Stayed at this property last week with my wife and kids for the third time since it opened. The hotel was full each of our five nights, and the staff seemed overwhelmed at times. This was a situation where Platinum status (this was just before the SPG/Marriott/Ritz programs combined) was useful. It got us checked in earlier (the hotel has trouble meeting its 4pm check-in time, but will hand out free drink coupons for the hotel bar as compensation) and got us a better room location among our room type. The staff expressly mentioned my status at pretty much every communication I had with them, which doesn't always happen at resort hotels, or at hotels at the RI/CY/FI end of the spectrum. No chance for a late checkout, this being a resort location at full capacity.
Even at the elevated category it's at -- our room cost 45k points/night, it's been pushed up to 50k as a Cat 6 after the program combination -- it has offered a decent value for us over the past few summers. As other posters have indicated, the hotel is somewhat nicer than the average RI, especially in its public areas. It's right on the beach. They do an excellent job of maintaining the cleanliness of both the public areas and the rooms -- though our housekeeping service at times was not provided until the 4:00 hour on this trip. There are not other hotels of this class in Bethany. Going forward, though, I'm concerned they will be categorizing their summer stays as Peak, which could push this to 60k/night -- the hotel has been at or near capacity in each of our summer stays, and MD/DE beach hotels take the vast majority of their revenue in July and August. The room rates seem to be consistently in the $600-$700/nt range in July and August, and can spike even higher. We reserved for next summer just before the program combination at the old 45k/nt rate.