I guess I continue to be amazed that people don't look at the earning side of a hotel program when considering how it stacks up to the competition. In my view, you do pay a price for the lack of capacity controls at Starwood...you earn less points for each stay. Don't confuse this with earnings of Starpoints from other sources, like the SPG AMEX credit card. I'm talking strictly about points earned from hotel stays. I've given a comparison of earning & redemption at Starwood and HHonors in another thread so I won't repeat it here. In summary, at the higher level properties (the ones most people redeem their points at), Diamond HHonors members earn 5 times as many points as a Starwood Platinum but only spend about 3 times as many for a free room night. That's a huge 40% difference. Some may be willing to give that much up to get a free room just about anytime; I'll take the higher earnings and plan my travel further in advance to ensure I get the award I want. As an HHonors Diamond member, it is almost never a problem.

My own valuation has an HHonors point being worth about 3.29 times each Starpoint.

I have a hard time valuing any hotel points against Priceline rates. It doesn't really make for an apples to apples comparison. For one thing, you can never guarantee where you will end up with Priceline. You also do not qualify for upgrades or breakfasts on a Priceline rate. Priceline hotel rates are basically the equivalent of the airline's weekly E-savers and I don't see too many people valuing their airline miles based on those fares. In fact, it is just the opposite. Many people are valuing their miles based on international business or first class travel. If you apply that method to the hotel programs, you would value the points based on typical international hotel rates, not a Priceline rate.

Pinniped, I'm not sure I understand your valuation methodology. If I read things correctly from your post, it seems you have multiple valuations based on whether you are talking about a Priceline city, or whether the travel is international. Having a dual valuation seems to be a highly suspect approach. Why not establish a single value for your points (in each program) and then make award/pay decisions based on that?