Yes there is, at an IC for e.g. its it costing 30k or 40k points a night ! Almost nobody (a tiny, tiny number of all the PC members) have the points to stay so many nights at normal award levels.

And in fact by offering such cheap Award Nights it costs that hotel money - think about it: a family on holiday are in a city for 10 days, and Mum or Dad have got a few PC points built up. They wanna stay at an IC and have enough points for 4 or 5 nights (at regular levels) - they book these and book the others with cash. But at 5k they just book them all on points! So the hotel loses the revenue for those other nights.

In the current Pointbreaks I could have stayed in the (normally $175 a night, minimum) IC Melbourne Rialto for two months for the award price that would normally buy me 10 nights (and at other ICs it would only get me 7 and a bit nights).

On this logic they might as well fill a certain percentage of their rooms every night of the year for $30 a night (i.e. the compansation level they receive for an award night).

But of course they don't do this ! It too would "earn future customers", and it would earn new ones not just PC members, but this would be absurd business practice so they don't do it. Yet its about as logical as them letting me stay a month in their hotels for virtually no points, and they are doing this (which is of course the whole point of my posts) !

If this is all as logical as you suggest, why then don't they just do it for EVERY single award - just change all awards to 5k a night. That way we fill the hotels, we will all be loyal and happy, and they will be able to "get higher low occupancy compensation" as you put it.

But, of course, it does not work that way - it in fact is going the other way normally: it used to cost 30K per award night at ICs, now its 40k at many/most. Why would they do this if filling rooms with award stays was as good for them as you suggest?

Finally, the 5k thing does not generate (apart from rare cases) loyalty to a particular hotel... it encourages people to move into a hotel and never return!

Do you know how many people I know who have gone on a holiday of a lifetime - to a place they are going to especially cos they have always wanted to, but thus are unlikely ever to return - because they could get all their hotel nights 'for free' because of the Pointsbreaks (espec. when combined with flights booked on airline miles)?!? These people will never go back to that hotel again... the hotel has just given them a lot of free nights for points they 'paid for' at other hotels (owned by other owner almost certainly) elsewhere! Crazy.