Marriott Rewards- Why this is my main hotel loyalty scheme

Marriott has been my preferred hotel brand for the last five years. As with airlines I view the miles or points as secondary to a programme, and see the benefits for status as the main reason for concentrating stays with one brand. I have found Marriott Hotels keen to respect the benefits outlined in the plan, and they often go beyond what is required.

For me, the key benefit of elite membership is guaranteed lounge access this starts when you have gold status (50 nights) If the hotel has a lounge, you get access. No arguments. The one downside of this policy is that the lounges can be crowded. I find this more of a problem in Europe than in Asia though.

The room upgrades I have received over the four years have varied from spectacular (JW Marriott Khao Lak) to routinely non-existent (JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur). You get to know the hotels that upgrade, and those that don't. The Rennaissance in Kuala Lumpur is one that always does upgrade, and when I moved from Gold status to Platinum status I have often found myself in a Suite.

One drawback of the programme is that the only way to status is nights, although these can be earned from credit card spend in the UK and US, in general the only way to get nights in ASEAN is to stay. 50 nights for gold and 75 nights for platinum is a lot. But this means they can (and do) reward customers with status well.

A further drawback with Marriott rewards is that their points promotions are less generous than other brands- and the more you stay the worse your targeted promotions seem to get. Finally, I find the lack of centrally located mid range hotels in London a pain. During my next London trip I will be staying at a Radisson- where I have no status, because I wasn't prepared to fork out over £300 for a Marriott room.

If you think that Marriott rewards could be for you, the key is to get status as soon as you can. Customer service will often offer a challenge- stay X nights in 3 months and we'll give you Gold Status- in fact they sometimes give you Gold Status, and then let you keep it if you stay X times in three months. It is certainly worth an email to customer service if you have some Marriott stays in the near future.

Finally, arranging a "rewarding event" in a Marriott results in a 10 night credit to you account. I usually arrange two such meetings a year. The 30  qualifying nights I therefore need to retain gold status is a much more reasonable target to obtain.