I agree with both posts immediately above. The value is a function of both the money you would normally pay for a room AND the actual cost of a higher value accomodation that you may not wish to pay cash for.

Figuring out an objective value per point is useful in evaluating whether a Cash and Points deal is truly a bargain and by how much. Clearly Starwood has such a value in its books. It is definitely less than how much they would sell the points to us. The recent discount sale was 2.8 cents, so the value must be less, as Starwood has to cover the overhead (cost of handling etc.) as well.

If the value is 3 cents as some proposed, then using a Cat 4 award will be a push for a room rate of $300 + tax. Here I assume tax is 15% but the true cost of points is also 15% higher (10,000 points + 1500 points = 11,500 points, where the 1500 points is the approximate number of points a plat member would have earned if the room is paid by AX.)

This means a Cash & Point deal is equivalent to (4000 points + 1500 points) x 3c + $60x1.15 - 69x3c (AX) = $232. Therefore C&P is a bargain only if used on a room rate of more than $200 + tax.

If the value is 2.5c, then the break-even room rate is $250+tax for a Cat.4 award stay or or 178 + tax for C&P.

All four Starwood properties within the City of Taipei are Cat. 4, and Westin is the only one still offers C&P. The four hotels' normal room rates suggest that the points are worth 2.0-2.5 cents. When Westin offers C&P, their corp rates hover around $150-$180. Thus the C&P may not be that great a bargain there after all.