After having had a general view on the airlines’ programs, let’s have a look at the loyalty programs of hotels.
In this article, we’ll analyze the general program structure and see which hotel chains are the biggest one’s in order to optimize your benefits when participating in different hotel programs.
The overall structure of the hotel programs is similar to those of airlines: you have award points and different status levels. The most programs award you with 10 points per USD or EUR spent in the hotels participating in the program. If you hold a status in the program, there might be additional bonus points coming on top, depending on the status level and the program up to 100% more bonus points can arrive to your account after your stay compared to the earnings on the basic level. There are some programs deviating from this general approach. We shall look deeper in most popular programs in future articles.
In regards of the use of the earned award points, like with the airline programs where you get the best value for your miles when booking flight tickets (preferably in upper classes) you’ll get the best value when using the hotel points for hotel stays. There are other use options, but the value would be much lower. In other words, in order to get the same monetary value, you would need to use more points.
From the status point of view, you have more options to reach a status level in a hotel program than in an airline program. Many programs allow you to qualify either via the number of nights you spend in the participating hotels over the year or via the number of stays. One stay starts when you arrive at the hotel and ends when you leave it, independently from the number of nights you spend during your stay. Therefore, usually you need a smaller number of stays than number of nights in order to qualify (if the program offers the qualification by number of stays).
Certain status levels in certain programs can be only achieved if you spend a minimum amount of money in the course of the year. Some programs also offer the qualification via the number of earned points. Actually, it is the same as a minimum spending requirement, just packed in the envelope of points.
If you prefer to cumulate airline miles, you can also choose to earn airline miles instead of hotel points for your stays. This can bring you faster to award tickets. However, keep in mind that certain promotions, like double points, triple points etc. are mainly offered to customers earning hotel points.
Depending on the program, you can have 3-5 different status levels. The first status level brings mostly some additional award points (usually between 10% and 25%). The more interesting benefits start at higher status levels (in some programs from the second status level onwards) and can include such valuable perks as a free breakfast for you and another person staying with you in the same room. Assuming the breakfast costs at 15 to 40 euros per person depending on the hotel, the levels with a free breakfast as benefit are pretty attractive as they help to save real money.
In future articles on the topic, we’ll have a closer look at different available programs, their sweet and weak points.
Let’s now have a look at most interesting players on the market of hotel programs. Nowadays, there are more than 1000 different hotel programs and it’s clear that not all of them can be interesting for our readers as most of the programs are rather local and offered by just few local or regional hotels or hotel chains. As most of our customers and readers are people with international travel activities, it would make sense to put the spotlight on the biggest chains and programs present in many different countries. This way, you can consolidate your earnings and status qualification within a few bigger programs and benefit from them independently of your current travel destination.
The competition for first place as the biggest hotel chain is led by Marriott and Hilton. Marriott has 30 different brands from budget to luxury and about 9100 hotels in 142 countries worldwide. The brands belonging to Marriott are (from luxury down to select/ budget hotels and brands for long term stays):
- JW Marriott
- The Ritz-Carlton
- St. Regis
- Bulgari
- Edition
- The Luxury Collection
- W Hotels
- Autograph Collection
- Delta Hotels
- Marriott
- Marriott Vacation Club (MVC)
- Sheraton
- Design Hotels
- Gaylord Hotels
- Le Meridien
- Renaissance
- Tribute Portfolio
- Westin
- Courtyard by Marriott
- Fairfield by Marriott
- Four Points by Sheraton
- Protea Hotels by Marriott
- Springhill Suites by Marriott
- AC Hotels
- Aloft Hotels
- Moxy Hotels
- Marriott Executive Apartments
- Residence Inn by Marriott
- TownPlace Suites by Marriott
- Element by Westin
Hilton has 22 brands with about 7500 properties in around 118 countries. The brands of Hilton portfolio are (from luxury down to select/ budget and further to long-term stays):
- Waldorf-Astoria
- Conrad Hotels
- LXR Hotels and Resorts
- NoMad Hotels
- Canopy by Hilton
- Curio Collection by Hilton
- Graduate by Hilton
- Tapestry Collection by Hilton
- Tempo by Hilton
- Motto by Hilton
- Hilton Hotels & Resorts
- DoubleTree by Hilton
- Hilton Garden Inn
- Hampton by Hilton
- Tru by Hilton
- Spark by Hilton
- Embassy Suites by Hilton
- Homewood Suites by Hilton
- Home2 Suites by Hilton
- LivSmart Studios by Hilton
- Hilton Vacation Club
- Hilton Club
- Hilton Grand Vacations
Furthermore, from 2024 onwards Hilton has a strategic partnership with Small Luxury Hotels allowing the use of the Hilton Honors program when staying in one of the hotels of that chain and providing access to additional 600 luxury hotels in over 90 countries.
Accor Hotels have over 30 different brands with a number of hotels close to 5600 in around 110 countries. While at the beginning Accor was mainly present in the budget and economy segment, in the last couple of decades they did a lot of acquisitions also in the luxury and premium segments (like Banyan Tree, Raffles, Fairmont, Orient Express, Swissotel etc.)
IHG (InterContinental Hotel Group) holds 19 brands with around 6000 hotels in over 100 countries worldwide.
These 4 groups dominate the hotel market, and their programs are the strongest in regards of the offered perks and benefits as well as the geographical coverage. There are some other known groups, like Radisson, Hyatt, Best Western, Meliá, The Leading Hotels of the World etc. Some of them are much smaller, some of them have rather weak program benefits compared to the market leaders. For example, the acquisition of the North American branch of Radisson Hotels by Choice Hotel Group back in 2022 weakened the overall position of Radisson Hotels, as their programs were also separated: you need to register separately in the program for North American Radisson hotels and for the rest of the world. The points and the status qualification cannot be combined either.
In the course of time we shall look deeper into all of them and analyze how you can benefit from their programs in the best way.
This article intends to provide a general overview. Surely, depending on the countries of your travel destinations and the frequency of your stays there, other and smaller programs might be also interesting for you.
If you would like to analyze and to optimize your individual program participation depending on your destinations, frequency, duration of stays, level of your usual hotel stays (from budget to luxury) and expected benefits, do not hesitate to approach us for an individual consultation. Singabiz representatives will be glad to help you in optimizing your program participation and to get the most out of your preferred programs.
