HHonors or SPG in LON/HKG

[Cynicor]

Hi,

Towards the end of the year I'm going on a 6 week trip with stays in London over new years (4 nights) and Honk Kong at the end of Jan (4 nights), and I'm tossing up whether to use some MR points (from before the feeding frenzy...) instead of paying outright.

I'm wondering if (1) anyone has any thoughts on this, such as which program would be best and (2) whether the Conrad Hilton is better value than using hilton points in London and so forth.

It seems like SPG has more hotels in both places, but (3) which program has nicer hotels, or is better value? I'd be looking at the top tier hotels in HKG and LON if I can pay in points. (4) Would availability and cost suffer over new years in London and therefore should I pay instead at this time?

Thanks in advance guys, hopefully I can transfer some points to SPG in time if i need to.

Jon
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[simongr]

I paid pretty much the same points for the Waldorf in London as I did for the Conrad in Hong Kong in August.

I would imagine that availability at New Year in London would be very tight and you would need to have the Diamond guarantee to get a room perhaps.

Have you gone online to do some dummy bookings?

 

[Cynicor]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Actually, I don't even have a hilton membership yet, so no chance of getting a room I'd guess. I was waiting to sign up as I know they sometimes have bonus points for stays soon after sign-up and various other offers, so if I was going to pay for both stays it would work out in my favour.

Anyone with experience in Starwood hotels care to add their thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[simongr]

Just as a benchmark I paid 40K HHonors points per night for Waldorf (NY and LON) and Conrad stays.