Moopere
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2010
- Posts
- 2,653
Hi Folks,
Got a bit of an out of the ordinary travel schedule approaching this year and next which will see me travelling out to far north east China, Heilongjiang (think 4 hours NE of Beijing). Sounds interesting and cold
Anyway, I'm a 95% HH guy normally, but theres nothing this far out until possibly next year when a Garden Inn is apparently opening. Due to various changes, mainly bad (for me) with HH I've been thinking of building some SPG status for a while, but alas, nothing again until _maybe_ later this year when a Sheraton is meant to be opening (but who knows when really???).
So I've had to leave my comfort zone and am peering, unknowingly, at Marriott and IHG properties, theres a Holiday Inn and a Marriott. The Marriot is a significantly better hotel - though brand new but without reviews it seems. The Holiday Inn is a 3 star at best and has a fair quantity of 'so-so' reviews.
In any event, they are what they are - I'm thinking loyalty programs now. I won't be able to achieve any meaningful status with either program, 20 nights over 2-3-4 stays is probably a best case I'm thinking. So the focus is on 'free' night redemptions or even the possibility of transferring points to QF or VA (VA ... long shot I know). I'm open to the possibility of using these chains in Australia and SE Asia as well, though HH will get first pick if rates are somewhat similar.
From a bit of research over the last couple of days both low and mid status with both programs appears almost the same - 10p/$, similar redemption rates, pretty much no perks aside from points earn. A super quick look at redemption rates appears to value points almost the same as HH does ... about $0.005 (0.5c) per point.
The open question then is twofold:
- Is there anything at Base-Silver level, perks wise, that I've probably missed?
- If on balance the schemes are, as they seem, pretty much the same, is it a coin flip as to which to choose? Any redeeming qualities, in a general sense, to one chains properties over the other?
Got a bit of an out of the ordinary travel schedule approaching this year and next which will see me travelling out to far north east China, Heilongjiang (think 4 hours NE of Beijing). Sounds interesting and cold
Anyway, I'm a 95% HH guy normally, but theres nothing this far out until possibly next year when a Garden Inn is apparently opening. Due to various changes, mainly bad (for me) with HH I've been thinking of building some SPG status for a while, but alas, nothing again until _maybe_ later this year when a Sheraton is meant to be opening (but who knows when really???).
So I've had to leave my comfort zone and am peering, unknowingly, at Marriott and IHG properties, theres a Holiday Inn and a Marriott. The Marriot is a significantly better hotel - though brand new but without reviews it seems. The Holiday Inn is a 3 star at best and has a fair quantity of 'so-so' reviews.
In any event, they are what they are - I'm thinking loyalty programs now. I won't be able to achieve any meaningful status with either program, 20 nights over 2-3-4 stays is probably a best case I'm thinking. So the focus is on 'free' night redemptions or even the possibility of transferring points to QF or VA (VA ... long shot I know). I'm open to the possibility of using these chains in Australia and SE Asia as well, though HH will get first pick if rates are somewhat similar.
From a bit of research over the last couple of days both low and mid status with both programs appears almost the same - 10p/$, similar redemption rates, pretty much no perks aside from points earn. A super quick look at redemption rates appears to value points almost the same as HH does ... about $0.005 (0.5c) per point.
The open question then is twofold:
- Is there anything at Base-Silver level, perks wise, that I've probably missed?
- If on balance the schemes are, as they seem, pretty much the same, is it a coin flip as to which to choose? Any redeeming qualities, in a general sense, to one chains properties over the other?
