Hilton v. Marriott – Promotional Warfare

Decisions, decisions….which program to choose?  It seems that hard-core road warriors who have been loyal to one brand for a long time have their favorites, but point-for-point, which program offers the better deal?

Currently Marriott is running their MegaBonus promotion.  It runs from Sept 15, 2009 through January 15, 2010.  In that 4 month span, loyal members can earn up to 50,000 bonus points for staying 25 paid nights at any of the Marriott-family hotels.   Hilton announced a similar bonus program in October.  Starting the 7th of October, for every 4 stays at a Hilton-family hotel in the remainder of 2009, you earn 25,000 bonus points.  This can be awarded 3 times, for a total of 75,000 points for 12 stays.  Let’s examine the fine print to identify which deal comes out ahead.  For simplicity, we will compare the Hilton 8-stay option for 50,000 points with the Marriott 25 night option for the same amount of points.

1) Nights vs. Stays

The benefits/drawbacks really depend on the type of travel you do.  A “stay” is defined as any number of consecutive nights at one property.  For the person who is in a different city every night, the “stay” equals 1 night.  But if you are in the same place for a week, your stay is 5 nights.  The Hilton deal wins here if you are able to make your stays and nights equal, meaning 1 night equals 1 stay.  If you are staying in one city for a week, you can change hotels during the week within the Hilton family to accumulate stays to achieve the bonus faster, but the obvious hassle of unpacking/repacking, new bed, new room, may make this deal less attractive.

On the other hand, if you are staying one month (25 nights) in the same hotel, you can earn the Marriott bonus all in 1 stay.   You would still need 7 more stays with Hilton because your 25 consecutive nights in the same hotel only counts as 1 stay.   If you are staying 5 nights each week with a break in between, with Marriott you can earn your 50,000 points in 5 stays, but you would need 3 more stays for Hilton.  Travelers will be mixed on this category, so it is impossible to give one side the advantage over the other.

2) TTE:  time-to-earn

On the surface, the Marriott promotion wins in this category by giving members a full 4 months to earn the bonus.  Hilton allows just under 3 months.  BUT the advantage depends on the type of travel you do.  If your nights = stays, then you must stay 8 nights in 85 days to earn the 50,000 point bonus.  For Marriott, its 25 nights in 122 days.  By calculating a simple ratio, for Hilton one must stay one night every 10.625 days.  For Marriott, one must stay one night every 4.88 days.  So even though Marriott gives you more time to earn the bonus, the number of nights required really offsets the benefit of the extra time.

If your Hilton stays are 2 nights each, then the ratio is 1 stay (2 nights) every 5.33 days.  The numbers don’t look as good, but there is still a slight advantage over Marriott.

3) Cost per point

Here we look at the amount of money you have to spend in order to earn the bonus points.  Of course it all depends on location and which class of hotel you like to spend your time.  In the lower-end brands like Hampton Inn and Fairfield Inn, prices could range from $80/night to $150/night.  For the full-service brands like Marriott, Renaissance, and Hilton, depending on the area you could spend $150/night all the way up to $350/night.  Obviously these numbers vary greatly in different parts of the world.  So let’s assume in any given metropolitan area we could find a hotel from either family in the same class for the same price.  And let’s also assume that the stay costs $150/night.  For Marriott, the 25 nights at $150/night, the 50,000 bonus points will cost $3750.  At Hilton, with 1 night per stay, the cost for 50,000 points is $1200.  If its 2 nights per stay, cost is $2400.   At 3 nights per stay, cost is $3600.  So even if your stays are 3 nights each, the cost for the bonus is still better with Hilton.

4) Points redemption

So after you earn those 50,000 points, what will that get you?  In this category the advantage definitely goes to Marriott.  For example, in the DC metro area where full-service hotels can cost over $300/night, 50,000 points can get you 2 nights at a Marriott.  (Some Marriott’s can cost 30,000 points per night, depending on location)  With Hilton, the minimum points for 1 night is 30,000 and can be as high as 40,000 depending on the area.  So if you get the bonus, you will have enough points for 1 night with a few left over, but not enough for 2 full nights.  If we look at the next step down:  Courtyard and Hilton Garden Inn, you can get 2 full nights at the Courtyard and (depending on location) have 10,000 points left over, which can get you 1 additional night in a less expensive area or even a lower class hotel.  With HGI, the surprising thing I found in DC is that some are in a higher category than the full service Hilton.  So the minimum points for HGI is 30,000 and can be as high as 35,000.  In fact, out of Hilton, HGI, Hampton, or Homewood brands in DC, I did not find one that was less than 30,000 points per night.

5) Number of Tiers

What I mean by number of tiers is – can you stay a percentage of the maximum and receive a percentage of the bonus?  The Hilton program has 3 tiers:  for each set of 4 stays, you get 25,000 points. You can double or triple the first tier and receive double or triple the points.  Marriott’s program has 2 tiers, and they are not linear.  For the first 20 nights, you receive 35,000 points.  Then for an additional 5 nights, you receive 15,000 more points for a total of 50,000.  But there isn’t a lower tier where if you stayed 10 nights or 15 nights that you would get some lower point amount.  So if you stay 19 nights, you get no points.  In my opinion the advantage goes to Hilton.  Having the lower, more achievable tier enables more members to obtain a bonus.

6) Terms and Conditions

As with any program, you need to read the fine print to make sure there are no issues.  Each program has a couple of potential “gotcha’s” that should be identified.  One of Marriott’s conditions is that your stay be paid with a Visa card in order to count toward this promotion.  For many people this is not an issue, however some business travelers are forced to use a company card that might not be visa.  These folks can’t participate in this promotion.

For both Hilton and Marriott, there is a condition is that certain rates are excluded.  These are identified in a list on their website, and generally include any rate that is booked through a 3rd party such as Priceline, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.  Many business travelers may not see this as a problem either, but some will.

It is my opinion that each of these conditions will cause a problem for some.  How many for each is hard to say.  But since Marriott has an extra condition that excludes one from earning the bonus, the advantage here goes to Hilton.

Conclusion

If you compare the 2 programs in these 6 categories, I would have to give the win to Hilton due to the advantage in 4/6 categories.  Marriott only wins 1 category and the remaining 1 I consider a tie.  Hilton has an overwhelming victory if your travel is such that a stay equates to 1 night.  If it isn’t, there is the added inconvenience of multiplying your stays by changing hotels every night.  Some might say that the bonus isn’t worth the hassle, and for some it probably isn’t.  But for me, I am going for both bonuses!

(updated 10/27/09)