Soloprenures who travel for work, what’s your chosen hotel chain? I want to start maximising points.
I can’t lie, I struggle in places less than 4 stars. 3 stars is doable but comfort is *very* important to me.
Would love chains that span Europe, N. America, & East & S.E. Asia.
@lolaodelola Currently with Accor - opted for the Explorer (paid for card) as it automatically puts you in gold, and gives discounts on booking, free welcome drink (inc for the other person if booked as 2), and late checkout, in theory you're supposed to get a room upgrade, it's a bit hit and miss, you don't get nights if someone else booked for you e.g. for a conference, and didn't get nighs when they flogged the Mercure Sheffield to IHG (having prepaid Accor). The card has more bens in APAC.
@lolaodelola Midscale, typically Novotel or Mercure is the minimum I'd recommend. Avoid Ibis or F1, but doable at a pinch. (like a quick overnight in Calais) Have stayed at a couple of Fairmonts as a treat. Being able to email the hotel in advance has been helpful.
@vickyjo I didn’t realise Accor had so many brands under them. I don’t think I could do an Ibis outside the UK tbh. Earlier this year I did a Novotel which was good but I wasn’t there for long, so didn’t get a proper feel.
Oct 14, 2026, 2:25 PMI started staying in Marriott because they were a preferred supplier in a previous job. Their rewards things are quite good at lower tiers, the higher ones don’t get much better. But I had a very good experience with them at the start of the pandemic. We’d taken some holiday in San Francisco before I had to he in Seattle. On the morning we were due to fly up the coast, I was notified that work travel to the King County area was not permitted.
We had to call BA and the travel agent at the same time because the stupid work policy didn’t let you book non-employee travel with the travel agent so our return flights were booked separately. BA was price gouging (and I had Gold status with them at the time) and charged a ludicrous premium for us to get back. The work travel agent booked us into the cheapest room available in the hotel we were already in.
We went to the front desk to let them know what had happened. They saw we were stressed, gave us a couple of drink coupons for their cafe and told us they’d sort everything out. They upgraded us to a nicer room, delayed our checkout time for the current one and told us they’d move our things if we let them know when (we only had one suitcase each so didn’t bother with this offer but the thought was nice). Stress levels dropped immediately after talking to the assistant manager on the desk.
I’ve never had bad customer service from them and it’s often been exceptionally good. Including posting a jacket back to me one time when I left it in my room (international post, no charge).
@david_chisnall this is so good, thanks for sharing! Marriott will be added to my shortlist. They tend to be pricey but I’ve been burned by cheaper hotels (inc one that didn’t send my forgotten jacket to me even when I offered to pay the delivery 🙄).
@lolaodelola No longer a frequent traveller, but IHG was at the top of the list when I was. Got most of my status points from an Intercontinental in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
Most unexpected perk ever was when checking in at Palazzio in Las Vegas for our wedding night and they upgraded the already maxxed out suite reservation when they noticed my IHG status.