category 2

• 115 USA
• 3 international

HHonors Category 1

• 37 USA
• 4 international

412 hotels international excluding WAC

3,139 hotels USA

Does anyone know where to find a list of InterContinental Hotels for 30,000 points and hotels at 40,000 points?

The American Red Cross released $10 million dollars today for the Haiti relief effort.

Here is a list of hotel loyalty programs I found for donating your hotel points for cash donations to the American Red Cross.

Choice Privileges 1,000 point blocks = $5

Hilton HHonors 10,000 points = $25  (Jan 21 update: Hilton Worldwide is matching member contributions to $250,000)

IHG Priority Club 10,000 point blocks
Donation Value = $40

Marriott Rewards
American Red Cross 18,000 points = $50
33,000 points = $100
60,000 points = $250
180,000 points = $1,000

International Red Cross/Red Crescent 10,000 points = $25

Marriott donated $500,000 to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort.

Starwood Preferred Guest 4,000 point blocks = $50

(SPG is  matching donations from members through February 15.)

Wyndham Rewards 5,500 = $25; 10,500 points = $50; 20,500 points = $100.

Best Western Rewards World Vision donations: 5,000-12,500 points for supplies

Jan 21 update: Hyatt Gold Passport 5,000 points = $40 to Red Cross. email goldpassport@hyatt.com or call 1-800-228-3360 to donate.

 Most airlines also have an option to donate miles to charitable organizations.

Hyatt Gold Passport “The Next Big Thing” promotion is incredible with combined promotion benefits for both points and miles. Oct. 1 2009 – Jan 31, 2010.

Hyatt Gold Passport promotion registration link.

1.       Earn a free night after every two stays. Loyalty Traveler Sep. 17

2.       Earn double elite stay credit. (Diamond membership in 13 stays or Platinum in 3 stays.)

3.       Earn 2,500 airline miles after every two nights until Dec 31, 2009. Loyalty Traveler Oct. 5

4.       Earn Hyatt Gold Passport G bonus with most hotel stays. Loyalty Traveler Nov 9

Starwood Preferred Guest up to 4x points

January 5 – April 15, 2010.

Registration required between January 5 and March 31, 2010.

SPG Promotion Link

Double base points (1 or 2 night stay) = 4 points/$1

Triple base points (3 night stay) = 6 points/$1

Quadruple base points (4 nights or more) = 8 points per $1

This promotion is combinable with other promotions. Elite bonuses are additional.

Loyalty Traveler Dec 18

Hilton HHonors free night after 4 stays or 10 nights

January 7 – March 31, 2010

Posted on FlyerTalk by HamptonInsider this promising HHonors promotion for a free night valid across the Hilton system after 4 stays or 10 nights. The promotion details are not released yet, so at this point the rumor is just a seemingly reputable insider pre-release on FlyerTalk. There will likely be some restrictions on hotel reward nights redemption and perhaps some hotel exclusions, but overall this may be a sign of a new style of promotion activity from Hilton HHonors.

The points increases in 2010 categories is not so bad a change if the HHonors program makes it easier to earn free nights with promotions like the current 25,000 points after 4 stays and what looks to be a free night offer coming in January.

The leisure traveler may find HHonors a lifestyle deal with their two-pronged approach to rewarding loyalty membership. HHonors may see a return of the HHonors points traveler who can earn some lucrative bonuses on hotel stays. Combine the points budget traveler with the big fish spender putting $40,000 on the HHonors co-branded credit card for complimentary HHonors Diamond elite annual membership.  The Diamond lifestyler from both ends of the economic spectrum can find good value with HHonors. Value gives a traveler reason to put more effort into a Hilton hotel choice.

Marriott Rewards

MegaBonus 25,000 to 60,000 points depending on offer and nights stayed.

Feb 1- April 30, 2010.

Members are receiving new Marriott Rewards 2010 Megabonus offers. Marriott targets members with different offers.

Marriott Rewards PointSavers Plus 10% discount or 15% discount for Gold and Platinum elite members.

There are still three weeks to book a discounted discount hotel nights reward with the special PointSavers offer through January 15, 2010.

Update January 5, 2010: My personal MegaBonus offer is a free night (category 1-4 hotel) after two stays. Limit of one free night may be earned and free night to be redeemed by August 31, 2010. This offer is essentially a 20,000 points value if used for a Category 4 night. I have no elite status with Marriott Rewards.

IHG Priority Club Rewards

1,000 bonus points per night or 200 bonus miles up to maximum 20,000 points or 4,000 miles (20 nights).

Priority Club Rewards Registration Link

20,000 points is a rather weak offer from IHG considering this is only 50% of the points needed for one free night at a top tier InterContinental Hotel costing 40,000 points. The points-hungry tactic with IHG is to play the promotion registration game with Priority Club Rewards. A member can average 5,000 to 8,000 points per night for stays in IHG brand hotels.

Skeptical?

Read this FlyerTalk thread.

Hilton $6-9/1,000 points
Hyatt $15-$20/1,000 points
IHG Priority Club $7-$10/1,000 points
Marriott Rewards $7-10/1,000 points
Starwood Preferred Guest $35-$50/1,000 points

The comment had me thinking this past week about a method for making an accurate and precise calculation. I do not have the advanced mathematical tools to create a sophisticated analysis. Here is a great business idea for a fellow entrepreneur. Create computer programs that can evaluate high value redemptions for points and provide a list of hotels with great value for points.

My Loyalty Traveler corollary applies for this analysis:

“Points only have potential value until they are redeemed.”

Location is the key component of any program assessment when comparing one hotel chain to another. You have a good idea of the value of Starpoints or HHonors points if those are the points currency you frequently work with for your hotel stays. When it comes to comparing hotel programs and the value of points, then location comes into play along with other factors.

1.       Location – the objective variable. Look at the hotels in a particular city and compare points cost to rates for specific dates. That is what I have done for this assessment and in tribute to the Colbert Show I have titled this piece “Better Know a City”.

2.       Potential to earn points in the hotel loyalty program. This is the subjective variable and is related to the promotions offered, hotel stay pattern, elite status, and credit card earning.

My subjective evaluation of points earning ranking:

a.       IHG Priority Club

b.      Starwood/Hyatt

c.       Hilton/Marriott

Better Know a City – New York City

NYC is the most expensive hotel city in the US and therefore the hotel categories are also high for the different chains.

I picked a 3-night stay for Monday through Wednesday nights, April 5-8, 2010.

This is a date far enough in the future that awards were available 49 of 50 hotels in the city of New York and rates have probably not been discounted yet. Hotels typically begin heavy discounting within a few weeks of a stay date when occupancy is too low.

As will be seen from this analysis, the typically high hotel category placement for New York City hotels gives IHG Priority Club a competitive advantage in a hotel loyalty program comparison.

Priority Club bases the cost of a free night on hotel brand rather than hotel category. For this reason the cost in points for a free night at the Candlewood Suites in New York City is the same 15,000 points as a free night at the Candlewood Suites in Flowood, Mississippi.

Here are some observations on free night award searches across hotel loyalty programs:

1.       Starwood Hotels is the easiest program to check award availability compared to cash price. The initial search results for a location show the cash room rate, free night availability, and Cash & Points, if available. The search results also show the hotel category level for points. A member must be logged in as a member to check award availability with the other hotel chains.

2.       Hilton and Marriott require a check of the hotel’s homepage to see Hotel Category level. Hyatt requires a check of hotel category through Gold Passport award chart links.

3.       Marriott Rewards design is a mess. Has it always been this way?

I searched New York, New York and up to 92 hotels were displayed. I saw no function on the webpage to narrow this list down to just NYC downtown hotels.

Hilton and Starwood both offer a function to limit the geographic search to within a few miles of the location desired. Marriott Rewards did not even show a New York City hotel on page 1 of the search results.

I ended up searching by Category. The problem here is only one category could be searched at a time. I had to check Category 8, then Category 7, then Category 6, each time starting the search from scratch with New York City and filtering the 90+ hotel list down to the desired hotels so I would see only NYC listings.

New York City Results:

Hyatt Gold Passport  

Redemption value $20.02 for 2 hotels;

range $19.21 to $20.83

The best deal is Grand Hyatt New York, a Category 4 hotel at 15,000 points per night.

Hyatt Gold Passport in New York City

Starwood Preferred Guest  

Redemption value $22.14 per 1,000 points for 9 hotels;

range $14.40 – $34.92

Starwood Preferred Guest in New York City

SPG typically is a poor value for points when redeeming high category hotel properties. An unexpected result in this study was the relatively good redemption value for the Category 7, St. Regis New York. At $845 per night or 30,000 points, the points value of $28.16/1,000 points actually came out as one of the best deals for the SPG member in New York City. But seriously, $845 per night? That is some Wall Street level cash to spend for a hotel night.

4 of 9 Starwood hotels had a redemption value of less than $20 per 1,000 points.  That is a poor value and far below the $40 to $50 per 1,000 points a member can easily receive in many locations. I’d spend cash and save my points for another day.

Hilton HHonors  

Redemption value $6.68 per 1,000 points (17 hotels);

range $4.91-10.98 based on 2009 category levels.

Hilton HHonors in New York City

If all these properties move up one category in 2010, then the

2010 redemption value = $5.62 per 1,000 points

range will be $3.98-$8.78.

The Waldorf=Astoria was the only New York City hotel not available as an award among the 50 hotels searched across the different hotel chains. The hotel was available for Sunday night April 4 at 40,000 points (50,000 points as of January 15, 2010.)

Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square was the only hotel to have a redemption value over $10/1,000 points, however, this hotel was by far the most expensive Hilton brand property in the city for the April dates at $439 per night for this Category 6 hotel. The Waldorf Towers was only $399 for the same dates.

Marriott Rewards

Redemption value = $7.54/1,000 points;

range $5.97 to $8.63  (11 hotels)

Marriott Rewards in New York City

 

 

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club

Redemption value = $9.96/1,000 points;

range $7.00 to $17.00  (10 hotels)

IHG Priority Club in New York City

Conclusion: My initial off-the-top-of-my-head estimates of points redemption value were within the range I found for New York City with the exception of Starwood Preferred Guest where the value was significantly lower than I estimated.

In my defense, SPG has poor redemption value at most high category hotels. I have repeatedly made this criticism of the program on Loyalty traveler blog. The St. Regis New York at $845 per night is an exception to the rule. This is actually a good use of 30,000 points for a SPG category 7 hotel.

I have never actually redeemed points for any hotel higher than a category 5 in the Starwood hotel chain. My analyses generally conclude a member is better off paying the big bucks for a high category hotel and saving your points for higher value hotel stays at Category 2 to 4 hotels and Cash & Points stays.

As someone who has burned several hundred thousand Starpoints, I typically get around $50 per 1,000 points with my free night redemptions. Cash & Points is usually the high value deal. Unfortunately, there were few offers of Cash & Points rates for the New York City Starwood Hotels so far in advance of the April date.

Priority Club and Hyatt Gold Passport show high value points redemption opportunities. Points & Cash rates with Priority Club provides even higher value for your points at these hotels.

Hilton and Marriott both showed redemption values in the lower range I initially estimated. Hilton, Marriott, and SPG offer better value when you have a 4 or 5 night stay and receive a discount on points.

IHG Priority Club and Hyatt Gold Passport are easily the winners for best value in the Better Know a City for your hotel points stays in New York.

And it is magic when after 10 minutes waiting in the elite security line at the crowded airport, you barely get on your plane just before it taxies out of the gate. You reflect on the frazzled family who walked up to the elite check-in airport counter just in front of you, each parent cradling a crying toddler, with a hands-free wandering preschooler lagging behind dragging a backpack, a babystroller under Dad’s arm, two suitcases, two backpacks, and a purse.  You watched as you moved closer to the elite member check-in counter while the parents were steered away from the Star Alliance Gold members check-in line to the hopelessly long economy class general members’ line extending halfway down the terminal. They were supposed to depart on the same flight as you, but they hadn’t even arrived at the security zone as you passed through the detectors and rushed off to the gate. They are still waiting in some non-elite fliers’ line while you are comfortably seated in First Class as the plane heads toward the runway.

Elite level status has practical implications in the frequent flier world beyond upgrades and airport lounges.

I haven’t been on a plane in the past few months. I watched scenarios like I described here over a number of years when I traveled as a United Airlines Mileage Plus elite member. I flew over 100,000 miles a year for several years primarily as a means of flying comfortably and having the privilege to hang out at airport lounges during international flights.

Joe Sharkey has a piece posted this week on his blog, Joe Sharkey At Large, “Continental Airlines is the Latest Airline to Diss Lower-Level Elite-Status Customers”. His piece is about how Continental Airlines offers enhancements to the most frequent fliers in the 100,000 flight miles per year category and new super-tier called Presidential Platinum elite for the cream of the Platinum fliers.

Flying 100,000 miles is expensive for a leisure traveler. I held United 1K for a couple of years with less than $2,500 in spending on flights annually, but then there was another $1,500 or so for my wife’s flights. And then add another $4,000 to $5,000 for lodging, and then add daily expenses when traveling. 

$4,000 to $5,000 in airfare was one expense I had to cut back, about 30% of my annual travel budget, to have some money available to put into Loyalty Traveler business expenses. Loyalty Traveler was founded as a business for explaining the value of elite status with travel loyalty programs and ironically I had to give up elite status air travel to conserve resources for the business. I hope to get back to a much higher level of air travel in the next year or two.

Right now my focus is maintaining high elite status in a couple of hotel programs – Hyatt Gold Passport and Starwood Preferred Guest – for my hotel travel. I just suffer like the masses when I have to get on a plane.

Ed Perkins wrote a piece on SmarterTravel.com, “Dollars Trump Miles as a Measure of Airline Loyalty”. Ed had an issue with upgrading a United flight using miles. He could not get an advance confirmation of the upgrade.

My experience of traveling around the world as a United 1K was a blast when I could buy a $600 ticket from California to Singapore, upgrade my ticket to a business class seat with a systemwide certificate (SWU), hang out at the international lounge in SFO before the flight, and then pop into the United Red Carpet Club at Narita Airport Tokyo for a free shower and a couple of glasses from the automatic beer dispenser. My cheap economy ticket also allowed me to earn 40,000 to 50,000 redeemable miles and 18,000 to 36,000 elite qualifying miles depending on promotions.

The problem with all that lovely treatment as a United 1K is that travel with my wife Kelley wasn’t always as fun. I’m not talking about a need for Tiger Woods entertainment without the wifey. I am talking about the fact that my United Airlines Mileage Plus elite status regularly provided upgrades for me, domestic and international. However, Kelley’s low level elite status, and sometimes even as a Premier Executive, frequently did not allow her to clear the upgrade list. We often traveled separately on the same plane to Europe with me in her assigned economy class seat and her in my upgraded Business Class seat.

Mom & Dad’s Florida Vacation

My parents have learned the value of Starwood Preferred Guest elite status – especially since they do not have it. This morning I received a call from my mom vacationing in Florida. Their hotel travel tally so far is three Starwoods and a Hilton in Florida. I asked them to take pictures of the view from each bedroom window at their hotels.

Hotel websites are generally good about photos of the hotel entrance, the lobby, restaurants, and pool.

Hotel websites rarely show a prospective guest the view from the less desirable side of the hotel. I am struck by the number of times I stay at a hotel and receive the preferred view and think this was a good deal. And I consider all those people I see coming out of their room located on the other side of the hallway and I wonder, “Do you feel like you’ve been cheated with this hotel stay?”

So my mom tells me they had a nice size room at a Sheraton in Fort Lauderdale, but faced the parking lot for the multi-night stay. Then, it was the Sheraton in Key West at a resort property on the beach, but their room was not facing the beach side of the hotel. Then, her description of the room in Coral Gables was “nicely furnished, but the room was miniscule.” She said the rooms are nothing like I get when I stay at Starwood Hotels.

“Elite Status” is my Two Word Response

Earning elite status with a hotel chain is really a much easier affair than airline frequent flier programs. Playing the 100,000 mile game with airlines is a matter of either several long-haul international trips or a whole lot of domestic flying. Hotel loyalty high-level elite-status is something many travelers can earn without even leaving town. You will appreciate your effort when you take that $3,000 beach resort vacation and spend the week looking at the beach from your hotel room window and balcony.

Here is the view from my room when I stayed at the Westin Mission Hills near Palm Springs, California.

Westin Mission Hills - Room with a View

I received an upgrade on my Cash & Points stay to a golf course view preferred room. A general member of SPG on the same rate would be more likely to have received a room with this type of view across the parking lot.

Westin Mission Hills Resort – the other side of the hotel

Stays Count Double through January 31, 2010 with Hyatt Gold Passport

(The Next Big Thing registration required)

Hyatt Gold Passport is offering double stay credit for elite status through January 31, 2010. Elite status is based on paid stays completed in a calendar year. This means you can earn Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum level elite membership with just 3 stays in January or Diamond elite with 13 stays. The elite status you earn with Hyatt Gold Passport in January 2010 during stays count double will remain valid for over two years through February 2012.

Between fast-track elite status and Costco Hyatt Check Certificates at a 20% discount, the cost to earn high elite Diamond status with Hyatt can readily be accomplished for under $1,000 in many places while earning free nights for a fantastic February or March 2010 resort vacation. Check out your local Hyatt Place hotel rates. You can even go upscale Hyatt at a bargain with low January rates in many locations. The Hyatt Regency San Francisco was over $250 per night for most of summer 2009 and is less than half that rate for most weekends in January 2010. San Diego hotels are an incredible bargain right now.

Starwood Preferred Guest instant SPG Gold elite for New Members

Starwood Preferred Guest has offered a “stays count double” promotion every year for the past several years. Take advantage of the offer if it comes around next year and you can set yourself up with high-level elite-status.

Seriously, when you are spending a couple of thousand dollars for a vacation, a little bit of annual hotel planning can put you in that beach resort hotel on the beach side of the hotel rather than the resort view of the parking lot.

If you are new to Starwood Preferred Guest and you would like to receive instant SPG Gold elite membership, valid through February 2011, then just send me an email ricgarridolt@gmail.com. With my SPG Platinum member referral, you can be registered for 1,000 bonus points per night ($35 value) at Starwood Hotels through March 31, 2010 and you will receive an instant upgrade to SPG Gold Elite membership. And I get 1,000 points if you actually stay in a Starwood Hotel by March 31. A win-win-win deal for you, me, and Starwood.

Hotel Loyalty Program Links:

Hyatt Gold Passport “The Next Big Thing” Promotion

Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum elite benefits (lower-tier elite)

Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond elite benefits (higher-tier)

Starwood Preferred Guest Gold elite benefits

Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum elite benefits

Loyalty Traveler posts:

Passports with Purpose Win 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points

Earn 2,500 airline miles with every two nights at Hyatt brand hotels (Oct. 5, 2009)

Hyatt Faster Free Nights + Stays Count Double promotion analysis Oct.1 – Jan 31, 2010 (Sep 19, 2009)

Hyatt Gold Passport Enhancements – And they really are enhancements (April 2, 2009)

When grandma wants to see her grandkids for the summer vacation, a handful of airline tickets may have more benefit than a week in a luxury hotel room. Travelers have different needs.

Hotel points to miles exchanges allow a hotel loyalty program member to convert hotel points into frequent flier miles.  Major hotel loyalty programs including Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport, InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club Rewards, Marriott Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest offer this option for points-to-miles conversion. In general, you can only transfer hotel points to a frequent flyer account where both accounts are in your same name. You cannot move your points into another person’s frequent flyer account.

Marriott Rewards offers the best exchange ratio for points-to-miles conversion across a broad spectrum of airlines when compared to other hotel loyalty programs, particularly with its Hotel + Air packages where the hotel points-to-miles ratio is an even 1:1 conversion.  Hyatt Gold Passport shows the next best overall points-to-miles exchange program.

Exchange rates differ between hotel loyalty programs for points-to-miles exchanges, although, as seen in the tables there is a cluster of similar exchange rates for Hyatt, IHG, and Starwood. The conversion rates for Hyatt and Starwood remain remarkably close, even up to both programs offering 25% bonus miles when converting large blocks of points-to-miles.

Hotel-points-to-airline-miles is one-way exchange route.

Hotel-points-to-airline-miles is a one-way exchange route. Conversions are not allowed in the reverse direction from airline-miles-to-hotel-points.

Hilton HHonors has the competitive edge of the five hotel loyalty programs compared in these tables in being the only hotel loyalty program to offer a conversion of airline-miles-to-hotel-points with a relatively good rate of exchange for several airline partners; American Airlines being the most prominent transfer partner among the major US airlines.

The international airline tables I have put together for hotel-points-to-airline-miles conversion shows a higher degree of variability than the domestic airlines. Some prominent international airlines do not partner with one or more of the hotel programs. Several international airlines available for points-to-miles conversion with one of more of the major hotel loyalty programs have not been included in the tables for this post.

I have included an explanation regarding Hilton HHonors at the end of this post to address the Points & Miles feature of the HHonors program. The tables below show HHonors at or near the bottom for the poorest exchange ratio in points-to-miles transfers with nearly every airline. Hilton HHonors members have the ability to earn miles through hotel stays in addition to points in real hotel travel, but the strict conversion of points-to-miles is not a favorable rate when compared to the other major hotel loyalty programs.

My Loyalty Traveler advice for Hilton HHonors members is earn your miles from hotel stays and save your HHonors points for better value opportunities.

Hotel Loyalty Program Points-to-Miles Links

Hyatt Gold Passport – Airline Partners. Lufthansa is a Hyatt airline partner for earning miles, however, the Terms & Conditions for Hyatt Gold Passport Points-to-Miles Terms and Conditions specifically excludes Lufthansa and airline partners in Miles & More from points-to-miles participation.

Hilton HHonors – Points for Miles

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club – Points to Miles

Marriott Rewards – Air Mileage Rewards

Starwood Preferred Guest – Transfer Starpoints to Miles

The Loyalty Traveler tables shown are informational only and before conducting a transfer between programs you should contact the programs directly for the most up-to-date guidelines and restrictions, as information is subject to change at any time. 

A great resource for checking conversion rates between more than 70 hotel, airline, credit card and other loyalty programs is through Randy Petersen’s WebFlyer Mileage Converter. I haven’t checked all my tables through the Mileage Converter, but the dozen or so I checked matched up. That is good news for both of us since the results were independently derived. The tables I have made are good for comparative data across hotel chains. The Mileage Converter is better for accurate conversions between any two loyalty programs and also provides the user with several options for points and miles exchange conversion routes.

Domestic Airline Conversion tables are in Part 1 for Alaska, American, Continental, Delta/Northwest Skymiles, Southwest, United Airlines, and US Airways.

International Airlines Hotel-Points-to-Frequent-Flier-Miles Conversion Tables

• Aeromexico

• Air Canada Aeroplan

• Air France/KLM Flying Blue

• Air New Zealand Airpoints

• ANA – All Nippon Airways Mileage Club

• British Airways Executive Club

• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

• Emirates Skywards

• LAN Airlines LanPass

• Miles & More (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT Polish)

• Qantas Airways

• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

• South Africa Airways Voyager

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel Loyalty Program Conversion Points-to-Miles with Aeromexico

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

Air Canada Aeroplan

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with Air Canada Aeroplan

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

Air France/KLM Flying Blue

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

Air New Zealand Airpoints

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion for Air New Zealand

1. Starwood Preferred Guest

2. IHG Priority Club

3. Hilton HHonors

4. Hyatt Gold Passport and Marriott Rewards are not Air New Zealand points-to-miles airline partners

ANA – Al Nippon Airways Mileage Club

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with All Nippon Airways-ANA Mileage Club

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

British Airways Executive Club

Hotle loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with British Airways

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors

Emirates Skywards

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with Emirates Skywards

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport; Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors (Emirates is not an HHonors airline partner)

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with LAN LanPass

1. Starwood Preferred Guest
2. Hyatt Gold passport
3. Marriott Rewards
4. Hilton HHonors
5. IHG Priority Club

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion table for Miles & More (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and LOT Polish)

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Starwood Preferred Guest
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Hilton HHonors
5. Hyatt Gold Passport (Miles & More is  hotel stay earning partner, but does not participate in points-to-miles)

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with Qantas

1. Hyatt Gold Passport
2. Marriott Rewards
3. Hilton HHonors
4. IHG Priority Club and Starwood Preferred Guest are not partners with Qantas.

Hotel loyalty prgrams points-to-miles conversion with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport
3. IHG Priority Club
4. Starwood Preferred Guest
5. Hilton HHonors

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with South African Airways

1. Hyatt Gold Passport
2. IHG Priority Club
3. Hilton HHonors
4. Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest do not partner with South African Airways

Hotel loyalty program points-to-miles conversion with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

1. Marriott Rewards
2. Hyatt Gold Passport
3. Starwood Preferred Guest
4. Hilton HHonors
5. IHG Priority Club does not partner with Virgin Atlantic

The Hilton Conversion Issue in the Loyalty Traveler tables for HHonors members.

Hilton HHonors is problematic in these tables due to the different earning mechanism with HHonors hotel stays. Hilton HHonors has “Double Dip”, their registered term for the member option to earn both hotel points and miles during a single hotel stay.

Hyatt Gold Passport, IHG Priority Club, Marriott Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) all allow a member to earn miles with hotel stays, however, the member earns airline miles or hotel points. As a general rule a member in programs besides Hilton HHonors cannot earn both miles and points from a hotel stay. Both Hyatt Gold Passport (promotion still ongoing through Jan 31) and Starwood Preferred Guest (ended July 31) had promotional exceptions in 2009 where members earned both airline miles and points, but Hilton HHonors is the only chain offering both miles and points as a standard earning option.

Hilton HHonors ranks at the bottom in nearly all the hotel-points-to-airline-miles conversion tables.  The tables are designed to be an objective look at conversion rates. Hilton HHonors may be a good hotel loyalty program members wanting to earn miles with hotel stays, but has a poor hotel-points-to-airline-miles conversion program for its members.

In real travel a Hilton HHonors member has the ability to earn thousands of airline miles while also earning HHonors points.

1.       The tables do not reflect the added earning potential for a Hilton HHonors member earning 500 miles per hotel stay or 1 mile per $1 in hotel spending.

2.       The hotel point levels used in the tables show Hilton, IHG, and Marriott at 10,000 points while Hyatt is 5,000 points and Starwood 2,000 points as the basis for equivalent quantities of points used for miles conversion comparisons. I could have increased Hilton HHonors by 50% to 15,000 which accounts for Points and Points earning preference with HHonors. Rather than playing with the variables I opted to present Hilton HHonors in a strictly objective conversion table without factoring in the potential for added miles from hotel stays.

3.       For example: Hilton HHonors points-to-miles conversion for 130,000 points with Air France = 13,000 miles. This is less than 50% of the miles for any of the other four hotel loyalty programs.

But consider if the Hilton member spent $13,000 to earn 130,000 points during 40 hotel stays in 2009. This HHonors member with 40 stays and an earning preference of Points & Fixed Miles could have earned 500 Flying Blue miles per stay. The member could have earned 20,000 Flying Blue miles from hotel stays, In addition to 13,000 miles from points.

33,000 miles places Hilton HHonors right back in the pack when it comes to miles earned.

4.       For example: The Hilton HHonors member could have sprung for a four week honeymoon divided between two Hilton resorts and spent $13,000. Earning Points & Fixed miles would only earn 1,000 miles from two Hilton stays. The member with an earning preference of Points & Variable Miles (1 mile per $1) would earn 13,000 miles.

5.       For example: HHonors member could have chosen Points & Points and earned 195,000 points and no miles. (I’m ignoring elite points as these are just more variables to complicate the issue.)

Unfortunately, all this is conjecture and highly variable, dependent on the member’s hotel stay pattern and earning preference.  Therefore, the tables do not necessarily reflect the earning potential of miles with the Hilton HHonors program for a frequent guest of Hilton.

The tables do accurately show the conversion rates for HHonors points-to-miles conversions on a scale aligned with the four other hotel loyalty programs.

There are 7 “hotelmart” chains. [I just thought of that term and I like it. Could I coin the phrase?

Too late. I checked and found a discount hotel website HotelMartUSA.com. So, I will just borrow the term for now.]

There are 7 global hotel chains with 3,000+ hotels. Four of the hotel chains are predominately mid-scale or economy lodging with Wyndham, Choice, Best Western, and Accor’s Motel 6 properties in the US. The higher proportion and absolute number of upscale hotels is why I limit my hotelmart comparisons to Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Marriott chains.

Here are numbers based on end of year 2008 from the HotelsMag.com survey. Most of these 10-month old numbers are likely bigger now, but they are sufficiently precise for a hotel chain size overview.

Wyndham Hotel Group = 7,043 hotels

(Hotel brands: Wyndham, Ramada, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Super 8, Knights Inn, Wingate, Baymont, Microtel, Hawthorn Suites)

Choice Hotels = 5,827 hotels

(Hotel brands: Comfort Inn, Cambria Suites, Quality Inn, Clarion, Sleep Inn, EconoLodge, Rodeway Inn, Suburban, MainStay Suites)  

InterContinental Hotels Group = 4,186 hotels

(Hotel brands: Holiday Inn and HI Express, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, InterContinental Hotels, Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites)

Best Western = 4,000 hotels

(Hotel brand – Best Western)

Accor Hotels = 3,982 hotels (France based chain with few hotels in USA aside from Motel 6)

(Hotel brands: Motel 6, Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure, Suite Hotels, Ibis, allseasons, Etap, Hotel F1, Formule 1)

Hilton Hotels = 3,265 hotels

(Hotel brands: Hilton, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Crowne Plaza, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Waldorf Astoria Collection, Conrad Hotels, Hilton Grand Vacations)

Marriott Hotels = 3,178 hotels

(Hotel brands: Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites, SpringHill Suites, J.W. Marriott, Marriott Vacation Club International, Ritz-Carlton Hotels)

Hotel chain size drops from the mega-chain size of 3,000 to 7,000 properties down to just around 1,000 hotels for the next largest hotel chains of Starwood Hotels and Carlson Hotels (Radisson Hotels parent company). Hyatt Hotels is small fry at 413 hotels, but their loyalty program has incredible benefits for travelers to major cities and resorts in the USA and around the world which is why I include them in my predominately big five loyalty program coverage of Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, InterContinental Hotels Group, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Hyatt Gold Passport.

Other programs high on the scale of market segment I like to focus on are Fairmont President’s Club and Kimpton In Touch (hey, I’m 116 miles from San Francisco). Several of the small hotel associations like Preferred Group, Leading Hotels of the World, and Small Luxury Hotels pop up on my radar throughout the year with excellent hotel finds or promotional rates.

Last July I broke down the hotel numbers for each brand in these chains:

Marriott Hotels – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/09/marriott-hotels-profile-by-numbers/

InterContinental Hotels Group – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/09/intercontinental-hotels-group-profile-by-numbers/

Hilton Hotels Family – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/07/hilton-hotels-chain-profile-by-numbers/

Starwood Hotels – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/09/starwood-hotels-profile-by-numbers/

Hyatt Hotels – http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2009/07/09/hyatt-hotels-profile-by-numbers/

Enough of the pedantic overview of hotel brands and on to the main topic of earning points with IHG, Hilton, and Marriott.

(This is my schoolteacher nod to Louis Sacher and his “Wayside School” books. These posts were published in reverse order so they will read directly from one to the other only if you are on the Loyalty Traveler homepage.)

If you are thinking, “Yeah, I would like to save 50% on my hotel stay!” then follow my advice.

Sign up for Fairmont President’s Club today (membership is free) and make sure to check the box next to the statement:

“Subscribe me to exclusive Fairmont President’s Club emails providing news about Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, member events and special value offers including exclusive travel packages.”

The other day I made a comment that 95% of email advertisements I receive from hotel chains for special rate offers are a waste of time. Lower rates can quickly be found online using AAA or some other available rate offer.

Fairmont Hotels President’s Club loyalty program is truly an exception. (Marriott and Kimpton also regularly reveal some great hotel special rate deals. I do not find that many rate bargains with Starwood, Hilton, or Hyatt emails.)

Fairmont Hotels sends me a monthly email titled,

“Your Fairmont President’s Club Great Rates-Great Dates”.

The Fairmont President’s Club October email I received yesterday caught my attention with the low rates advertised such as:

                Banff, Canada $139CAD

                Montreux, Switzerland 159CHF

                Newport Beach, California $135

                Scottsdale, Arizona $98

                Washington, D.C. $139

                Waterfront, Vancouver $139CAD

These rates are exclusive rates for Fairmont President’s Club members. These limited time offers must be booked within 7 days which is  October 13.

Here is an example of why it is in your interest to join Fairmont President’s Club.

Farimont Scottsdale Princess

Fairmont Scottsdale, Arizona rates for a 4-night stay from October 20-24

President’s Club Exclusive Offer Rate $98 (+ 11.92% tax)

Two Doubles:

FPC member Great Rate (nonrefundable):

$98 per night; $438.72 all-in after taxes

AAA rate: $195 per night; $872.98 all-in  ($434.26 more)

BAR rate: $259 per night; $1,159.49 ($720.77 more)

Friends & Family Rate (FlyerTalk link): $119 per night; $532.74 ($94.02 more)

Deluxe King:

FPC member Great Rate (nonrefundable):

$138 per night; $617.80 all-in

AAA rate: $225 per night; $1,007.28 all-in  ($389.48 more)

BAR rate: $299 per night; $1,338.56 ($720.76 more)

Friends & Family rate: $149 per night; $667.04 ($49.24 more)

Gold Junior Suite:

FPC member Great Rate (nonrefundable):

$188 per night; $841.64 all-in

                AAA rate: $258 per night; $1,155.01 ($313.37 more)

                BAR rate: $344 per night; $1,540.02 ($698.38 more)

                Friends & Family Rate: $199 per night; $890.88  ($49.24 more)

Casita Suite 850 sq. ft.

FPC member Great Rate (nonrefundable):

$298 per night; $1,334.08 all-in

                AAA rate: $382 per night; $1,710.14 all-in ($376.06 more)

                BAR rate: $509 per night; $2,278.69 all-in ($944.61 more)

                Friends & Family Rate: $259 per night; $1,159.49  ($174.59 less)

                FlyerTalk thread link to Friends & family rate

Cholla Suite 925 sq. ft.

FPC member Great Rate (nonrefundable):

$328 per night; $1,468.40 all-in

                AAA rate: $397 per night; $1,777.92 all-in ($309.52 more)

                BAR rate: $529 per night; $2,368.23 all-in ($899.83 more)

                Friends & Family Rate not displayed for this room category.

FPC member Great Rates-Great Dates for Fairmont Scottsdale are available for

October 10-14, 17, 18, 20-28, 31; Nov: 1-4, 7-11, 14-30.

I find it interesting that the biggest discount of 50% is on the lowest category rooms. Obviously the people with money for suites don’t need the biggest break. Slumming it for 4 nights in a double double at the Fairmont Scottsdale is certainly nothing to complain about at these prices.

The Fairmont Friends & Family rate is discussed in the FlyerTalk thread link. One advantage of this rate, besides the lower room rate for the Casita Suite, is these rates may be cancelled within the specified time frame. The Fairmont Scottsdale allows Friends & Family rate to be canceled up to 7 days before arrival.

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Interior Garden Courtyard at Fairmont Scottsdale