How many hotel points are you starting with? In which programs? When are you going and for how long? How many hotel credit cards are you willing to sign up for? Will your spouse or partner sign up for some too?

I'm resigning myself to needing to get two hotel rooms for my family in most of Europe, which will mean saving up points longer for my next trip. There are some good hotels in Paris and Rome, but usually they require lots of points for a little room. If you give us more details, we could help you better.

The Intercontinental Rome has a perfect location at the top of the Spanish Steps, for 40,000 Priority Club Points for a party of 2. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Giovanni for 25,000 Priority Club points for a room for 2, which was nice enough, but a long hike from the subway station when we were tired after site seeing all day. I used Hilton points for one night at the Rome Airport Hilton, which was nice and convenient to the airport before our flight out. I wasn't willing to spend the points on the Hilton Cavalieri, which was poorly located and required 60,000 points a night. I looked at using SPG points, but the hotels were either badly located or too many points. I tend to hoard my SPG points, and don't think the high category hotels are a good redemption rate.