Free room upgrade, breakfast or Internet access: Which would you choose if given choice?

Frequent travelers: If given the choice when checking in to your hotel, which would you choose?

1. Complimentary in-room Internet,
2. Frequent room upgrades, or
3. Complimentary breakfast

Hilton Worldwide (3,500 hotels) recently asked its loyalty members the same question in a HHonors loyalty program poll. The program recently hit a record 25 million members.

So which ranked No. 1?

Free room upgrade, followed by breakfast. In last place: free Internet service in your room.

The findings initially surprised me. I would have guessed free Internet would've topped the list, since it's a pet peeve with so many frequent travelers.

But perhaps road warriors picked the room upgrade because they'd rather be comfortable on the road - and their company/client is willing to pick up the tab for breakfast and Internet access.

I tossed the question out to friends on my Facebook page, and here's what a few of them said:

• All of the above. Anil Solanki, who's in the hotel ownership business, told me that business travelers prefer "all of the above." He wrote, "they'll get more unhappy if you provided some item/service and later took it away as a cost cutting measure."
• Internet access: Frequent traveler Karen Sneha Moawad picked free Internet access. She wrote that she's "a management consultant to orthodontists around the world, as well as a volunteer hospital administrator in India, travel constantly (only home 8 nights a year), and have a AT&T data card, but sometimes it's not great reception.  I vote for the internet."

Frequent traveler Chris Connell raised a different point about such choice. He said that whatever the options are, they need to hold real value for guests.

"If free internet is offered, it needs to be free high-speed internet and not some lobby complimentary wifi that is at reduced speed," Connell wrote. "If free breakfast is offered, then it should not be continental as offered in a Lounge but free full breakfast.When I travel overseas in cool climates I tend to eat more at breakfast and often like to have 1 or 2, hot items."

• SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow me on Twitter and Facebook

The question comes at an interesting time for the USA's biggest hotel operators.

Today, Starwood (940 hotels) has started to give free in-room Internet access to its top-tier, platinum-level loyalty members, upping the ante for rival Marriott (3,250 hotels), which currently does not grant elite customers the perk.

Hilton, meanwhile, has offered a choice of options - including free Internet - since April 2007. It offers members of its two, top-tier levels the choice upon check-in of free Internet, free upgrade and breakfast, or 1,000 HHonors points. Hyatt (430 hotels) already gives its two top-tier elite customers free Internet service.

Tell us what your top pick would be - and why