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Most readers should be familiar with the phrase “nothing is certain but death and taxes”. But as I was contemplating the upcoming category changes from Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, two more “certainties” occurred to me:
- Points and miles will only become worth less over time
- Hotel chains cannot resist inventing new hotel brands
When Marriott and Starwood are finally merged into one loyalty programme, the combined entity will have no fewer than 30!!! brands. Even though many of us struggle to choose between three different brands of laundry detergent at the supermarket, we must choose amongst dozens of different hotel brands. Which led me to think, which brands are my favourites? And which ones do my readers prefer?
Hilton Honors
My favourite Hilton Honors brand is… CONRAD. I’m a sucker for those stuffed animals and bathtub ducks that many Conrad hotels give to guests, mostly in Asia.
Honourable mention goes to Doubletree, for the cookies…
IHG Rewards Club
I don’t really feel too much goodwill towards the more luxurious brands offered by IHG, so my preferred IHG hotel brand is HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS. Sometimes you just want consistency and to know exactly what you will get; Holiday Inn Express delivers on that.
I am sure that Kimpton would be a strong challenger, but I have yet to stay at one…
Le Club Accor
I rarely stay at hotels in the Accor chain, which allows me to cheat and say that my favourite Accor brand is the recently acquired FAIRMONT.
An honourable mention goes to Formule 1, just because of the name!
Marriott Rewards
When Marriott acquired Starwood, they reportedly realised how unloved their brands are when compared to SPG’s. I certainly don’t care much for the very business-like Marriott brands. But I do love South Africa – one of my favourite countries to visit – and PROTEA Hotels offer some impressive-looking hotels, and in ridiculously low award categories to boot…
Starwood Preferred Guest
One of the many things I love about SPG is that hotels in less luxurious brands such as Aloft or Four Points can still be excellent hotels. But when it comes to my favourite brand, it is hard to avoid choosing THE LUXURY COLLECTION. Many of SPG’s most iconic hotels are Luxury Collection properties.
Honourable mention goes to W Hotels. From a branding perspective, W is quite distinctive. The problem is that for young fogies such as Joe and myself… well… we don’t really want to sleep in a quasi-nightclub full of hipsters…
World of Hyatt
I’ve saved the hardest for last, as regular readers will know, I love pretty much everything Hyatt related… But PARK HYATT is my preferred brand. If I have one guiding principle, it is to reach Globalist status and earn enough points in the process to be able to afford some award nights at Park Hyatt hotels. Luxury that just seems to fit me perfectly, in contrast to Ritz Carlton or St Regis hotels, where I just don’t feel like I belong…
How About You? What is Your Favourite Hotel Brand?
With 100+ hotel brands in the world, which is your favourite? And why? Leave us a comment below…
In the very early days of priceline, I staying in the Park Hyatt in SFO and then followed that with the Park Hyatt in LA. I don’t think either of those exist anymore. (I know the one in LA is now an IC).
Both hotels were great luxury experiences at the time. For example, each had complimentary “town cars” that you use to take you within a few miles radius of the hotel. Quite a novelty getting the stretch limo town car to drop you off and pick you up again from Rodeo drive.
As I recall, those PL nights cost me £30 or £40 per night.
That’s amazing! – I missed out on the Priceline glory days entirely, sadly.
The whole mystery hotel thing is the complete antithesis of hotel branding though!
Not surprised that neither hotel is still a Park Hyatt considering how empty they must have been to be Priceline bargains…
Bit of an SPG loyalist these days, so my favourite brand is probably Luxury Collection (Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho being my favourite hotel currently!) with St. Regis also up there. W’s are much too variable globally (Asian ones often amazing, US ones often similar standard to a run-of-the-mill Hilton).
I love Park Hyatt and Andaz also, but there just aren’t enough Hyatts in locations I visit to make it worthwhile trying for status with them.
Fan of Conrad within Hilton portfolio also (again, particularly the modern Asian ones).
Yeah, Ws don’t do much for me at all usually – I genuinely prefer Alofts I think…
How’s the one in Liverpool? I quite like the one in London. In North America they are more variable. (as usual)
Really good, Birmingham is decent too.
Haha, got my comment order mixed up here and was talking about Staybridges. As you know, there is no Aloft in Birmingham ! 🙂
On topic, the Aloft in Liverpool is pretty cool actually and definitely the bargain on Points in the city for Saturday nights.
I know it’s going a bit more niche than just one brand, but I’ve never had a bad experience in a Pullman hotel, and will now pick them over other hotels if the price is right.
Premier Inn – genuinely.
Consistently good value and excellent, which is far more than can be said for the likes of Hilton, IHG and Starwood.
Hilton due to them giving us over 100k HH points back from our recent stay at Rangali island which was paid for on points in the first place.
Nice! – what were the Points for? Good trip I hope!
Very good Trip Joe!
Not sure why so many points but all applied from paying the food / sea plane transfers billed to our room and being diamond.
Glad to hear it! It looks superb.
I don’t think I have a favourite brand – it always depends so much on what I’m looking for from a particular trip/hotel.
The (modern versions) of the budget brands from most of the main players are worth a mention though – Hampton, Holiday inn Express, Aloft and Ibis/Ibis Styles can all be excellent – as long as you get the refurbished ones. There are still some tatty HIX and Ibis hotels out there of course which are best avoided, but the modern incarnations are genuinely good.
I also really like some of the ‘long stay’ brands like Staybridge Suites, Embassy Suites, Element, etc. They tend to be quite new/fresh, you get a lot of space, and the free perks are excellent – breakfast, wine/snacks in the evening, etc. Far better than many old ‘luxury’ hotels that are desperately in need of a refurb and only offer similar perks to top level elites rather than all guests.
I don’t (consistently) rate any of the main luxury brands from the big hotel companies, apart from maybe Park Hyatt, because there is so much variation and they are often overpriced. There are excellent examples from all of them, but also poor ones – and even the good ones probably don’t really represent good value. For similar money, I’d almost always go for smaller chains like Rosewood or Shangri-la, pay less at a cool boutique place, rent somewhere nice, or just stay at a ‘lesser’ (but still comfortable) brand for a third of the price.
Can’t say I have one favourite brand. I usually consult with TripAdvisor and choose there based on ratings and price. I guess spg hotels are a preference if any.
However I’m a Disney nut and the deluxe onsite Disney resorts are fabulous and I’m working my way through them if we are in Florida or LA. Just stayed at the Disney Grand Californian in Anaheim which was out of this world. Unfortunately Disney don’t have a hotel loyalty program. Quite the reverse, the really nice Disney resorts are quite often full or else charging exorbitant prices!
The Mouse is maybe the most powerful brand of them all! But you’re right, by most accounts the in-resort hotels are pretty amazing.
And being a free agent is clearly preferable to just staying at a Hilton or Marriott because of blind loyalty…
Hilton for me. I get consistent status recognition through upgrades, and the standard guaranteed Diamond benefits (breakfast, exec lounge, etc.) are valuable and always honoured. I travel a lot and always feel welcome at a Hilton, whereas I don’t at IHG despite also being top tier there.
I wish they had a better credit card, though, as I have to put my non amex spend through IHG as the Hilton Barclaycard is garbage.