I think you are taking the wrong approach. There are almost 3 dozen brands in the Bon Voy portfolio. And as someone who travels a lot I can tell you Fairfield is not always the cheapest option. The two big variable that come into play for pricing are location and demand.

Get the bonvoy app and search your desired area. Compare prices. Don't focus on one brand. Also look at the points and cash options. A lot of times you get a better return on those.

Hilton person here. Hampton Inns are actually my favorite. They aren’t the nicest, but they are definitely the most consistent brand. Hilton and Doubletrees are all over the place. Hiltons are particularly unpredictable. Some are really nice, world class hotels- not Ritz or Four Seasons level, but still really nice. On the flip side, some are dumps. I haven’t stayed at a lot of Marriotts, but I imagine the offerings are similar to Hilton.

I got on Hilton through work and it just stuck. I have the Honors AMEX card and points accumulate at a good clip, reward nights are easy to book and I get a free night every year and a couple other perks- no complaints.

If you're basing it on free breakfast, dear lord Marriott's free breakfasts are hands-down the worst, and I say this as someone with Ambassador status. The free breakfast offerings at the Fairfields/Residence Inn/Towneplace/etc are just horrid.

Hampton Inns or Holiday Inn Express are equivalent to a Fairfield and have much better free breakfasts.

But even better are Embassy Suites and Drury Inns, but these just don't have as big of footprints as those others.

I even find Choice Hotels free breakfasts much better than Marriots, and I avoid Choice Hotels.

If there are Hyatts where you are going, hands down Hyatt by far. Not even close.

Then Marriott and Hilton basically a tie.

IHG doesn’t enter the discussion.

Thank you all. You’ve given me much to look in to.

The cost per point on Hyatt redemptions is much lower than Hilton, Marriott, or IHG. A luxury Hyatt is 35k/night. The other 3 are 70-100k+ per night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have it personally but I have heard that the Chase Sapphire cards are amazing and you can redeem the points at an extremely high value at Hyatts in particular.

Points transfer 1:1 to Hyatt

They transfer 1:1, but Hyatt points per night needed are much lower at high end properties than Bonvoy or Hilton. Even with recent changes. So you get a ton of bang for your buck there. However I wouldn’t get a Hyatt card as a points one, only CSR and transfer.

Anonymous wrote:I don't have it personally but I have heard that the Chase Sapphire cards are amazing and you can redeem the points at an extremely high value at Hyatts in particular.

Points transfer 1:1 to Hyatt

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hands down Hilton, best bang for your buck in both earning and redeeming points. We have done 4 trips to Mexico for a week totally on points, but also stayed at Disney, NYC, Scottsdale, etc. Incredible places that are $1000+ a nice for the cost of a $125 annual fee. I could go on and on about my love for this card, but it's allowed us to see and do so much.

We do this one too. I use points for nicer hotels and pay for the occasional Hampton inn to accrue more points

PP - Same! I happily stay in the Hampton Inn (or Tru, I like those a lot) to accrue, but we spend at Waldorf, Conrad, etc.

I don't have it personally but I have heard that the Chase Sapphire cards are amazing and you can redeem the points at an extremely high value at Hyatts in particular.

Anonymous wrote:Hands down Hilton, best bang for your buck in both earning and redeeming points. We have done 4 trips to Mexico for a week totally on points, but also stayed at Disney, NYC, Scottsdale, etc. Incredible places that are $1000+ a nice for the cost of a $125 annual fee. I could go on and on about my love for this card, but it's allowed us to see and do so much.

We do this one too. I use points for nicer hotels and pay for the occasional Hampton inn to accrue more points

Residence inn

The IHG card. Your Fairfield Inn experience is basically a Holiday Inn Express. The IHG premier card earns points really fast and they have the book 3 nights, get 4th for free deal that Marriott and Hilton do not (they do book 4 nights get 5th for free).

Hands down Hilton, best bang for your buck in both earning and redeeming points. We have done 4 trips to Mexico for a week totally on points, but also stayed at Disney, NYC, Scottsdale, etc. Incredible places that are $1000+ a nice for the cost of a $125 annual fee. I could go on and on about my love for this card, but it's allowed us to see and do so much.

Once upon a time, I occasionally stayed at Marriott hotels for work and got a Marriott credit card. I no longer travel for work but still have the credit card. I generally redeem the points at Fairfield Inns in places within a days drive of DC. I probably get 5-7 nights a year, which helps stretch our vacation budget. To give you a sense of the places we go, we’ve used points in NYC, Chincoteague, an airport hotel, and a hotel in a small city to break up a long drive. We stayed in a comfort inn (Choice hotels) in Williamsburg when the Marriott options were too expensive.

We generally stay at a Fairfield inn because it’s the least expensive Marriott option, often has rooms with 2 queen beds, and includes breakfast. The breakfast used to be a deciding factor for us, but probably isn’t anymore.

Our last few trips have left me wondering which hotel chain/credit card should I be considering instead?