I like that you were a rule follower of my request. 
I was just hoping for a more helpful based thread since some claimed they weren’t sure of the rental process.
To be honest I don’t know about rentals in other countries - most of our travel is domestic and Canada. No probs with rentals over hotels I those places!
The issue with TRU - if it matters to you and may not - you earn 5 points per dollar vs. 10 at Hampton - so it’ll take you double the time to earn a free night.
That’s a fair point. I don’t typically factor “points earned” into decisions about which property to stay at.
We earn more points from credit card use than from dollars spent on hotel nights.
After I booked the Tru room, I was offered 500 extra points to listen to a “deal”. They wanted to sell a vacation package (3nights, or 2nights in the Manhattan example I picked) for total of $349 +tax. The catch is you have to take 2 hour Tour (in NYC at West 57th St resort)…. ie some kind of timeshare sales pitch. Supposedly good for a year, but I got leery and turned it down. After a pause to finalize my points, rep came back offering it at $249…. plus $100 rebate after tour plus $100 rewards gift card plus 10,000 points. It was tempting and had lots of locations (all other places 3nights). But in the end I declined and just took the 500 points.
Thanks so much for the information. Sounds like a good place.
I did look at my reservation and found that I can book the Homewood Suites for less than Tru so I decided to do that. Seemed like a no brainer.
Definitely will think about Tru in the future
Location, price and having an in-room refrigerator with more available space than a minibar filled with overpriced food are my usual three criteria for picking a room. When staying near my sister we usually stay at a Homewood Suites Hotel so I am a Hilton Honors member. I am also a Marriott/Bonvoy member in honor of my uncle who was a doorman for them for many years.
We did 2 nights at Tru (one night at each end of trip) recently. The rooms remind me of college dorms with no closets. Given we paid $350 a night one night, I felt it was overpriced, but it was “fine.” The breakfast was very basic. I did worry because they gave earplugs next to the bed, but it wasn’t too noisy.
AVID by IHG is a similar brand. No closets. Under beds are blocked off for easier housekeeping. All the brands are developing these no frills and easier to maintain rooms.
Stayed in an AC (Marriott) hotel For one night. It was also “sleek” (aka sparse). Had to put suitcases on the floor and nowhere to hang anything besides one hook, IIRC. Not my cuppa tea but was fine for one night. The bathroom area was also “stalls”. Was different…
Stayed at a VOCO (ihg) one night. It had lovely floor to ceiling windows and was bright. Then night came. Seems part of their eco friendly plan was to limit access to lighting. Found myself in the (very nice) bathroom rummaging through my bag – only decent lighting available.
Outlier here - I am not loyal to a hotel brand because I try to find hotels that do not have the noisy hvac units under the window/beside the bed. Those = guaranteed bad night of sleep. I search the reviews for hints about that. Sometimes suite rooms don’t have them. Many Drury Hotels don’t have them. If I find a quiet hotel that also has the basics like cleanliness and comfortable bed, I try to remember it for the future. If anyone knows of any brands that don’t have them, please do tell
European style hotel - that’s AC.
For 20 years, top status at Hyatt (best program IMO) and i’m lifetime Plat at Marriott. Almost all stays at one of those 2.
Hyatt used to be - when it was gold, silver, diamond.
When they changed it to Globalist, Explorist, Discoverist, they also crushed the earning power - and I understand why. From a business POV, it was very generous.
The new plan - not so much.
The biggest problem Hyatt has for a road warrior though is lack of properties.
But it’s a nice brand.
Was Diamond since I started working, now Globalist since the change. Diamond was better but almost excessive. Globalist is >>>>> over the other brands top programs, and I still get a lot of points + free nights every year for free stays.
And with all the acquisitions of other brands, I don’t have much trouble finding properties in most locations.
We hate those in room AC units with a passion. We usually request a higher floor room, open windows, and turn the AC off. Most of the time, that’s sufficient. Even the central AC can be noisy… so hard to say if the room is going to be quiet even if there is no window unit.
One hotel we absolutely loved was the Lodge at Columbia Point! They have minisplit units in the rooms! So quiet.
I’ve never been loyal to a hotel chain but recently discovered that the hotel I love in NYC is owned by Hyatt (the Beekman, in the financial district). I’m in NYC regularly for work and it’s been easy to rack up the points (and use them at the Grand Hyatt in Kauai)! Even if it’s less generous than it was before, Hyatt’s program seems terrific so far!
I have not been in the past, but as I mentioned on the other thread, I have recently started a travel hacking hobby, so it made sense to commit to one. I went with Hyatt, since they have the best transfer rate from Chase ultimate rewards (where the bulk of my travel points accrue and live).
We are stay at Hilton brand properties when possible. I’m a Diamond member and love their free upgrade program. The last time we were in New Orleans we were staying at the Roosevelt and when checking in I asked if they had any upgrades available and was told we were automatically upgraded to a specific suite, half jokingly I said you know one of these days I’m going to get lucky and get upgraded to the Presidential suite. He stopped smile and said, “I can do that for you, today’s your lucky day!” Best free upgrade ever!
If Hilton isn’t a good option for the location our fall back is Marriott.
Although we shop around for best locations / deals, over time I have joined various loyalty clubs - Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Best Western. No work travel, so not much accumulation of points (though I did have enough Hilton points last year for $100 off a room at a nice new place in Dillon CO during ski season.) But sometimes there are some small advantages on cancellation flexibility, slightly lower rate.
Also the hotel apps are sometimes easier to use than websites, especially when pre-arranging a room from the car for that night’s stay. Some allow you to pick your room from map of vacant options and/or check-in remotely.
TIP: I have entries for each of my hotel chains in Contacts list. It includes in the Notes section my id/password info (unique passwords, not repeats from my critical financial websites). Example contact is “Hilton honors #######), where # is my Hilton member number… handy for when I am asked for that on phone reservation.