Originally Posted by
Happy
Trust me - try TripAdvisor to see the availability of chain hotels which you will see the cash prices upfront. Then hop to the program sites to check on the point level for the selected possibilities.
Much faster to filter out your options this way.
Be careful looking at the tripadvisor hotel availablity: in their zeal to monetize, sometimes hotels go missing from their lists. I just had a Hilton in Helsinki disappear (even though it was "ranked" the number six hotel in town). If not for Hotel Hustle, I wouldn't have found it.
The watchword is double-check on a few sources if you want to comparison shop.