For me, I use points when I have a gut feeling the hotel is over priced and the point redemption isn't horrible. For example, I often use 35,000 points for 1 night (Saturday) at the CY Atlantic City. Is that a lot of points for a CY in a non-major location? Sure. But the going rate in the summer is $299/night + tax. I refuse to pay that for a CY in that location. So it's an easy decision to use points (plus my Sunday night govt rate of $94) and I end up getting 2 nights for about $115 and 35k points, versus paying $400+. Seems like a good value to me.