Thanks everyone for your input – lots of useful information!

I see a number of us have similar attitude towards hotel stays. I tend to try PL first if I wasn’t working towards a hotel program promotion. If PL doesn’t work or prove to be cost inefficient, then I’d compare redeeming points (cash + points if available) vs. paying cash. The challenge for me is how to compare which points to use (across several hotel programs) and more importantly how best to guestimate the value for future use across the hotel programs. For me personally, I acquire PC points faster/easier than UR (Hyatt) points than SPG points, thus I tend to be a bit more cautious with using SPG points to ensure I’d retain a healthy balance for future needs.

DHAST – many thanks for the insight on SPG and Hyatt points redemptions niches. It’s exactly the info what I was looking for across the hotel programs.

A number of you mentioned Hampton Inn and I agree it can be of good/great redemption value. First of all, I like Hampton Inn for its consistency and value. I redeemed HH points earlier this year for an award stay at the Hampton Inn Soho for out of town guests. The cash price was high and we could’ve booked another even higher (cash) priced hotel that may result in the appearance of higher point redemption rate; however the Hampton Inn Soho was the perfect location for their purpose and the hotel itself was superb (highly rated by Tripadvisor). We went with HI Soho and it was proven a better value for my points from a utilitarian point of view.