Originally Posted by
Guava
I don't think this concern is very serious. If the W Maldvies is a good comparable, SPG claims there is no standard room on that property and the least expensive room you can book using point is about 70-80K Starpoints / night. For our Hilton members, that's roughly the value of about 300K HH points per night. Then, the next category up will go up by about 20K for 90-95K Starpoints / night. Because my guess is each HHonors property will decide what price they will charge for Room Upgrade, the property could easily demand something like 90K HH points extra per night for an upgrade to the Spa Overwater Villa at the Conrad Maldvies, in addition to the 50K HH point rate per night. Essentially, this will more than double the cost of staying there using points. Even then, my estimate may still be generous, considering how inexpensive Conrad Maldvies is vs. the W Maldives, using points.
However, this does raise a concern I had not previously thought about. If the W Maldives can state that there is no such thing as a standard room, what is to prevent the Conrad Rangali from stating the same thing. They already have exemptions in the HHonors rules for the Maldives properties. Could we be on the verge of seeing only "premium" rooms at certain properties and not having the option of doing standard redemptions? It certainly seems to be a possibility opened by the existence of Premium Room rewards