Originally Posted by
deltame
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.
Find a best cash price, priceline or whatever, for a few typical stays you would have.
Then find the cheapest property on points (or points plus cash) that would work for each of those stays, in each program.
Divide the net cash cost by how many points you need, across all of those typical stays.
Will give you a typical value for a point in each program, for your travel patterns.
Then when you book, use that average value as a reference to determine which program (or cash) is the best value in that particular situation.
For example: If I typically get 1/4 cent value from a Hilton point and 2 cents value from an SPG point, and I have the choice of 25000 Hilton points, 5000 SPG points, or $85 cash on PL for a stay, I would calculate:
$62.50 vs. $100 vs. $85, and use Hilton points.