Which Hotel Status to go for?

[Silvia]

So I agree, depends spending patterns and what you value as benefits. Some would say Hilton provides good value benefits.

I have personally enjoyed Accor gold - good variety of properties that suit all budgets, free drink, mostly upgraded every visit; however other chain may have better value proposition rather than the fixed value of Accor points

 

[Lynda2475]

I had best treatment over the past 2 years as a Diamond with IHG, the Indigo brand worked out well for me in the cities I was spending most time in in 2022 and to some extend in 2023). I found in Europe and UK, that I would book a room rate without breakfast only to arrive expecting to use my Diamond benefit on breakfast to be told that breaky was already included so I could then choose drinks or bonus points (double dipping). Good hit rate of upgrades across Indigo and Voco too.

I find Hilton mostly underwhelming (and riddled with SHUBs), the vouchers not as easy to spend and Accor can be hit and miss. Accor doesnt have many properties in the Americas and too many brands in Aus like Peppers where the earn rate is unequal.

This year will be light travel for me, I will book via IHG/Accor where it makes financial sense but have already done several booking via QF hotels for independent (or smaller chain) properties which have suited my needs better.

 

[KingHuang]

Reading through everyone’s comments a few times over the last few weeks - looks like Hilton is more suited for US travel, whereas ALL/IHG seems to be more flexible for Australia/asia/europe, and doesn’t seem to hard to hit higher status for the price for the hotels. I’ve been using my stays at ALL since the new calendar year, and might be staying with them or mixing in with a bit of IHG as well. And for some reason I still have gold on Hilton (maybe from previous plat charge) so might just use it in the off occasion, or just ditch it as the travel plans might not work out overall for me.

EDIT: My idea is sort of either staying at cheaper hotels to rack up the nights as I am by myself most of the time, and then splurging the points when on holidays with family or friends. Is that what most people go with? I mean both ALL and IHG should have decent coverage on the higher end hotels for domestic and internationally right (I haven’t really looked into it a whole heap)

 

[Daver6]

Someone else covered it. ALL points just convert to $$$ of a hotel stay. So it's not like other chains where you can get great value. Eg Conrad Maldives. Following on from that it means there are no aspirational hotels to aim for to redeem points on. Eg, with ALL you could stay at the Raffles but you'd need such a bucket load of points to cover the cost.

 

[jase05]

with ALL you could stay at the Raffles but you'd need such a bucket load of points to cover the cost.

I don’t even think that’s possible.
On some you can’t pay anywhere near the value of the hotel in points. One I’ve looked at recently for example was $1200p/n but would only let me use 18k points tops which only covers about half of the cost. You can pay your bill at checkout with points but again some hotels cap it at 2000 points. Accor IT is the absolute pits unfortunately

 

[KingHuang]

Just realised that velocity platinum can give the partner status for IHG and Hilton, that surely seems cheaper than trying to rack up status nights across multiple chains (for me at least).. what would people pick? Just broadly speaking Hilton looks better if no retention(for value) whereas IHG potentially better if retaining?

 

[kyle]

Just realised that velocity platinum can give the partner status for IHG and Hilton, that surely seems cheaper than trying to rack up status nights across multiple chains (for me at least).. what would people pick? Just broadly speaking Hilton looks better if no retention(for value) whereas IHG potentially better if retaining?

It's a once only offer for one year only.

 

[http_x92]

Just realised that velocity platinum can give the partner status for IHG and Hilton, that surely seems cheaper than trying to rack up status nights across multiple chains (for me at least).. what would people pick? Just broadly speaking Hilton looks better if no retention(for value) whereas IHG potentially better if retaining?

If you want to try it for one year, Hilton Gold or Diamond is the better bet.

European Hilton coverage is not bad, only really lacking in the Scandinavian countries.

Do admit that if the Accor redemption rates were better I would be using it more. While you can find great redemption rates with Hilton, IHG or Hyatt for example.